He was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm Troutman Sanders[2] and served as a Salt Lake County Commissioner prior to being elected as Attorney General of the state of Utah.

[6][7] In May 2007, Shurtleff testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee as a Republican in support of the Constitutionality of granting full representation in Congress for residents of Washington DC.

[8] That year Shurtleff co-founded the Utah Meth Cops Project and raised money to provide detoxification treatment to police officers.

[11] On November 4, 2009, Shurtleff ended his campaign for U.S. Senate in order to spend more time with his daughter, who was experiencing health problems.

[13] In September 2010, Shurtleff testified before the House Judiciary Committee in support of the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act,[14] an act that seeks to reverse the effects of Granholm v. Heald, a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled unconstitutional state laws that permitted in-state wineries to ship wine directly to consumers, but prohibited out-of-state wineries from doing the same.

[26] In 2014 Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill filed 10 felony charges against Shurtleff.