Steve Schwed: Love of Family and Competitive Drive Dictates His Success

Delivering excellence in all his endeavors, Steve Schwed learned early that sports and family are the training ground for life and law. Family provided the passion for his entry into the legal profession; having grown up with his grandfather as a judge and being the second youngest of six children, Steve enjoyed the role of peacemaker amongst his siblings, striving to find resolution in arguments. He was a strong tennis player among other sports and played varsity tennis in high school and learned that the skills, confidence and love of competition you bring to sports are easily translatable to the field of law and litigation.

After graduating law school, he was thrown into his first jury trial for medical malpractice where at the age of 25 he got a $1m settlement for a widow against a large insurance company, cementing his love for the courtroom. Since then, he’s tried over 100 jury trials, many involving medical malpractice.

Over his career, Steve has worked as both a defense and plaintiff attorney but found his love in advocating for his clients. As he states, “The most exciting and rewarding thing is to obtain justice for a client in a tragic situation.” With this in mind, Schwed left a well-known firm to found Schwed Law, now Schwed, Adams, Sobel & McGinley, in 2007. Having started the firm with one associate and two legal assistants, today the firm has three offices in Florida and Tennessee, practices in four different states and has over 85 staff members including attorneys and paralegals. In 2016, Schwed, Adams, Sobel & McGinley settled 1,527 cases for their clients. Steve has built a firm with the best; he notes, “Who is handling your case changes the outcome forever.”

Schwed continues to live life on his own terms including athletics where he has become a solid golf player with a 6 handicap, and recently won the Member-Guest Golf Tournament at Jupiter Hills. Steve loves to run on the beach daily, bicycle around Jupiter Island and travel the world, a passion he learned while growing up when his father took the family to Europe every summer for four weeks. His travels to Hawaii led him to meet his wife, Susan. They have been married 31 years and have two daughters, Erica and Stephanie. Erica graduated from USC and works for Secara Life, while Stephanie followed in Steve’s footsteps and is currently a law clerk at the firm while studying for the bar.