Jonathan Schwartz

Jonathan Schwartz is general counsel at the Brookings Institution. In this role, Schwartz is responsible for managing Brookings’s legal affairs and advising the Institution’s Board of Trustees, senior executive team, scholars, and staff on a wide array of legal, policy, reputational, and organizational issues.

Schwartz previously served as the general counsel of several leading tech, media, and financial services companies, including Napster Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Investment Bank, and Univision Communications Inc. He has also led government affairs, security, community relations, and corporate social responsibility departments. In addition, Schwartz has served on the boards of directors of two publicly-traded companies: Revlon, Inc. and Tabula Rasa Healthcare, Inc.

Schwartz started his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Harry T. Edwards on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., and then to Justice Thurgood Marshall on the U.S. Supreme Court. He worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York before becoming a senior advisor to the attorney general and deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. In that role, Schwartz briefed and advised senior White House and Cabinet officials and represented the Department of Justice before members of Congress.

Schwartz is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member at Latino U College Access. He is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at Stanford Law School and the Board of Advisors of Penn Athletics, as well as co-chair of the Penn Alumni Basketball Board. In addition, he serves from time to time as an advisor to in-house corporate lawyers on corporate governance, risk, and managerial matters. In the 2024–25 academic year, he will teach a course on the role of the general counsel at Yale Law School as a visiting lecturer in law.

Schwartz received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree in economics and played varsity basketball. He graduated from Stanford Law School and then attended Cambridge University on a Fulbright Scholarship, earning a master’s degree in international relations. He later served as an in-residence fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.