He served as Attorney General and Chief Justice of British Honduras and Hong Kong in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

[2]: 412n Goodman served as Attorney General of British Honduras (now Belize) from 1883 to 1886 and as Chief Justice of the same colony from 1886 to 1889.

[2]: 412n In 1889, Goodman was appointed Attorney-General and Admiralty Advocate of Hong Kong, taking up his post upon arrival on the City of Rio de Janeiro on 15 March of the next year.

[2]: 416  He served as acting Chief Justice from 6 March to 7 August 1895, during the absence of Sir Fielding Clarke, and for another four months in 1896 after the latter's retirement[2]: 460, 467, 476, 478  and was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1900.

[5] He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the November 1902 Birthday Honours,[6] and received the dignity on 9 December 1902.