Ms. Schwartz is also a graduate of the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in both International Relations and Russian.  Ms. Schwartz has been a student of languages and international affairs since childhood, and this led to her interest in immigration law.

Ms. Schwartz was born in the seaside resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey, a town where her family has resided for nearly 100 years.  As a high school student, she was selected by the Governor of the State of New Jersey to be part of a delegation of student ambassadors to what was then the Soviet Union, part of the Initiative for Understanding:  People to People American Soviet Youth Exchange.  She later traveled to the Soviet Union again, in 1991, as a college student studying the Russian language.  Both these experiences gave Ms. Schwartz a sensitive understanding of other people and cultures.

As a law student, Ms. Schwartz began her commitment to helping immigrants when she served as a student attorney for the George Washington University Immigration Clinic.  In her first immigration court case, she won asylum for a man from Rwanda who fled the massive genocide that was then taking place.  She also excelled in law school as an active member of the George Washington Journal of International Law and Economics and the Moot Court Board.  Ms. Schwartz participated for two years in the prestigious Jessup International Law Moot Court competition, first as a competitor, and then as coach of her law school’s team.  As a competitor, Ms. Schwartz represented her school in both the Mid-Atlantic Regional and International rounds of the competition.

Ms. Schwartz enjoys the intellectual and professional challenges inherent in being a courtroom lawyer.  She has experience before all of the immigration judges in both Arlington, VA and Baltimore, MD, and has worked on cases which received media attention, including the case of a Japanese woman who was married to a U.S. Vietnam veteran for almost 30 years, but who nearly lost her green card because she remained outside of the U.S. for several years.  Ms. Schwartz successfully represented the woman, who was able to keep her green card.

She has assisted clients in winning political asylum and deferral of removal from countries as diverse as Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, The Gambia, Nigeria, Sudan, Burma, Vietnam, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.  She has also won permanent residence for clients who married abusive U.S. citizens.

Ms. Schwartz has been admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.  She is currently an active member of the District of Columbia bar and is licensed to practice Immigration Law throughout the United States.  Ms. Schwartz is active in community service and pro bono activities, and has volunteered for the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights to represent asylum seekers.

When she is not busy advocating on behalf of her clients, Ms. Schwartz relaxes by listening to all kinds of music, from Brazilian jazz to electronica to Italian crooners like Frank Sinatra and Jerry Vale.   She enjoys dancing, 20th Century Russian history and literature, and metaphysical studies.  She also enjoys sampling the different ethnic foods from many of her clients’ homelands.  Ms. Schwartz has studied a number of languages, including Hebrew, Russian, Latin, French, and conversational Italian.