He received his BA from Davidson College with honors in 1971, and his law degree from Duke University in 1976. He practiced environmental law in Washington, DC from 1976 to 1989, then joined the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works as counsel to Committee Chairman John H. Chafee. After helping draft the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, Mr. Roady returned to private practice before launching the Ocean Law Project at Earthjustice in 1998.