Bittersweet.

That's how Hogan Lovells partner Neal Katyal on Tuesday described breaking Thurgood Marshall's record, set in 1967, as the minority lawyer with the most oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Because why did the record stand for so long?

“It illustrates how far the bar still has to go,” he said in an interview. “Fifty years ago, we made some progress. But it's been stymied for a long time.”

Katyal's appearance on Tuesday in the securities case Cyan, Inc. v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund caps a remarkable year where he has argued seven cases in six separate arguments—more than any other advocate in 2017.

It brings his career total to 35 cases. He's on deck in January for his 36th, in Hall v. Hall.

His workload is almost mind-boggling. In addition to the oral argument on Tuesdayin the Cyan case, he had an emergency SCOTUS brief due the same day at noon. Oh, and a reply brief in support of certiorari for Google in a patent fight due Tuesdayas well.

Next week, he'll appear before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit challenging the travel ban in a televised argument.

Does he ever get a break?

“I'm going on vacation in…” he paused. “17 days.”

He's counting.

Disarmingly modest, Katyal is quick to credit his colleagues—“literally the dream team” —for making it all possible.

Among them: senior associates Mitchell Reich, Colleen Roh Sinzdak, Sara Solow and Thomas Schmidt.

“I firmly believe a lot of our associates are better lawyers than I am,” he said. And he's willing to share the podium. Roh Sinzdak co-argued against the travel ban in March, and Reich will have his chance next week, while Solow argued on behalf of Philadelphia in the sanctuary cities case earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Schmidt on Tuesday was in the Eastern District of Texas, handling oral arguments for Garmin in a major patent case, seeing as Katyal was otherwise engaged.

Katyal has a few high court pre-argument rituals. He always talks over the case with his children, who are now 16, 14 and 12. But the practice dates back 10 years (and suffice to say, if you can explain your case to a 6-year-old, you know how to simplify the issues).

He makes a special music mix to listen to when he drives downtown the day of the argument. On Tuesday, it included his favorite band, The National, as well as The Strokes, The Flaming Lips, The Shins, a few songs from “Hamilton,” and some Beethoven.

Like many advocates, he rubs the foot of the bronze statue of Chief Justice John Marshall on his way in to court.

And for every SCOTUS argument, Katyal wears a bracelet that belonged to his father, who was half-Sikh and died 11 years ago. On Tuesday, he tweeted a photo of it alongside his brief in the Cyan case, with the caption 'This one's for you, Dad.”

His parents, Punjabi Indian immigrants, never wanted him to be a lawyer, Katyal said. As far as they were concerned, he should have been a doctor (like his mother) or possibly an engineer (like his father).

“They hated lawyers,” he said, adding that they actually cried when he announced he was going to law school.

Katyal traces his path to becoming a lawyer back to an uncle, who pointed out that he wasn't having much success as a member of the swim team. Perhaps he ought to try another activity, like debating?

“I was not particularly good right away,” Katyal said, but he realized that if he put in the work, he could succeed. He wound up competing in national tournaments, where he faced off against “arch rival” Tom Goldstein. Yes, that Tom Goldstein—the Goldstein & Russell name partner and co-founder of SCOTUSblog, who, it so happens, was opposing counsel in the Cyan case on Tuesday.

Debate made Katyal a good speaker, but he said it was professors at Yale Law School who took the time to teach him to write.

From there, he credits his “luck” in landing a job in the Clinton administration as special assistant to (then) Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. And he sees luck again when President Obama picked Holder to be attorney general—which paved the way for Katyal to be hired as principal deputy solicitor general, then serve as acting solicitor general.

He joined Hogan in 2011.

“I'm the last person you would predict to be here,” he said of his success as lawyer. “I didn't go to fancy schools or come from money or from a family that valued law or public speaking in any shape or form.”

From his perch as the term's most sought-after Supreme Court advocate, and as one of the most prominent minority lawyers in the nation, Katyal sees value in continuing to call attention to the legal profession's lack of diversity, especially at the top.

Hiring and mentoring are priorities, and he makes small gestures too. For example, he won't appear on any of the myriad pre- and post-term Supreme Court discussion panels if the other speakers are all men.

Katyal said he is heartened that law schools have become more diverse, especially in terms of gender. His hope is that judges, when making career-altering decisions about who to hire as clerks, will do their part too.

“It becomes a big piece of how the legal profession and Supreme Court bar can improve,” he said. “But we have a long way to go.”