Before coming to UCLA, Abrams served as an associate in law at Columbia University Law School and as a research associate and director of Harvard-Brandeis Cooperative Research for Israel’s Legal Development at the Harvard Law School. He has been a consultant to various state and federal commissions and professional committees, and, while on leave from UCLA, in 1966-67, he was appointed a special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States, serving in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He has taught as a visiting professor at Stanford University Law School, UC Berkeley Law School, the Hebrew University Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan School of Law, University of Southern California Law School and Loyola University (Los Angeles) School of Law.