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It took the Senate roughly 10 months to confirm Christopher Schroeder to lead the Justice Department’s policy shop. Had it taken eight months, or even nine, he might have had time to warm up to the job after 13 years away from the agency.

No such luck.

The Office of Legal Policy will do much of the heavy lifting for President Barack Obama’s pick to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. And a recent controversy over the incomplete paperwork of one of Obama’s nominees to a federal appeals court has placed tremendous pressure on the office, which is responsible for compiling Senate questionnaires, and brought increased scrutiny by the White House.

The Senate confirmed Schroeder to the position by a 72-24 vote Wednesday. Obama is expected to nominate Stevens’ successor by May 26.

Schroeder, a Duke University law professor and former official in the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, comes to the job with a rich background in Supreme Court nominations: He was one of the top counsel to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Joe Biden during the historic battle over Robert Bork’s nomination 23 years ago.

Schroeder and Jeffrey Peck, Biden’s general counsel at the time, conducted the review of Bork’s body of work that fed the majority’s successful assault on the nominee. ”It would be hard to find someone with more experience on the Supreme Court nomination process than Chris Schroeder,” said Peck, now of Peck, Madigan, Jones & Stewart.

The White House will handle the “high-level sherpa-ing” of the nominee, as one Justice Department lawyer put it, while OLP focuses on research and strategy.

Part of the office’s work will be reactive: When Republicans find pegs for criticism  – think Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” comment — OLP will formulate a response in coordination with the White House. Schroeder also will oversee an effort to build a desired narrative around the nominee, drawn from his or her record, and fortify it against attack.

But much has changed since Bork’s confirmation hearings in 1987. One measure is the nomination of University of California, Berkeley, law professor Goodwin Liu for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

His many academic and popular writings, as well as his work for liberal legal groups such as the American Constitution Society, make him an ideal target for the Right. But Republicans were able to hold Liu up and question his fitness for the bench on other grounds: Omissions in his Senate questionnaire.

OLP is wary of making the same mistake on a grander stage, but the limitations of any given nominee’s memory and time constraints are daunting. And building a comprehensive list of writings, speeches and appearances, among other things, has become more difficult over time rather than less. (The Internet can expose as many gaps as it fills.)

Given the Liu situation, said the Justice Department lawyer, “the White House is going to place a close eye on OLP.”

But freighted as it is, the job of heading OLP right now suits Schroeder, Peck said.

“This is the right person in the right place at the right time,” he said.