Joel Schwartz is a former federal prosecutor and public defender who advises clients on white collar criminal defense, civil enforcement, and congressional and special investigations. With over 30 years of legal experience, clients turn to Joel for his ability to navigate negotiations and litigation in high profile, highly complex cases. He advises clients across a range of areas, including health care, consumer safety, corruption, government contracting, export control, financial services, and corporate fraud.
Joel has also conducted internal investigations and compliance reviews for corporate clients. Aside from his time at the U.S. Department of Justice as a government enforcement attorney, Joel has experience as an assistant director in the Division of Enforcement & Investigations with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Joel began his career in Texas as a legal aid lawyer and Skadden Foundation fellow, where he represented farmworkers in civil rights cases as well as death row inmates in their habeas corpus proceedings.Â
Joel has represented clients before the DOJ, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as other federal agencies that include the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He has also counseled clients on immigration and international issues.
Prior to joining Parker Poe, Joel led the White Collar Criminal Defense & Special Investigations Practice Group for one of the world's top 200 largest law firms.
Featured Products
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Pozner on Cross: The Chapter Method (7-Hours)
Pozner on Cross: The Chapter Method, is a 7-hour masterclass that teaches a structured approach that organizes cross examination into short, fact-based, story-driven chapters. The method enables lawyers to maintain control of the witness, secure key admissions, and present facts with clarity and precision. Designed for use under the stresses of trial, the course provides practical tools for writing and delivering effective cross examinations with confidence. The techniques of Chapter Method cross-examination work regardless of the field of practice, or the level of a lawyer’s experience.
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It's Not Just Voir Dire: How to Communicate & Convince Juries
This program helps defense counsel to uncover juror beliefs, challenge biased jurors for cause, preserve credibility with judges, and build persuasive narratives for trial. You'll also explore cutting-edge research and emerging technology—from social science insights about race and bias in juries to new tools for focus groups and mock trials. Master your techniques in authenticity, storytelling, and emotional intelligence in the courtroom, while reinforcing foundational principles like the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt throughout jury selection and trial.
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Criminal Evidence Disclosure & Admissibility Handbook
This handbook covers a wide range of crucial topics, including defending against the admission of 404(b) evidence, challenging bad character evidence, and litigating the admissibility of expert testimony. It offers a deep dive into the requirements of Brady and Giglio and uncovering discovery violations and exculpatory evidence before trial. With dedicated sections on digital evidence, forensic analysis, informant disclosures, and suppression hearings, this guide arms defense attorneys with the tools necessary to combat unreliable or improperly admitted evidence.
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Cross-Examination: Science & Techniques - 4th Edition
Considered the go-to authority for more than 30 years, Pozner and Dodd’s Cross-Examination: Science and Techniques has trained generations of trial attorneys to turn cross-examination into their most powerful courtroom weapon. Its Fourth Edition is now available. This first new edition in seven years adds important material on how to use opening statements to pre-sell your cross-examinations, change the focus of the case, and make your best chapters dominate deliberations—plus a full chapter on cross-examining the crying witness. This is the book that changed how cases are tried.
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Defending Sexual Assault Cases: A Comprehensive Trial Manual
Defending Sexual Assault Cases: A Comprehensive Trial Manual is not another sex crimes book—it is a strategic operations plan for dismantling narrative-driven prosecutions, built around how jurors actually decide sex crime cases rather than procedural checklists. It explains the moral risk calculus jurors face, the emotional architecture behind verdicts, and how prosecutors win through narrative stacking rather than proof. Most importantly, it shows you how to give jurors a morally defensible path to acquittal.
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Pozner's Red Book on Cross: Lessons in Advanced Cross-Examination
This compact handbook brings together over 20 of Larry Pozner’s most powerful cross-examination articles, covering core principles and advanced strategies for witness control, impeachment, chaptering, and framing reasonable doubt. Packed with scripting examples, real-world scenarios, and tactical insight, it shows how to press or pivot with purpose, drop weak points, and keep cross disciplined. Whether dismantling an officer’s account, challenging an eyewitness, or exposing investigative gaps, Pozner’s field manual delivers courtroom-ready tools to win.


