Joseph Daniel Pope graduated from the University of Georgia with an A.B. degree. He studied under James L. Petigru and was admitted to the Bar in 1854. He was awarded an LL.D. degree by Furman University.
In 1845, he married Miss Catherine Scott of St. Helena Parish, South Carolina.
He practiced in Beaufort until after the Confederate War, then moved to Columbia and practiced until he was made Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina Law School in 1884. He was Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of South Carolina School of Law from 1900 until his death in 1908. He was the first Dean of the Law School at the University of South Carolina.
Judge Robert G. Parker of Massachusetts, in making a bequest to the University of South Carolina School of Law in honor of Dean Pope, stated, “A remarkable man and lawyer, whom I recall with satisfaction.”