Harlan S. Abrahams

Harlan Abrahams is Special Counsel to Sweetbaum Miller PC, PC. Mr. Abrahams has extensive experience in the fields of corporate and commercial transactions, securities and regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and appellate advocacy. Throughout his forty-one year career in private practice and as a law professor and educator, he has represented clients in a variety of complex transactions. He served as one of several lead lawyers in the 1987 reorganization of Western Union, one of the first billion-dollar leveraged restructurings of a publicly-held company.

Mr. Abrahams has acted as general counsel for several businesses, supervising and coordinating all their legal affairs, both litigation and transactional. These businesses included American Water Development, Inc. and Canyon Capital LLC. Mr. Abrahams’ experience extends to managing the legal and business intricacies of working with development companies, private investment companies, high-tech companies and companies reliant on intellectual properties.

Mr. Abrahams has been a tenured professor at the University of Puget Sound School of Law, and has taught at several other law schools throughout the United States. He writes and lectures extensively on a wide variety of legal and public policy issues, ranging from constitutional and administrative law, to regulatory policy, globalization and sovereignty.

Mr. Abrahams is rated AV® Preeminent 5.0 out of 5 by Martindale-Hubbell.

Admission to Practice:

• Admitted to practice in Colorado in 1982
• Admitted to practice in California in 1975 (currently inactive)

Education:

• HARVARD LAW SCHOOL, 1975 LL.M.
  • Thesis Advisor: Prof. Paul Freund
• UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA COLLEGE OF LAW, J.D., 1974
  • First in Class
  • Order of the Coif
  • Comment Editor of Law Review
  • Winner of Regional Moot Court Competition
  • Quarter-Finalist in National Moot Court Competition
  • Recipient of Numerous Academic Scholarships
  • Recipient of Numerous American Jurisprudence Awards
  • Recipient of George DeLacy Award for Constitutional Law

• UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, 1972 B.S.
  • Majored in Business Administration
  • Recipient of Numerous Academic Scholarships

Teaching Activities and Experience:

• Visiting Professor of Law, University of Denver College of Law (2002-2005)
  • Teaching Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Alternate Dispute Resolution
• Lecturer, University of Denver Institute for Public Policy Studies (2002-2004)
  • Teaching graduate level classes and participating in Great Issues Forums including Regulatory Policy and Process, Comparative Foreign Policy, and Globalization and Sovereignty
• Lecturer, University of Denver, University College “Faculty Showcase Series” (2002-Current)
• Visiting Professor of Law, University of South Carolina (1981-1982)
• Associate Professor of Law, University of Puget Sound (1977-1981)
  • Tenured in 1979
• Assistant Professor of Law, Southern Illinois University (1975-1977)
• Instructor in Law, Boston University (1974-1975)
• Speaker at Numerous Academic Conferences
• Instructor at ABA Appellate Judges Seminars
• Teaching expertise includes Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Legal Regulation of the Competitive Process, Antitrust, Remedies, and Alternative Dispute Resolution

Academic Articles, Books, and other Writings

Articles

• “Options on Commodity Futures Contracts as Securities in California,” 29 BUSINESS LAWYER 867 (1974) [with M. Borton of Rifkind & Sterling in Beverly Hills]
• “Separation of Powers and Administrative Crimes: A Study of Irreconcilables,” 1 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY LAW JOURNAL 1-150 (1976) [with Prof. John Snowden of Nebraska Law School]
• “The Duty to Decide Versus the Daedalian Doctrine of Abstention,” 1 UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND LAW REVIEW 1 (1977) [with Prof. Brian Mattis of SIU Law School]
• “Scope of Review of Administrative Action in Washington: A Proposal,” 14 GONZAGA LAW REVIEW 75 (1977)
• “The Emergence of Critical Social Theory in American Jurisprudence,” 4 UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND LAW REVIEW 39 (1980)
• “The DES Labyrinth,” 33 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA LAW REVIEW 663 (1982)[with B. Musgrave]
• “The Ethics of Moving for Disqualification of Opposing Counsel,” 13 COLORADO LAWYER 55 (1984) [with R. Bayer]
• “The Trouble With Arbitration,” Vol. 11, No. 2 LITIGATION 30 (1985) [with R. Bayer]
• “Down and Dirty with ‘Down and Dirty Pictures’,” Vol. 21, No. 4 ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS LAWYER 12 (2004)

Books

• Neveah and the Angel of Death: One City’s Quest to Bring a Child Killer to Justice (nonfiction, 2013)
• Havana 58 (fiction, 2013)
• Raúl Castro and the New Cuba: A Close-up View of Change (nonfiction, 2011)
• On The List: Fixing America’s Failing Organ Transplant System (nonfiction, 2009)

Business and Community Activities:

• Board Member, American Transplant Foundation
• Member, Denver Press Club