A graduate in chemistry from the Université de Montréal, Nelson Landry began a scientific career as a chemistry teacher, and then returned to university  to complete a master's degree and a doctorate in this subject area.  He was then advised to study law to become the first lawyer in Quebec specializing in chemistry and biology.

He subsequently studied law at Mc Gill University, where he graduated in 1968.  Having joined the Quebec Bar in 1969, he spent his entire career practising law at Ogilvy Renault

He became a member of ALAI Canada in the early 1980s and lectured in law, including with other international associations such as the International League of Competition Law and the International Association of Lawyers, of which he also became a member and for which the article he wrote on biometric identification techniques and their legal implications earned him the new Raynault Contamine Prize, which was awarded to him in New Delhi in 1999.  He also wrote some fifty other articles on intellectual property issues.

As a member of ALAI Canada’s board of directors, he was involved in the organization of ALAI’s international congress, which was held in Ottawa in 1997.  He then became President of the organization, a position he held from 1998 to 2000.  After his retirement from Ogilvy Renault in 2002, he became a WIPO international domain name dispute arbitrator until December, 2019. In 2010, he was appointed a member of the Copyright Board of Canada, where he remained until 2018.