Carl B. Schwait

Carl Schwait, a resident of Gainesville, is a North Central Florida mediator, educator, Florida Bar leader and former public servant. At the time of his 2015 retirement from active litigation, he was rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell; named to Florida’s Super Lawyers for nine years; and designated a Florida Bar Certified Civil Trial Lawyer from 1992-2016. Carl has been a member of The Florida Bar for almost 49 years. As a mediator, Carl builds on his trial, legal and business expertise. He is currently a member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals and Fellow in the American College of Civil Trial Mediators. Before his retirement from private practice, he served as senior and managing partner for Dell Graham, P.A. (Gainesville), directing 12 select attorneys with extensive trial experience. As an educator, he taught and mentored future lawyers since 1992 in the trial skills program at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, responsible for the lecture portion of the Trial Practice, Pretrial Practice, and Mediation Advocacy courses as an adjunct professor before his retirement in December, 2019. Carl served 12 years as the only Eighth Judicial Circuit representative to The Florida Bar Board of Governors and three years on the Board’s executive committee. In June, 2017 as he left the Board of Governors, Carl was awarded one of the most prestigious Bar awards, the Kirk G. Haas Humanitarian Award, for his years of service to the lawyers and citizens of Florida. Another highlight of his longtime service to The Bar was the 2011 President’s Award of Merit for chairing the committee that rewrote the current state lawyer advertising rules submitted to the Florida Supreme Court that year. In 2016, The Bar’s General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section presented him with their Tradition of Excellence Award. Carl is the former chair of The Florida Bar’s Committee on Mental Health and Wellness for Florida Lawyers. Finally, Carl and his wife Anna, a retired professor of psychiatric nursing at the University of Florida College of Nursing, have two daughters and four grandchildren.