After finishing law school, Bassler clerked for Judge Mark Sullivan of the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court.

[2] Since 1964 and until his first judicial appointment in 1988 he was an attorney in private practice at a succession of small New Jersey firms.

In 1983, he joined Evans, Koelzer, Osborne, Kreizman & Bassler, and from 1984 until his ascension to the bench he was a partner in Carton, Nary, Witt & Arvanitis.

[2] Bassler was appointed to the New Jersey Superior Court in 1988 by then-governor Thomas Kean (Republican).

[2] Besides penning several hundred judicial opinions from the bench, Bassler also authored published articles on legal topics, including some as a federal judge in the 1990s.