As Michigan’s solicitor general, John Bursch compiled a U.S. Supreme Court argument record that even more veteran high court advocates would envy.

Bursch argued eight cases in his three years as the state’s top appellate lawyer, three of them during the current term. One of those, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, is among the term’s highest-profile cases and involves the state’s ban on race- and gender-based preferences in public university admissions.