Jon-Bernard Schwartz

Jon-Bernard Schwartz has built a reputation as a results-driven litigator, trusted adviser, and laser-focused negotiator. He has extensive litigation experience including multiple jury trials brought to verdict. One of his federal court trials resulted in a jury award of over $31 million. Jon has represented oil operating companies, municipal school districts, tech startups, mortgage lending institutions, electrical cooperatives, credit card services providers, bankruptcy services providers, restaurateurs, art galleries, and other businesses and individuals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and across the country. And, importantly, Jon has represented multiple clients with family law needs-everything from divorces to custody disputes to enforcement actions and contempt actions to complicated community property estate issues. Jon's extensive business litigation experience means that you won't need to hire a team of lawyers if your divorce has complicated business issues attached to it.

Jon is licensed to practice law in Texas, Washington, D.C., the Fifth Circuit, the Eighth Circuit, and all Texas federal district and bankruptcy courts. He practices the following areas of law:

• Family law, divorce, and custody litigation
• Business and commercial litigation
• Non-competition and non-solicitation agreements (non-competes) and related litigation
• Contract negotiation and formation

Results matter. For 25 years, Jon has built a track record of achieving positive outcomes for his clients. Here are a few:

• Jon was part of a two-man team that received a unanimous jury verdict in a five-week trial in Houston federal court. They represented an oil operating company against its insurer for breach of contract and violations of the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act. Jon conducted voir dire, examined witnesses, and drafted multiple trial and post-trial motions and briefs. The oil operating company received $25.4 million in damages and $6.25 million in attorneys' fees and costs after appeals to the Fifth Circuit were exhausted.
• Jon represented a private school that had been damaged by severe flooding caused by a utility company's negligence. After Jon filed suit, the utility company agreed to pay the school hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
• Jon was part of a two-man team who tried a divorce case on behalf of the wife, in which the judge ordered that the husband's company be fully awarded to the wife.
• Jon represented a father arrested while driving for drug possession and driving with an open container of alcohol while one of his children was in the car with the father. After a trial, in which the mother was attempting to severely limit the father's access to his children, the Court found in the father's favor and ordered a framework going forward that allowed the father to regain his custody rights.
• Jon represented an ex-wife in a contempt and enforcement action against her ex-husband for failing to pay his portion of their child's college loans. After a trial, the Court found in the ex-wife's favor, held the ex-husband in contempt, and ordered the ex-husband to get current on his loan payments and pay the ex-wife's attorneys' fees.
• Jon represented a new business owner who was about to be sued by her former employer for breach of a non-compete and non-solicitation agreement. Jon filed suit first on her behalf and obtained a temporary restraining order preventing her employer from enforcing the non-compete and non-solicitation agreements. After intensely litigating the case, the employer walked away and agreed that the non-compete and non-solicitation agreements were unenforceable and dismissed all claims for damages.
• Jon obtained a dismissal for a client who had been sued in a bankruptcy adversary proceeding for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Jon then successfully briefed and argued this case on appeal to the 8th Circuit B.A.P., which ruled in favor of his client.
• Jon litigated a multi-million dollar tort, bankruptcy, and adversary proceeding in the state and federal courts of New York and the Delaware bankruptcy court, saving his client tens of millions of dollars sought in a clawback action.
• Jon defended a restaurateur in a breach of contract lawsuit resulting in all claims against his client being dismissed at no cost.
• Jon obtained a dismissal with prejudice for his client under the Texas Anti-SLAPP law. His client had been wrongly sued for defamation, and this was a total vindication of his client's rights.
• Jon obtained a termination of a client's proposed debarment by the Defense Logistics Agency in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
• Jon's client had been sued in Texas and an injunction taken against him, even though the client lived and conducted business in Tennessee. Jon had the entire case against his client, including the injunction, dismissed with prejudice.
• Jon convinced a Texas federal judge to sanction opposing counsel approximately $9,000 for wrongfully removing a state court case to federal court.
• Jon obtained a six-figure settlement for a woman injured in a slip-and-fall in Dallas County, Texas.
• Jon represented a doctor wrongly sued by a law firm for tortious interference with a contract. Jon was able to get the case against the doctor dismissed with prejudice by virtue of a motion for summary judgment.
• Jon secured a six-figure settlement for a client whose home was constantly and severely flooded by an adjacent apartment complex.

Throughout the course of his legal career, Jon has achieved considerable success advocating on behalf of plaintiff and defendant clients alike with their serious, pressing, and complex legal issues. Along with handling numerous jury trials, he has conducted many appeals along with innumerable negotiations and mediations. No matter the issues his clients are facing, Jon delivers highly personalized representation at all turns while aggressively pursuing the favorable outcomes his clients expect and deserve as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Through his practice, JB Schwartz PLLC, Jon has served as counsel on a number of high-stakes, complex cases involving tens of millions of dollars in damages, and he has helped save his defendant clients substantial money through favorable judgments at trial and during appeal or by having their cases dismissed altogether.

A 1993 cum laude graduate of Columbia University, Jon obtained his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1997.