He received a law degree from Huntingdon, Tennessee's Southern Normal University in 1901.
He served in France throughout the second half of 1918 and all of 1919, and held the rank of captain at the time of his discharge in 1920.
[9] Pierce was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican Congressional nomination in 1932, losing to Ernest W. Gibson.
[10][11] In 1933 Pierce was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for Vermont's seat in Congress, which was left vacant when Gibson moved to the United States Senate.
[12] In 1942 Pierce made headlines nationally as the attorney for columnist Dorothy Thompson in her divorce proceedings against Sinclair Lewis.