Born on the West Coast of Tasmania Rick completed a combined Arts (Honours)/Law degree at the University of Tasmania in 1982. His political science honours thesis was on the political systems of Nauru and Western Samoa. He then worked for several years in the Australian Commonwealth Public Service (mostly in the Australian Taxation Office) before returning to the University as a part-time Political Science Tutor in 1988. In 1990 he was employed as a tutor in the Law School. In 1994 he completed his Political Science Masters degree on Western Samoa politics.

After joining the Law School he quickly built an international reputation in the area of Freedom of Information and within six years was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award and was profiled as one of the 48 Australian  academics with  exemplary or noteworthy approaches to teaching (Ballantyne et al Reflecting on University Teaching Academics’ Stories 1997). Since that time he has developed a growing reputation in the area of Ombudsman studies.

Rick Snell is a much sought after public speaker - he has delivered talks in all the capital cities of Australia and has been invited to speak and present seminars in Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa, Philippines, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, Mexico, Cambodia and Fiji. He is also a well known commentrator in the Australian media on various issues.

He was editor of the FoI Review for 10 years.

He has won a number of important teaching awards: