Mitchell E Schwartz

Mitchell (Mitt) Schwartz is an Assistant Federal Defender with the Federal Defenders of New York, where he represents people who cannot afford legal representation in federal criminal cases. Prior to joining the Federal Defenders, Mitt was a felony-certified trial attorney in the Manhattan Trial Division of The Legal Aid Society.

Mitt began his career as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow in the Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic (CDPAC) at Georgetown University Law Center, where he represented individuals at all stages of criminal proceedings in D.C. Superior Court, appeared before the D.C. Court of Appeals on interlocutory appeals, and supervised third-year law students representing clients facing misdemeanor charges.

Mitt received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar and Lowenstein Fellow. At Columbia, he co-founded the student public defense organization, served as Student Director of the Legal Clinic for the Homeless, and sat on the board of A Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual. He also spent two years in Columbia's prisoners' rights clinic representing clients challenging conditions of confinement, for which he was awarded CLEA’s Outstanding Student Award.

During law school, Mitt worked at the Orleans Public Defenders, the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, The Legal Aid Society's Criminal Defense Practice, and The Bronx Defenders.