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 44 years.

As a mediator, Carl builds on his trial, legal and business expertise. 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 currently 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.

Professional Education and Qualifications

B.A. ~ University of Rochester (New York), psychology, with honors, 1972
J.D. ~ University of Miami, 1976

• Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator
• Martindale Hubbell AV® Preeminent™ rated
• Florida Bar Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer (1992 to May 31, 2016)
• National Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney through National Board of Trial Advocacy (January 11, 2010 to January 11, 2016)

Bar Admissions

• The Florida Bar, 1976
• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. District Court, Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Florida