The son of a member of the United States Army, Harley was born in Berlin and has since lived in Germany twice, Massachussetts, and Wisconsin. He stayed in Iowa after graduating Drake University Law School in 1999. Before law school, Harley graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1996.
Harley has spent his law career exclusively handling civil litigation matters, first as a member of two small Iowa law firms, then on his own as a solo attorney. He founded Erbe Law Firm in July 2005. Harley usually represents individuals and small businesses in personal injury law, employment law, contract law, and construction defect cases.
Harley especially enjoys the challenge of pushing the law past its current boundaries and expanding legal rights. He has twice argued, in Wright v. Brooke Group Ltd. and Speight v. Walters Development Co., cases before the Iowa Supreme Court that resulted in greater protections for Iowa consumers. If there is a chance of changing the law so that a client has a claim when none had previously existed, Harley will drive the case forward as far as it needs to go. For example, the claims in the Speight case were rejected by two courts before it reached the Iowa Supreme Court, where, on his third try, Harley finally convinced a court that the law needed to be changed to protect more people than it originally had.
He has argued and tried cases in Iowa state and federal court. Harley has also argued before the United States Court of Appeals, the Iowa Supreme Court, and the Iowa Court of Appeals. He is a member of several legal and professional organizations, including the American Association For Justice, the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association, the Iowa State Bar Association, the Polk County Bar Association, and the American Inns of Court. Harley is also a frequent speaker and writer on various legal matters.