He was a special assistant to Governor Lamar Alexander in Nashville from 1980 to 1981.
He entered private practice in 1981, and was also the campaign manager for the Robin Beard U.S. Senate Campaign from 1981 to 1982, returning to full-time private practice in Greeneville from 1983 to 2003.
On April 9, 2003, Greer was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee vacated by Thomas Gray Hull.
He is known for his tough sentence of moonshiner Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton.
[2] Sutton's wife maintains that this sentence was the reason he died by suicide.