May 2005

UM Law alumna, Elizabeth Schwartz, was recently honored with the Community Award by the Miami Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce for her advocacy on behalf of South Florida's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender ("GLBT") community. A sole practitioner on Miami Beach, Elizabeth focuses on the legal issues confronting gays, lesbians, and other sexual minorities. In addition to assisting her clients with issues such as insemination, surrogacy, and agreements for co-habitation and co-parenting, Elizabeth handles estate planning, divorce, and probate matters for all kinds of families.

Elizabeth is an active volunteer in numerous community organizations. She is on the board of the Women's Community Fund, a non-profit which gives grants to lesbian-focused projects in South Florida. She recently served as counsel in the ACLU's effort to strike down a ban against gay adoption in Florida and she worked with SAVE-DADE on an amendment to Miami-Dade County's Human Rights Ordinance that protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Elizabeth is a member of the Collaborative Family Law Institute, an organization working on reforming the divorce process. She has published several articles and lectures nationally and locally.

Her commitment to community service and social issues was evident in law school. At UM she was a member of eleven student organizations, including the Inter-American Law Review, the GLBT Student Organization, and the Public Interest Law Group. She served as president of Miami Law Women. "I had some brilliant professors at UM, but perhaps the most important class I took was the first-year elective course Public Interest Law with Professor Mahoney. I left her class with the realization that you don't have to starve to death to do work that really helps people and with a sense of unlimited possibilities in public interest law. I'm not one of those people who can say they always wanted to be an attorney, but I have always been passionate about curing injustices and when you look around at the individuals who effected social change, often they have law degrees."

A native of South Florida, Elizabeth attended college at the University of Pennsylvania where she studied communications with minors in Afro-American studies and art history. She graduated cum laude from UM Law in 1997. Prior to starting her own private practice in 2001, Elizabeth worked for a Miami Beach firm for four years. She is also a certified yoga instructor. She lives in downtown Miami's urban core with her partner Lydia Martin, a Miami Herald features writer, and their dog Buttercup. Click here to visit Elizabeth's webpage.