[1] Prior to being Michigan Solicitor General, Bursch served as chair of the Appellate Practice and Public-Affairs Litigation Groups at Warner Norcross & Judd.

Bursch works as senior counsel at the conservative Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom and is active in the Federalist Society.

[4] He is involved in a number of cases aimed at restricting the rights of transgender students such as Kluge v. Brownsburg Community School Corporation.

From 1997 to 1998, Bursch served as a law clerk to James B. Loken on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Obergefell is considered one of the most important civil rights cases to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in modern history.

[16] He, along with Joseph R. Whalen, an associate solicitor general from Tennessee, represented the states refusing to recognize same-sex marriages.

[20][21] And in 2010, Bursch was appointed to the American Bar Association committee that reviewed Elena Kagan's writings before her Senate confirmation as a United States Supreme Court Justice.

[22] John is a Life Member of the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference, and in 2011, he was selected to be a Fellow of the Michigan State Bar Association.

Also in 2011, Bursch became the inaugural recipient of The Carl and Winifred Lee Honors College Alumni Achievement Award at Western Michigan University.