President Obama has nominated Judge Paul Lewis Abrams ’83 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Abrams has been a magistrate judge with the court since 2002, and serves as a judicial officer in the court’s Conviction and Sentence Alternatives Program. Previously, he spent 14 years as a deputy federal public defender in Los Angeles, acting in a supervisory role from 1992 to 2001. Abrams also directed the Bet Tzedek Legal Services’ Valley Rights Project and was an associate at Jeffer, Mangels & Butler (now Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell).