When Edwin S. Kneedler joined the Office of the Solicitor General in 1979, Warren E. Burger was the chief justice, and no women had ever served on the court. He says that, at that time, there was significantly less public attention on the justices, the role of the high court and the lawyers arguing each case.

Now, oral arguments are livestreamed, and the Supreme Court and the issues before the court are closely scrutinized, Kneedler says.

Also, in the old days, the justices didn’t jump in with questions during oral arguments. Now, he explains, the justices quickly pepper the lawyers with questions, which means “you really have to be prepared for give and take.”

Before retiring from government service in June, Kneedler, 79, argued 160 times before the Supreme Court. He joined the solicitor general’s office after four years in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. He was promoted to deputy solicitor general in 1993 and also briefly served as acting solicitor general in 2009.

Despite his decades of appellate work and stance in the legal community, Kneedler says he doesn’t like the spotlight and has traditionally eschewed interviews. Over two phone interviews in August, he repeatedly emphasized the importance of collaboration and a teamwork mentality at the solicitor general’s office.

“I feel privileged to have contributed,” he says, “I’ve always believed that the attorneys in the solicitor general’s office are called to be firmly dedicated to the mission of zealous advocacy on behalf of the United States.”

Kneedler stressed that, when scrutinizing government employees, “it’s important to bear in mind that this is a collective effort under the leadership of the office.”

Carter G. Phillips, a former assistant solicitor general during the Reagan administration, says that Kneedler “helped shape the law in virtually every corner of civil law.” Phillips, a partner at Sidley Austin, also described Kneedler as “amazingly calm and affable regardless of how much pressure he was under.”

Over the decades, Kneedler worked on scores of high-profile cases, including the defense of the Affordable Care Act. His retirement garnered a standing ovation at the Supreme Court and praise from appellate advocates and former government officials from both political parties.

Paul D. Clement, who served as solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration, described Kneedler as setting a “benchmark of candor, collegiality and integrity.”

Kneedler was always the “consummate public servant,” and his work ethic was “second to none,” says Clement, a partner at Clement & Murphy.

In addition, Clement says, perhaps Kneedler’s “greatest ongoing contributions to the legal community are the generations of lawyers he has mentored over the years.”

In retirement, Kneedler and his wife plan to divide their time between the Washington, D.C. area and Maine. 

Born in 1946, Kneedler went to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he majored in economics. After graduating in 1967, he tried out graduate studies for economics, but decided it wasn’t his path. He moved on to the domestic Peace Corps, which was then known as Volunteers in Service to America, where he helped migrants in Oregon.

Kneedler said that experience helped him get an “appreciation for how diverse this country is.” After being inspired by volunteer lawyers that successfully challenged restrictions to visits to migrant camps, he decided to go to law school. Kneedler graduated from University of Virginia School of Law in 1974 and then clerked for James R. Browning, the late chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Appellate work appealed to Kneedler because it often entailed meticulous research, satisfying his inquisitive nature and fascination with U.S. history. He handled dozens of cases involving American Indian law, which remains a topic of interest.

Early in his career at the solicitor general’s office, Kneedler represented the U.S. Postal Service against a civics association that wanted to be able to place unstamped notices and pamphlets in residents’ mailboxes.

Kneedler argued that a private mailbox isn’t a public forum protected under the First Amendment once it has become an official part of the postal system.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, then an associate justice, became intrigued by Kneedler’s discussion of the postal service’s background. Rehnquist ended up writing the majority opinion in <em>United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations</em>, agreeing with Kneedler and surveying the history of the postal system as a government service.

“Although people at the post office said he might have gotten a few things wrong [about the history of the postal service], we didn’t think it was a good idea to try and correct Justice Rehnquist,” says Kneedler. 

Seth P. Waxman served as solicitor general under the Clinton administration. Kneedler, he says, excels at providing “a brief, clearly responsive answer to the question asked.”

Kneedler’s name is “synonymous” across the appellate bar with “scrupulous integrity, care and perfection in the creation and presentation of legal positions,” along with “fealty to the proper role of courts,” says Waxman, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of WilmerHale.

For Kneedler, a self-described introvert, heading into oral argument meant “putting on a uniform to prepare for the role of an advocate in court.”

To help ground him during oral argument, Kneedler wore his grandfather’s cuff links. His grandfather was a high school civics teacher.

Lawyers developing their oral advocacy should also work on a style that is as “true to themselves as possible,” says Kneedler.

“If you aren’t a funny guy, don’t try to be,” he says.