Green worked as a solo practitioner until March 1952, when he entered into a partnership with Harvey Schmidt. The firm was known as Schmidt and Green until 1954, when Doris M. Harris and A. Leon Higginbotham joined as partners. In 1955 J. Austin Norris, a prominent African-American political figure, joined the firm, which was then known as Norris, Schmidt, Green, Harris, & Higginbotham. The firm was the first African-American law firm in Philadelphia. The firm, which never numbered more than a dozen lawyers at a given time, produced four federal judges; Higginbotham, Green, and Herbert Hutton all served on the District Court (Higginbotham was later elevated to the Third Circuit), and William Hall was the first African American appointed as a federal magistrate judge. In addition, two members of the firm, Dorris Harris and Harvey Schmidt, were elected judges of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and William Brown was appointed by President Nixon to be chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.