He entered law partnerships with Calvin E. Grier and then Zebulon Baird Vance, a former Confederate officer and North Carolina governor during the Confederacy, and future United States senator, in a firm named Vance & Burwell.
Two days after the November 14, 1892, death of North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Augustus Merrimon, the court elected James E. Shepherd to be the new Chief Justice and Governor Thomas Holt appointed Burwell to fill Shepard's associate justice seat for the remaining three years of an eight-year term.