[6] Solan was a law clerk for Justice Stewart G. Pollock of the Supreme Court of New Jersey from 1982–83.
[4][1] He was later an associate and then a partner in the New York City law firm of Orans, Elsen and Lupert, from 1983–96, focusing on complex civil litigation.
[4] Much of his academic legal career was devoted to studying and writing about the way in which linguistic analysis can inform the legal system, and he taught courses on the subject at Brooklyn Law School, Yale Law School, and in the Psychology Department and Linguistics Program at Princeton University.
[8][9] In 2009, he was named Honorary Professor at the Wuhan Institute of Technology.
[14] He also served on the board of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, and the editorial board of the International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law.