He was a 1927 graduate of Orange High School and worked as a bookkeeper in the Newark law offices of George S. Hobart, a former Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly. He filed a certificate of clerkship with the New Jersey Supreme Court and read law at Hobart and Minard (under the supervision of George Hobart, a former Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly) until passing the New Jersey bar exam in 1934 and a two-day written counselors exam in 1937.
