Joe B. Swart concentrates his practice on defending hospitals, physicians, physicians’ assistants, nurses and nurse practitioners. He specializes in every aspect of complex medical malpractice litigation, including obstetrical, gynecological oncology, brain injury and surgical cases, often successfully obtaining an early dismissal or facilitating a defendant’s verdict at trial. 

Prior to entering private legal practice, Joe was a prosecutor in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, where he spearheaded long-term criminal investigations into narcotics and firearms trafficking cartels, including the Latin Kings and other gangs. His investigations received attention from national media, including Court TV, The New York Times and HBO. In addition, Joe was a recurring commentator on Court TV (TruTV), providing expert legal analysis of high-profile criminal cases. 

Areas of Focus

Medical Malpractice Defense
Joe is experienced in managing all aspects of medical malpractice defense litigation, from initial investigation and serving pleadings and demands, through the process of conferencing with experts and counseling clients ahead of deposition, to the conclusion by a voluntary discontinuance, summary judgment motion, reasonable settlement or trial. 

The clients Joe serves include physicians, health care providers, hospitals and nursing homes in all types of cases ranging from labor and delivery and gynecological, to orthopedic surgery, to infectious disease, cancer, surgery and nephrology, to emergency medicine, hematology, radiology, bed sores and more.

    Education

    • New York Law School (J.D., 1996)
    • Auburn University (B.A., 1993)

    Bar Admissions

    • New York

    Professional Affiliations

    • New York Bar Association
    • New York County Bar Association
    • New York State Medical Defense Bar Association

    Awards & Honors

    Selected for inclusion in New York Metro Super Lawyers® Rising Stars™ in the Personal Injury Medical Malpractice category, 2025

Joe B. Swart

Joe B. Swart concentrates his practice on defending hospitals, physicians, physicians’ assistants, nurses and nurse practitioners. He specializes in every aspect of complex medical malpractice litigation, including obstetrical, gynecological oncology, brain injury and surgical cases, often successfully obtaining an early dismissal or facilitating a defendant’s verdict at trial. 

Prior to entering private legal practice, Joe was a prosecutor in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, where he spearheaded long-term criminal investigations into narcotics and firearms trafficking cartels, including the Latin Kings and other gangs. His investigations received attention from national media, including Court TV, The New York Times and HBO. In addition, Joe was a recurring commentator on Court TV (TruTV), providing expert legal analysis of high-profile criminal cases. 

Joe B. Swart

Swart Obtains Defense Verdict for Internal Medicine Physician

Joe B. Swart (Partner-New York, NY) successfully defended an attending physician in a Brooklyn nursing and rehabilitation facility who treated the plaintiff’s 78-year-old decedent, who was admitted with a diagnosis of cancer in preparation for two rounds of adjunct chemotherapy. Our client was not present when the lab result showing a highly elevated WBC count was received via facsimile on a Friday evening and he could not be immediately contacted. There was no evidence in the chart reflecting that anyone at the facility reviewed or acted on the lab result until our client returned on Sunday morning, at which time he called an ambulance to transfer the decedent to the hospital, but she coded before arrival. Our client performed CPR, but the decedent expired. At trial, Joe showed that there was a system in place for treatment of patients when the attending physician was away. This included “boots on the ground” coverage by a Nurse Practitioner present at the facility over the weekend, and a “coverage system” whereby a doctor was on-call to the facility 24/7. Unfortunately, these resources failed to back up our client. In his summation, plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury for $900,000 in total damages. After deliberating for just over one hour, the jury returned the verdict, finding “no” to all departure questions.

Joe B. Swart

Privacy Settings
Your Privacy Choices
We value your privacy. Under privacy laws in your jurisdiction, you have the right to control how your personal information is used, including the right to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. You may also limit the use of your sensitive personal information.

Below, you can review and adjust your cookie and data sharing preferences. For more information about how we use your data, please see our Privacy Policy.

Your Rights and Choices

Opt Out of Sale or Sharing: You may opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for advertising and analytics purposes by turning off Advertising & Targeting Cookies. We will honor your choice and will not sell or share your personal information for these purposes unless you enable these cookies again. Wilson Elser does not sell or share personal information in any other manner.

Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: If we collect sensitive personal information, you may limit its use to only what is necessary to provide requested services by adjusting your preferences here. Please contact privacy@wilsonelser.com with any questions.

Global Privacy Control: We honor browser-based opt-out signals, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC). If we detect such a signal, your opt-out preference will be automatically applied.
These cookies are essential for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually set in response to actions made by you, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in, or filling in forms.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They may be set through our site by us or our analytics partners to understand your interests and deliver more relevant content to you. If you do not allow these cookies, we will not know when you have visited our site