Bassett is a Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco. He has practiced and specialized in family law, estate planning, and real estate law since 1978. He helped create the California law governing community property, which is a model for similar legislation throughout the country. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, California, and before the United States Supreme Court.

Bassett received his A.B. in 1955, his M.A. in 1957, and his S.T.L. degree in 1959 from St. Mary of the Lake College. He received his J.C.D. from the Gregorian University, in Rome in 1965, and his J.D. in 1972 from the Catholic University of America. He has been Professor of Law at the Catholic University of America, a Visiting Scholar at the Ludwig-Maximilans Universitat at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Bayerische Staatsbibliotek in Munich, Germany, and a Visiting Professor of Law at Hastings College of Law.

Author of numerous articles on subjects such as family law, real property, estate planning, legal history, and ecclesiastical law, he also has been the editor of The Jurist and Concilium. He has also written scholarly books on several areas of law.

Professor Bassett is a member of the California Bar Association, Bar Association of the District of Columbia, Selden Society, American Society for Legal History, and the Canon Law Society of America.