He studied law, entered as a student at Leiden University 17 Sept. 1714, became a member of Lincoln's Inn, and rose to be of great reputation as a chamber counsel.
Emlyn was anxious for reforms of the law, and very forcibly pointed out the defects in the system as then practised.
He remarked in 1730 on the 'tediousness and delays' of civil suits, 'the exorbitant fees to counsel, whereto the costs recovered bear no proportion,’ the overgreat 'nicety of special pleadings,’ the scandal of the ecclesiastical courts.
In criminal law he objected to the forced unanimity of the jury, the Latin record of the proceedings, the refusal of counsel to those charged with felony, the practice of pressing to death obstinately mute prisoners, capital punishment for trifling offences, 'the oppressions and extortions of gaolers,’ and generally the bad management of gaols.
William Woodhouse, by whom he had two sons: Thomas, a chancery barrister, who died in 1796; and Sollom (d. 1744).