Schwartzmann has a long history as a leading civil rights attorney and social justice advocate in her home state of Louisiana. Prior to coming to Tulane Schwartzmann has served as the legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, the managing director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Louisiana office, and as a founder of the MacArthur Justice Center in Louisiana.
She has handled litigation involving freedom of speech, religion, separation of church and state, discrimination, due process, unlawful search and seizure, police misconduct and unconstitutional prison conditions. She has argued before all federal courts in Louisiana and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and has appeared in briefs before the United States Supreme Court. Before earning her J.D. cum laude at Tulane in 2003, she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo.