As a Harvard graduate, he worked in private practice in Hawaii before being chosen as one of the first faculty members of the University of Chicago Law School in 1904.
After retirement, he became a member of the National Loyalty Review Board, established by Harry S. Truman to vet federal employees.
In his private life, Bigelow had collections of African and Japanese art and was an avid big game hunter, in the course of which he became one of the first white men to cross the Belgian Congo west of Lake Edward.
[3] Bigelow's work on the latter has been subject to harsh criticism, in that he ended up restating Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld's ideas (e.g., the bundle of rights) instead of the actual content of American property law.
As dean, he recognized that the effective practice of law required a broader subject knowledge and expanded teaching at the school to include classes in accounting, economics, and psychology.
[3] This body was established by Executive Order 9835 during the Second Red Scare to screen federal employees for "loyalty", with particular regard to avoiding any Communist sympathies.
[3] He was also interested in motoring, golf, overseas travel, big-game hunting, the study of other cultures, and exploration of remote areas.