Partner

Legal Experience

Mr. Schwartz is association union and fund counsel to the OPCMIA Local 692 in all areas of labor law, including picketing, collective bargaining and labor board matters. He handles the Indiana State Conference of Plasters and Cement Masons Funds delinquency and ERISA matters. An associate counsel to the Bricklayers Local 56 and 74 unions and funds in DuPage County, Illinois, he also represents numerous funds in delinquency and related ERISA matters.

Mr. Schwartz was lead counsel in Glaziers Funds v. Glass Masters where the Seventh Circuit concluded that a contractor may be required to pay two funds for the same work when the company signs two CBAs covering the same work. He was lead counsel in the Seventh Circuit case of Laborers Funds v. Concrete Structures where the court imposed liability on the general contractor for unpaid benefits of its subcontractor despite ambiguous language in the subcontracting clause of the CBA. He was lead trial counsel in Painters Funds v. Royal International where the trial court entered judgment for the funds after an eight-day trial on where a “material audit” was a legitimate basis to hold an allegedly delinquent contractor liable for unpaid benefits. This was a landmark case of first impression in the country regarding how funds may proceed to prove liability against a contractor that maintains faulty time cards.

Mr. Schwartz joined Arnold and Kadjan in 1988 and has been a partner since 1994.

Bar Admissions

Illinois Supreme Court
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

Bar Associations

Chicago Bar Association

• Past chair, Civil Rights Committee
• Member, Labor Law Committee

Past Member, American Bar Association,
Past Member, Illinois State Bar Association

Education

Washington University School of Law, J.D., 1979
Vanderbilt University, B.S., 1976

Speaking Engagements

Lectured on labor arbitration