Career Highlights

• Serving as lead counsel in San Remo Hotel, L.P. v. City and County of San Francisco, 545 U.S. 323 (2005), holding that unsuccessful state-court takings claimants are not entitled to relitigate their claims in federal court, and San Remo Hotel, L.P. v. City and County of San Francisco, 27 Cal.4th 643 (2002), holding that legislative exactions are not subject to heightened judicial review.
• Assisting the City of Berkeley to rematriate the Shellmound land to the Ohlone people.
• Advising the Presidio Trust in the reappraisal of the ground rent for the Letterman Digital Arts Center Campus at the Presidio.
• Working 22 years in San Francisco City Attorney’s Office — Head of Land Use & Environmental Litigation.
• Teaching Land Use Law at Stanford Law School and UC Berkeley School of Law.  
• Training Yale Law School Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic students in litigation skills.

Community Service, Publications, and Recognitions

• California Lawyer of the Year (CLAY) Award 2006.
• County Counsel’s Association of California Program Award 2003.
• American Bar Association Pro Bono Service Award 2003.
• Andrew W. Schwartz, The false narrative around CEQA and the California Housing crisis, 137:144 LA Daily Journal 1 (July 25, 2024) (one of the top ten attorney-written columns that resonated with Daily Journal readers in 2024).
• Andrew Schwartz, No Competing Theory of Constitutional Interpretation Justifies Regulatory Takings Ideology, 34:2 Stanford Envt’l L. J. 247 (2015).
• Douglas Kendall, Timothy Dowling, Andrew Schwartz, Takings Litigation Handbook: Defending Takings Challenges to Land Use Regulation (2000).

Bar Memberships

Member of the Bar of the State of California, the United States Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit, and several other federal courts.

Education

UCLA, JD, 1979

Stanford, BA, 1976

About Me

I am an avid cyclist: I commute, recreate, and vacation by bike. I spend summers in Madison, Wisconsin for a change of scene. I am interested in all musical genres and play the piano.