Ed has been practicing law for more than 35 years. He served in the Office of General Counsel of the Virginia State Corporation Commission from 1975-1980, leaving the Commission in 1980 as deputy general counsel. From 1980-1981, he was assistant general counsel for Duke Power Company. He joined the energy and environment group at a Richmond law firm as an associate in 1981, and became a partner in 1983. He has been with McGuireWoods since 1999. He retired as partner in 2010.

He has lectured on public utilities at the University of Virginia School of Law; on trade regulation at the Graduate School of Business at the College of William & Mary; on economic regulation at the Washington and Lee University School of Law and the George Mason University School of Law; on economic regulation and applied business and law at the College of William & Mary School of Law; and on economic regulation and corporate finance at the University of Richmond School of Law. He has also been a guest lecturer at universities in Australia, Germany, France, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, and the United Kingdom at the LSE, Cambridge and Oxford. He is currently a lecturer of Energy Regulation and Policy at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Ed was appointed to Virginia Commonwealth University's board of directors by Governor Allen in 1994, reappointed by Governor Gilmore in 1998, and he served as rector of the board of visitors from 2000-2002. He currently serves on the Board of Visitors at the College of William & Mary. He was appointed by Governor Allen to the Commission on Environmental Standardship in 1996; by Governor Gilmore as chairman of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education in 1998; and by Governor Gilmore as a member of the Joint Subcommittee to Study the Regulatory Responsibilities, Policies, and Activities of the State Corporation Commission in 2000. In 2004, he chaired the Attorney General's Task Force on Access to Higher Education.

He has authored a number of articles on economic regulation; is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Who's Who in American Law. He has served as a fellow for the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London; a Distinguished Senior Faculty Fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Education and School of Government Affairs; and a Distinguished Senior CIPP Fellow at George Mason University School of Law. He is an honorary fellow at University of Durham (England).

Ed served in the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, from 1958 to 1961.