He received his undergraduate and law degrees in 1953 through a five-year program at Tulane University. He then served as a Marine Corps from 1953 to 1956 as a pilot in Korea, rising to captain. After receiving an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, he attended New York University and received an LLM degree in taxation. He worked on Wall Street for a brief time before moving to Birmingham, Alabama, to work with Southern Natural Gas Company. He later joined the law firm of Bradley Arant Rose & White, where he became a partner. He then joined the firm formerly known as Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville and was a partner for over 35
years before retiring in 2004.