Born in Neoga, Illinois, Lindley received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, a Bachelor of Laws in 1904 from the University of Illinois College of Law and a Juris Doctor in 1910 from the same institution. He was in private practice in Danville, Illinois from 1904 to 1922. He was a master in chancery for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois from 1912 to 1918. He was a member of the Vermillion County, Illinois Board of Supervisors from 1916 to 1920.^[1]

Lindley was nominated by President Warren G. Harding on September 20, 1922, to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois, to a new seat authorized by 42 Stat. 837. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 22, 1922, and received his commission the same day. His service terminated on October 23, 1949, due to his elevation to the Seventh Circuit.^[1]

Lindley served as a Judge of the Emergency Court of Appeals from 1944 to 1958.^[1] In 1932 when Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. retired from the Supreme Court, Lindley was on President Herbert Hoover’s list of possible replacements,^[2] although the seat ultimately went to Benjamin N. Cardozo.

Lindley was nominated by President Harry S. Truman on September 15, 1949, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated by Judge Sherman Minton. He was confirmed by the Senate on October 12, 1949, and received his commission on October 13, 1949. His service terminated on January 3, 1958, due to his death.^[1]

• Walter C. Lindley at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.