The state solicitor general is quickly becoming a major player in appellate litigation, as state after state introduces an appellate specialist. Nonetheless, the office’s precipitous rise has received little attention from academia, especially when compared to the attention received by the state solicitor’s federal counterpart, the U.S. Solicitor General. After describing the role of the state solicitor and its importance in the American federal system, this paper will show how the state solicitor grew through diffusion among the states, and how internal determinants led to states creating two main types of state solicitors. I begin with describing what and who the state solicitor is.