[1] He read law from 1890 to 1894 with John S. Mitchell and from 1897 to 1898 with David O. Watkins in Woodbury, New Jersey.

[3] In 1900, he and Watkins became partners, and the partnership lasted until 1907, from which time Avis practiced alone until his appointment to the bench in 1929.

[1][3] Avis was nominated by President Herbert Hoover on September 9, 1929, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey vacated by Judge Joseph Lamb Bodine, who had joined the New Jersey Supreme Court.

He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 2, 1929, and received his commission the same day.

Among Avis's most notable cases was the sentencing of Skinny D'Amato's guilty plea, and ruling on the authorship of the "Old 97" ballad, a decision eventually reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.