After his defeat, Atkey returned to his law practice. He became a senior partner in the firm of Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt, LLP. From 1984 to 1989, he served as Chairman of the Security Intelligence Review Committee which oversees the activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. He taught law at the University of Western Ontario, Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Toronto. He wrote "Canadian Constitutional Law in a Modern Perspective", which was a popular constitutional law textbook in the 1970s. In 1994, he wrote a novel, "The Chancellor's Foot". He lectured on national security law and international terrorism, and was an expert on communications and cultural law. He wrote on the exemption from North American Free Trade Agreement of Canadian cultural industries.