Career Development Office - Blog

Robert Schwartz, Executive Director
Juvenile Law Center

Last night the Career Development Office hosted the event “Law and Public Interest” with guest speaker Robert Schwartz. Mr. Schwartz is the Executive Director of the Juvenile Law Center (JLC) in Philadelphia, and a Haverford College graduate. His talk was geared toward students who have an interest in a variety of career fields: law, public service, child advocacy, social services, etc.

The students who attended from both Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges found Mr. Schwartz speaking casually in an informal and unpretentious fashion, and yet commanding the room with his obvious wealth of knowledge and love for his job. After leaving Haverford College in 1971, Mr. Schwartz attended Temple Law School, graduating in 1974, and started a law practice serving youth immediately afterwards. The Juvenile Law Center was the first Public Interest law firm in the United States, timed perfectly to be on the forefront of a trend to recognize the importance of serving Juveniles and promoting civil rights and liberties. Looking back, he laughed at the thought of taking on such a monumental task, quoting Mark Twain, “The two things required for success in any endeavor are confidence and ignorance.” He is passionate about the work at the JLC and about his ties to Haverford and the Honor Code, noting that four current members of the JLC board are Haverford College alumni.

Currently the JLC is a known across the country and “maintains a national litigation practice that includes appellate and amicus work, and promotes juvenile justice and child welfare reform in Pennsylvania and nationwide through policy initiatives and public education forums.” Mr. Schwartz went into specific details of the recent notable litigation regarding a case out of Luzerne County. According to the JLC website, “Juvenile Law Center attorneys began to investigate irregularities in Luzerne County, as they heard from youth who were found guilty in the County juvenile court. Juvenile Law Center found that hundreds of youth had been tried, convicted and, in many cases, placed in residential programs—all without the benefit of counsel.”

Mr. Schwartz had advice and guidance for students with both general and specific terms. He was enthusiastic about getting some experience, any experience, before law school, noting that “the more you know about the world, the better you will be in law school, and the better you will be in law.” He encouraged students to only take paralegal jobs after college if they knew that they would actually get to see the law, rather than file papers for two years, and that any kind of hands-on experience – even not specifically law related - can be a great catalyst to becoming a successful law student.

A subject very important to Mr. Schwartz was encouraging students to realize that they were the “primary actors in their own lives.” Students do not need to be defined by the name of the law school or the law school ranking, or what others say are right and wrong factors in both making the decision to attend law school, and what they hope to get out of it. He advised them to take into account and consider a lot of different factors, including regional aspects and cost.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Schwartz before the program was to begin, and was excited to speak with him about his thoughts on law and public service. A little known fact is that he was the former pre-law advisor at Haverford from 1979-1990. As the current pre-law advisor, I was delighted to have a little extra time prior to the program to ask some questions. We discussed LSAT scores and the cost of college, experience in between college and law school, and the internship opportunities with the JLC. He is well informed and a wonderful mentor, and has a sincere interest in helping.

In the end, we discovered a common interest in baseball and found our conversation quickly moved to the Phillies, Charlie Manual, strike zones, and pitching on 3-days rest. We were just out of time when I found out that he is a former umpire, a point he eventually joked about during his presentation, saying that he thought it more appropriate to put “arbitrator” on his resume instead of “umpire.”

I am honored to have been able to host Robert Schwartz at the Haverford College campus last night. As an alumnus, he represents the college in best possible way, and as the Executive Director of the JLC, he is approachable and passionate about his work. You can find his wide array of accomplishments on the JLC website at www.jlc.org/about/staff/1/robert-schwartz/, and to learn more about the Juvenile Law Center in general, visit: www.jlc.org/.


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Jennifer R. Barr
Assistant Director & Pre-Law Advisor, Career Development
Haverford & Bryn Mawr Colleges

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