ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dick Schwartz has been selected to receive the prestigious 2023 American Inns of Court James E. Coleman Jr. Award for Professionalism in the Fifth Circuit. Judge Carl E. Stewart, Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, and BG Malinda E. Dunn, USA (Ret.) presented the award in San Antonio, Texas, on May 8. Schwartz is a shareholder at the Houston law firm Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, PC.
“Dick unquestionably personifies the highest standards of excellence and professionalism in the practice of law,” write members of the executive committee of the Garland R. Walker American Inn of Court, who nominated Schwartz on the Inn’s behalf. “His career is a testament to the proposition that really good guys can and ought to finish first.”
After beginning his career as a briefing attorney for Judge Hugh Gibson of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Schwartz worked on maritime and business issues for the Houston firm Eastham, Watson, Dale & Forney. He then practiced commercial litigation and personal injury law as a partner and head of litigation at Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges. In 1990, he founded his own firm, which became Schwartz, Junell, Greenberg & Oathout LLP. As managing partner and a general trial lawyer, he handled jury and non-jury trials and appeals in state and federal courts in courtrooms around the country. In 2015, he joined Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP as a partner handling complex commercial litigation and employment disputes. He joined Munsch Hardt in 2019.
Schwartz was also the guiding force behind the creation of the Walker American Inn of Court in Houston. He has been the Inn’s executive director since 2018 and served previously as executive director between 1993 and 2002. Schwartz also served on the American Inns of Court Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2015.
Schwartz has also been active in bar associations. He has held numerous officer positions in the Federal Bar Association’s South Texas Chapter including president in 2000. He has also been active in grievance committee work for the State Bar of Texas. Schwartz has been an adjunct professor teaching professional responsibility at the University of Houston Law Center since 2019.
Schwartz earned an honors undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975, followed by a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 1979.
The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.
