After an early career in writing, having published a novel in 1792 titled Delineations of the heart; or, the history of Henry Bennet,[1] in January 1795 he was admitted as a member of Lincoln's Inn, and subsequently called to the bar to practice in the Court of Chancery.
In 1798 Raithby anonymously published The Study and Practice of the Law, considered in their various relations to society, a treatise which some[who?]
His legal writings led to him being appointed a Commissioner of Bankruptcy in the Court of Chancery, and he was nominated to the second Royal Commission on Public Records as a sub-Commissioner.
Raithby worked with Thomas Edlyne Tomlins on editing The Statutes at Large series, which collected acts of Parliament, taking on sole responsibility as editor in 1811 at the third volume.
[2] He also compiled alphabetical and chronological indexes to the Statutes of the Realm, published by the Record Commission in 1824 and 1828.