
Stephen G. Schwarz
Stephen has been a partner at Faraci Lange, LLP since 1988 and served as managing partner from 1995-2023. He focuses his legal practice on product liability, toxic tort and environmental contamination, medical malpractice, civil rights litigation, and other serious personal injury cases in both state and federal courts.
Stephen has been awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating and has been named Best Lawyers' Lawyer of the Year in Product Liability Litigation, Medical Malpractice, and in Personal Injury Litigation multiple times since those awards have been given out, including 2025. He has also been selected to be listed under personal injury law in the Super Lawyers directory every year since 2007, has been listed as one of the Top 50 Super Lawyers in Upstate New York, and has been named to the Daily Record Power List each year since that list was established. In 2018, Stephen was honored with the Federal Bar Council's Thurgood Marshall Award for exceptional commitment to pro bono service, and he has twice been awarded the Monroe County Bar Association's Pauly Award for excellence in providing continuing legal education to other attorneys.
In recent years, Stephen has represented clients in a variety of high-profile cases. These include two class actions to obtain compensation for residents in two communities in Rensselaer County, New York, whose drinking water was contaminated with PFOA, one of the forever chemicals currently plaguing water systems throughout the country. He has also represented the family of Daniel Prude who was killed in police custody in Rochester, New York in 2020 and is currently representing the family of Robert Brooks, who was killed at Marcy Correctional Facility in 2024 as well as the family of Julian Coleman, who died from a cardiac arrest after being removed by the police from an ambulance at the request of the EMTs who were called to help him.
Stephen is a former Regent of the American College of Trial Lawyers, where he had responsibility for Upstate New York as well as the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and will become the editor of the ACTL Journal when the current editor steps down. ACTL is an invitation-only organization that selects the best trial lawyers in the United States and Canada for membership after a rigorous vetting process that covers both ability and ethics. He is also a past president of the Rochester Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates and has served on the Boards of the Monroe County Bar Association and Monroe County Bar Foundation.
Stephen recently co-authored a book with David Savitz, Ph.D., entitled Epidemiology and the Law published by Juris Publishing. He has published numerous articles in the Journal of the American College of Trial Lawyers, including Artificial Intelligence/Superficial Lawyering, which chronicled the disastrous results for two lawyers who relied upon ChatGPT to write their brief in federal court, published in the Fall 2023 edition of the ACTL Journal. He has published numerous additional articles in other legal publications such as the New York State Bar Journal and Trial Magazine.
Stephen has served as President of the Board of the Family Resource Centers of Rochester and on the United Way Campaign Cabinet. He currently serves on the Board of Starbridge Services, Inc., an organization that partners with individuals who have disabilities, and has served two separate terms as the Board’s Chair. He has received the Community Partner award from Starbridge and has also received an award from United Way of Greater Rochester for his service to the community.
Education
- Albany Law School J.D. 1981
- State University of New York at Albany B.S. 1978
Practice Area Concentration
- Medical Malpractice
- Serious Auto Accident Cases
- Product Liability
- Toxic Tort and Environmental Cases Business Litigation
Accreditations
- Martindale-Hubbell AV Rating
- Super Lawyers
- Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year
- 2024 U.S. District Court For the Western District of New York Pro Bono Honor Roll
Invited Memberships
- American College of Trial Lawyers
- American Board of Trial Advocates
Memberships
- American Association for Justice
- New York State Trial Lawyers Academy Monroe County Car Association
- New York State Bar Association
- New York State Trial Lawyers Association
Honors & Awards
- Best Lawyers
- Martindale-Hubbell AV Rating
- Super Lawyers
- MCBA President’s Award
- Thurgood Marshall Award
- MCBA Raymond J. Pauley Award (2003,2010)
Publications
- Artificial Intelligence/Superficial Lawyering, ACTL Journal, Fall 2023
- Epidemiology and the Law, Juris Publishing 2024
- It Is Long Past Time to Change the Error in Judgment Charge, New York Bar Journal 2019
- Three Months With Roy Cohn, ACTL Journal 2018
- Representing the Decedent – The Wrongful Death Action in New York, The Plaintiff’s Personal Injury Action, NYSBA, (2008, 2013)
- The Vioxx Saga, Voir Dire Magazine (Winter 2005)
- Another Medical Malpractice Crisis, Voir Dire Magazine (Fall 2003)