Before the death of Charles II, Rice had acquired a large practice at the Irish Bar, and was known as the leading counsel in revenue matters.
In November, Rice took steps to prevent the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland), where John Keating presided, from interfering in disputes between revenue officers and merchants.
He was one of the privy councillors who on 8 March 1686–7 signed Tyrconnell's proclamation promising that "His Majesty's subjects of whatever persuasion should be protected in their just rights and properties due to them by law."
On 25 April, Clarendon noted in his diary that the two Irish judges that day began their homeward journey 'with very little satisfaction, for I am told the king did not approve the proposals they brought him for calling a parliament.'
After James II's flight, Tyrconnell sent Rice to France with William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy, whom he wished to be rid of, and they left Dublin on 10 January 1689.
A patent which would have made Rice a baron in the Jacobite peerage as Lord Monteagle was found in Dublin, waiting to be signed by the now-exiled James II.
He does not seem to have returned to his practice as a barrister, but on 22 February 1703 he appeared without a gown at the bar of the Irish House of Commons, and on the 28 at that of the Lords, to argue against the Act to prevent the further growth of popery, and in favour of the articles of Limerick.
He was accompanied by Sir Toby Butler, James's Solicitor General for Ireland, who made a memorable speech denouncing the Popery Act as being "against the laws of God and man".