Five Decades and Nearly 300 Trials: Robert Armin Schwartz Knows What Is at Stake

Plenty of attorneys know the language of a courtroom. Robert Armin Schwartz knows its pressure—and the decisions made when a client’s freedom may depend on what happens next. Since entering the California Bar in 1976, Schwartz has built a career in the place where reputations are hardest to manufacture: in front of judges and juries.

The numbers reveal the scale of that career. Schwartz reports conducting approximately 300 criminal trials, including nine death-penalty trials. Capital prosecutions represent the most consequential cases in the criminal justice system, demanding command of evidence, jury selection, mitigation, constitutional procedure, and persuasion. Among those capital matters were People v. Mercado and People v. Marquez, in which the death penalty was avoided, along with reported acquittals in People v. Hernandez and People v. Stolpe.

Schwartz has also worked inside the glare of headline-making criminal litigation. He represented a co-defendant in the widely publicized “Bling Ring” celebrity-burglary prosecution involving homes associated with figures including Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. In another high-profile matter, he and co-counsel defended a Los Angeles firefighter and the firefighter’s mother against felony assault-related charges. After an approximately four-week trial, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial. These matters reflect an attorney accustomed to cases complicated by publicity, competing narratives, and serious consequences.

Experience on that scale becomes more meaningful when the profession itself recognizes it. Schwartz is a Certified Specialist in Criminal Law through the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. He has twice received the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Bar Association’s Jerry Giesler Memorial Award as Trial Attorney of the Year, most recently in 2023. His firm reports that he is one of only three lawyers in the award’s roughly 60-year history to receive it twice. He was also honored as Defense Attorney of the Year by the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section and received a President’s Special Award recognizing his defense of death-penalty cases.

Schwartz was selected to Southern California Super Lawyers from 2012 through 2019. Together with his specialist certification and trial awards, that recognition reflects the respect his work has earned among those familiar with the demands of criminal practice.

Schwartz has also helped shape the defense bar around him. He served as president of the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Bar Association, chaired the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Indigent Criminal Defense Appointment Program Committee, and served on the Executive Committee of the State Bar’s Criminal Law Section. He has taught other attorneys about jury selection, cross-examination, sex-crime defense, search warrants, gang allegations, closing arguments, and emerging homicide defenses. When lawyers turn to another lawyer for instruction, it says something important about the depth of experience being shared.

For clients, that experience translates into an attorney familiar with the many ways a criminal case can be challenged. His background includes sophisticated disputes involving searches, wiretaps, gang evidence, roadside stops, and witness credibility. His office also reports Spanish-speaking staff, helping families navigate a frightening and unfamiliar process.

The strongest argument for Schwartz is not that he has practiced longer than most. It is what he has done with those years: tried hundreds of cases, defended people against the ultimate punishment, earned rare repeat recognition from trial-lawyer peers, and remained active in the institutions responsible for strengthening criminal defense. When the stakes are measured in freedom, reputation, or life itself, that is experience with real consumer value.

That combination of experience, reputation, verified professional standing, and public credibility is why Robert Armin Schwartz was included on FreddieFender.com.