Cramer entered the practice of law in New York City, spending three years on the legal staff of a large insurance company.

In 1910 he moved to Tacoma, Washington, where, for a time, he engaged in the general practice of law and then served as Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Pierce County.

Awarded the Ordre de l'Etoile Noir of France for his World War service, Cramer returned to the United States in July 1919 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Cramer then resumed his civilian practice in Tacoma for about a year, but in July 1920 accepted a commission as a major in the Judge Advocate General's Department.

During the war years, General Cramer briefly returned to the practice of his predecessors by serving as co-prosecutor of the German saboteurs who landed in Florida and Long Island by submarine in 1942.