Contact
WORK: (415) 955-0925
CELL: (415) 816-4122
EMAIL: ahs@sommersschwartz.com
LINKEDIN: Andrew H. Schwartz
Practice Areas
Business Breakup
Corporate Finance/Fraud Litigation
Corporate Governance/Breakup
Corporate Trust/ Fiduciary Duty Cases
Derivative and Securities Actions
False Claims Act Whistleblower, Civil RICO
Partnership Dissolution
Unfair Business Practice Defense
In addition to these areas of specialty, both partners work together on all significant cases.
Education
CORNELL LAW SCHOOL
Juris Doctor, 1975
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
B.A., Political Science (Phi Beta Kappa)
Activities & Affiliations
BOARD MEMBER
Menorah Park
BOARD MEMBER
The Marin School
GENERAL COUNSEL
One Act Theater Company of San Francisco, 1982-1988
Bar Admissions
District of Columbia, 1976
New York, 1978
California, 1982
Publications
Non English Speaking Persons in the Criminal Justice System
Cornell Law Review Note, 1976
Experience
Andrew Schwartz is a former Bank of America senior counsel responsible for the bank's largest cases. He brings to Sommers & Schwartz, LLP broad experience in state and federal court practice and before arbitration and mediation panels.
Mr. Schwartz has special skill in devising strategies to force litigation early on in a case of key issues in which his clients have strong positions. He then uses a win on such issues to end the litigation favorably for his clients and to minimize litigation costs for his clients. Early decisions on who owned key intellectual property and negating an opponent’s trade secret claims have all led to successful settlements – one of which secured a very lucrative buy-out for a founding member of a winery.
Andrew Schwartz has done extensive work in business breakup and corporate control litigation. He helped the founders of a legendary caviar production company regained control of their business in a settlement of injunction litigation. The firm represented a group of financial advisors who successfully left their former employer after the firm’s defense of trade secret claims. The firm’s work for the inventor of a revolutionary helicopter filter design allowed him to regain control of his intellectual property, obtain a multi-million-dollar settlement, and reestablish his company.
Mr. Schwartz has done his share of white collar litigation, gaining a successful settlements of a False Claims Act case for a multi-state osteopathic clinic operation and for a crab wholesaler charged with civil RICO violations. Mr. Schwartz is also an expert in the fields of unlawful and unfair business practices and fiduciary exposure. When white-collar litigation has involved criminal exposure, the firm has brought on one of the group of top California criminal counsel to address both civil and criminal liability.
Mr. Schwartz has also represented tenants in a civil rights case forcing more than a million dollars in refunds and an injunction against proven, unlawful practices going forward.
At Bank of America, Andy was the managing litigator responsible for obtaining positive settlements in a series of derivative and securities cases (e.g. Bank of America Securities Litigation, Security Pacific Securities Litigation), working with a team of inside counsel, outside director counsel, special litigation committee counsel, accounting and financial experts and press relations officers. Mr. Schwartz fulfilled the same high-level management function in the Bank’s successful defense of the largest escheat and False Claims litigation in California (the largest student loan servicing default at that time), and a series of overcharge refund efforts, as well as consumer unfair and unlawful business practices cases and lender liability claims. In the mid-80s, Andy as also counsel to the Board of the Bank on corporate governance and loan loss reserve issues.