Professor Emery studied medicine at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London, graduating in 1979. He trained in London, Cambridge and Hong Kong. He was awarded a Wellcome Surgical Fellowship at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology and wrote his master's thesis on "Metabolic Studies on Normal and Osteoporotic Bone" in 1987. He was awarded the Zimmer Travelling Fellowship by the British Orthopaedic Association in 1989 and the first SECEC/ ASES Travelling Fellowship by the European Society for Surgery of the Shoulder and Elbow in 1993.

In 1991, he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon and honorary Senior Lecturer at the Central Middlesex Hospital and moved to St Mary's Hospital in 1993. His clinical interest is shoulder and elbow surgery and created an active clinical group at St Mary's Hospital, London.

Professor Emery has served in many roles including President of the British Elbow and Shoulder Society, International Editor of the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery and exofficio Member the International Board of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery.

He is currently the President of the Société Européenne pour Chirurgie de l'Epaule et du Coude (SECEC) and sits on the Board of Trustees of the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery.