Our Attorneys

Schwartz & Cera California PC is a boutique law firm which serves clients nationwide through offices in San Francisco and New York City. Our attorneys have a broad array of expertise in criminal law and civil litigation, including commercial, professional liability, employment, insurance, maritime and personal injury actions, in combination with expertise in business transactions, intellectual property and real estate.

The attorneys at Schwartz & Cera deliver the expertise of a large firm, with the boutique-style attention and responsiveness traditionally associated with smaller firms. The attorneys at the Firm take pride in their integrity, expert legal representation and client-centered approach to the practice of law.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR ATTORNEYS BY READING THEIR BIO'S BELOW

Douglas R. Schwartz

Frank J. Gilbert

Petra M. Reinecke

Douglas R. Schwartz

Douglas R. Schwartz, the senior founding partner of the Firm, has tried well over 100 cases in the last 33 years throughout the United States, the Virgin Islands and Europe. He and Kenneth Cera founded Schwartz & Cera with the goal of creating a successful smaller firm with the independence to choose challenging and meritorious cases. During his legal career, Mr. Schwartz has tried complex, sensitive and high profile cases, both civil and criminal, achieving excellent results. His focus has been on complex commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense with a common nexus of fraud-related issues, and within those areas he has handled a wide range of cases. With his expertise in both the civil and criminal arenas, Mr. Schwartz is uniquely suited to represent clients concurrently facing criminal prosecution and related civil and administrative proceedings. In addition to successfully representing numerous clients (both corporate and individuals) against criminal charges such as environmental pollution (both land and sea-based), bribery, bank fraud, anti-trust and securities violations, Mr. Schwartz has appeared in numerous proceedings before the Securities & Exchange Commission and other administrative agencies. He is one of the few attorneys in the United States who routinely represents shipping companies and their crew and employees in federal criminal investigations involving alleged MARPOL and APPS related conduct. He has also achieved favorable results for plaintiffs in civil litigation, including multi-million dollar settlements in a wrongful death case resulting from an explosion in a gas-mixing facility, a successful legal malpractice case against a prominent local law firm, and a significant recovery for a client who faced construction defect and mold issues. He also obtained a multi-million dollar federal jury verdict in Alaska on behalf of an insurance company against a prominent Washington State law firm for legal malpractice. Mr. Schwartz also utilizes his expertise in defending clients in a diverse range of cases, including shareholders' disputes, construction defect cases, business dissolutions, intellectual property disputes and wrongful termination actions.

Mr. Schwartz began his career as a legal aid attorney and then a state prosecutor in Virginia, and subsequently became an assistant United States Attorney in the Virgin Islands and then San Diego. As a prosecutor, he was responsible for leading a special joint FBI-Virgin Islands strike force on violent crime. His investigation and trials resulted in eight criminal convictions, earning him an Outstanding Service Award from the United States Department of Justice in 1980. In 1982, while in San Diego, Mr. Schwartz received a further commendation from FBI director William Webster for his handling of an international car theft ring that reached into the high echelons of the Mexican government. Mr. Schwartz joined the San Francisco firm Lillick & Charles LLP in 1982, concentrating on complex commercial litigation while continuing his involvement in white-collar criminal law. He became a partner three years later, and practiced at Lillick until he left to form Schwartz & Cera in February 1997.

Mr. Schwartz has taught regularly for the Federal Advocacy Program, National Institute of Trial Advocacy and the Hastings College of the Law Advocacy Program at the University of California. He is admitted to the bar in California, New York, Virginia and the Virgin Islands, and has argued appellate cases and is admitted before the Second, Third, Fourth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal. He has been a special master in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Mr. Schwartz received his J.D. from Washington and Lee University, where he was student body president and winner of the Phillip Jessup Moot Court Competition, in 1974, and his B.A. from Cornell University in 1971.

Frank J. Gilbert

Francis (Frank) J. Gilbert specializes in business transactions, including license agreements, intellectual property, joint ventures, corporate and limited liability company law, acquisitions, representation of start-up companies and business litigation. Mr. Gilbert advises and represents a wide range of entrepreneurial companies at all stages of development, from initial company formation to liquidity event. He provides advice to clients in a general counsel role on matters related to day-to-day business activities and operations, as well as representation in substantial and extraordinary business transactions. Mr. Gilbert has successfully represented numerous private companies in multi-million dollar acquisitions and corporate reorganizations, including sales of stock, sales of assets and mergers. He has participated extensively in trademark applications and trademark infringement prosecution for a variety of companies, including managing trademark matters for a large manufacturing company with over one hundred registered trademarks worldwide. Mr. Gilbert has formed, advised, and assisted with the capitalization, financing, structure and operation of numerous corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships. He has drafted and negotiated hundreds of intellectual property licensing and transfer agreements, software and website development agreements, manufacturing and distribution agreements, investment agreements, leases, consulting and employment agreements, buy/sell agreements, nondisclosure agreements, strategic joint venture agreements, settlement and release agreements, and various technology and multimedia agreements.

Mr. Gilbert was formerly affiliated with the law firms Methven & Associates in Berkeley, California, Neal & Methven in Oakland, California, and Lewis, D'Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard in San Francisco, California.

Mr. Gilbert has been a speaker on trademark law and Internet domain name issues before the Intellectual Property and Computer Law Committee of the Alameda County Bar Association.

Mr. Gilbert graduated cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1987, where he was a member of the McAuliffe Honor Society and the recipient of the American Jurisprudence Award in Civil Procedure. During law school, Mr. Gilbert was a staff member of the University of San Francisco Law Review and was a teaching assistant for the University of San Francisco Legal Writing Program. He was a judicial extern to Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas and Associate Justice Marcus M. Kaufman of the California Supreme Court. Mr. Gilbert was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois and received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1983.

Petra M. Reinecke

Petra M. Reinecke joined Schwartz & Cera shortly after the formation of the firm in 1997, and currently serves as of counsel. She is a litigator with extensive experience in both criminal and civil litigation, and also maintains an appellate practice. Since joining Schwartz & Cera, Ms. Reinecke has handled and participated in a diverse range of litigation, including the defense of environmental, fraud, and insider trading prosecutions, and the prosecution of shareholder derivative, wrongful death and legal malpractice actions. Ms. Reinecke has also successfully advised and represented clients in administrative proceedings before the Labor Commissioner, Workers Compensation Appeals Board, Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

In her criminal practice, Ms. Reinecke has litigated many Federal trials, appeals, and petitions for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. She has argued numerous cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the California Courts of Appeal, obtaining the reversal of a criminal conviction. She has also successfully defended clients in State court proceedings involving prosecutions for fraud, theft, and drug and alcohol related offenses.

In the civil arena, Ms. Reinecke has over twenty years' experience in state and federal litigation in diverse areas, including complex commercial litigation, personal injury, employment discrimination, securities litigation, partnership dissolutions, landlord-tenant disputes, construction defects actions and collections. Ms. Reinecke has also developed related experience with license applications, and the drafting and negotiation of sales, partnership and lease agreements.

Ms. Reinecke was the principal of her own firm prior to joining Schwartz & Cera.

Ms. Reinecke graduated from Hastings College of Law in 1991. While in law school, she externed at the Federal Public Defender's Office and the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. Ms. Reinecke is a member of the American Bar Association, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. Ms. Reinecke received her A.B. in International Relations from Stanford University in 1988, and is fluent in German.