Zachary Schwartz

Zachary Schwartz’s rise within Koeller Nebeker Carlson Haluck LLP is impressive enough: After five years as an attorney, he became a non-equity partner at just 31 years old. A few years later, he was made equity partner at 35. Even more impressive, though, was taking the lead on the firm’s team that serves the County of Orange in California—the sixth-largest county in the U.S.—as outside counsel in civil litigation.

“For me, my work for the County of Orange is my proudest accomplishment and one of the more interesting aspects of my work because it is such a large entity with diverse types of issues I have to deal with,” says Schwartz.

Schwartz says his career-defining moment was his first solo trial after taking the lead for the County of Orange. “It was a civil rights case involving an inmate in jail who was claiming he was sexually assaulted by a guard. I took that case to trial…and it went well. We got a unanimous defense verdict” in federal court.

Schwartz cites his strong writing skills as an attribute that helped him stand out at his firm. His nominator cites his work ethic, eagerness to learn, kindness, and excellent comprehension of difficult legal issues.

For his part, Schwartz highlights kindness when imparting advice to fellow young professionals: “You have to be willing to work hard, but you have to do it with kindness. You really have to be kind in your practice, whether it’s with your colleagues or opposing counsel.”