He graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1885.
Doerfler was Commissioner of Milwaukee Public Schools before serving as Assistant District Attorney of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin from 1889 to 1891.
In 1921, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor John J. Blaine.
Doerfler remained a member until his resignation in 1929 after he began to suffer from poor health.
This biography of a state judge in Wisconsin is a stub.