Bryn Swartz | Glen Allen Workers' Compensation Lawyer

Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Bryn Swartz, Esq. founded Pathfinder Injury Law out of a desire to start a law firm that could truly address the individual needs of each client. Bryn has dedicated his legal career to the practice of workers’ compensation. He understands being injured at work is frightening, confusing, and intimidating.

Bryn has handled hundreds of workers’ compensation cases and brings a unique perspective to his practice as a workers’ compensation attorney. Although he has spent years representing the interests of injured workers, he learned the ropes by representing insurance companies and employers in workers’ compensation cases. Bryn knows the tricks insurance companies play because he used to play them himself. He knows how to navigate the challenges that can jeopardize even straightforward workers’ compensation cases. Bryn Swartz began his law career as a prosecutor handling online child exploitation cases. After leaving the public sector, he joined a Richmond workers' compensation firm representing injured workers. Thereafter, he went to work for a defense firm, where he represented insurance companies and employers in workers’ compensation cases. This time doing defense work led Bryn to realize his values and passion were in helping people, not denying them. He thus joined a firm in Richmond again representing injured workers, where he honed his practice of workers’ compensation law before founding Pathfinder Injury Law.

Bryn graduated from Randolph-Macon College cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in the top 7% of his class. He then earned his Juris Doctor magna cum laude from the University of Richmond School of Law in 2011, graduating in the top 11% percent of his class. He is a member of various associations and is well-known amongst his peers in the Virginia workers’ compensation bar.

Outside the firm, Bryn has a wide variety of hobbies and interests. His passion is mountain biking, and he also enjoys playing with his dogs, cooking, traveling, wasting time watching YouTube videos, and spending time with his family.

Lawyer.com Member Questionnaire

Please describe a case(s) in the last year or two where you made a big difference.
An auto mechanic came to us after being injured at work when he moved a heavy tire and felt a pop in his back. He had a previous back injury, and it turned out he had herniated a disc in his spine. His doctor took him out of work, so he was losing wages and incurring medical bills. After conservative treatment failed to resolve his symptoms, he was scheduled for a spinal fusion surgery. He had no idea how to proceed with his workers' compensation claim. We got involved and right off the bat got the insurance company to start paying him wage loss checks and paying his medical bills. We got him under a legal award for workers' compensation benefits. When the insurance company inevitably started pushing back, we filed the appropriate claims for benefits, got a hearing scheduled, conducted discovery, and ultimately forced the insurance company into settlement negotiations. We ended up settling the case without having to go to trial for almost a quarter million dollars. From no idea how to proceed to a sizeable settlement in less than eight months, we made a considerable difference in this case.

How did you build a successful practice?
When life gives you cow manure, form a family business turning it into fertilizer and selling it for a profit.

I was employed as a claimant-side workers' compensation attorney at one of the biggest workers' comp firms in the state. Suits, ties, shiny offices, lots of paralegals, TV ads, all that. I settled countless cases and made many hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of dollars for the firm. I was really good at my job. A partner at the firm told me they’d “hired me to retire me.”

But that's not the interesting part. Anyone can make money.

In August 2019, my wife and I were due to have our first child, a baby boy. The firm I worked at went through the steps of allowing me to plan paternity leave, sent me a congratulatory email, and then - having planned it for some time - proceeded to lay me off by email as we sat in the surgery prep room three minutes before we were wheeled back for the C-section.

And so, on August 30, 2019, two babies were born: one human, and one corporate. My wife and I started Pathfinder Injury Law sitting in the hospital room after my wife's C-section. Between nurses coming in, feeding the baby, trying to not have a panic attack about being a new father with no means to support my family, and trying to find time to sleep anytime we could, we completed the charter paperwork, figured out case transfers, lined up insurance, and otherwise set about starting the next chapter of our life adventure together.

Since forming Pathfinder we have worked tirelessly as a family business to advocate for the rights of injured workers all while building our business and also raising our child fully hands-on. My wife is the firm administrator/paralegal and at the same time as she does that, she is also finishing her bachelor's degree at University of Richmond. She will one day join me as an attorney at Pathfinder.

Yet our origin story is not the only interesting part about our firm. We are really good at what we do. Mandy and I both have a long background in workers' comp. We offer expert guidance and deliver uncommonly excellent results to our clients. Since August 2019, we have recovered approximately $1.6 million in settlements for our clients, not to speak of the uncounted medical bill payments, indemnity benefits, etc... we have also obtained. We maintain a 5-star rating on Google and Facebook with glowing praise from former clients and people who know or work with us.

We work constantly and continuously to grow Pathfinder not for our own pecuniary benefit or the benefit of our clients, but also so we can build the life we dreamed of for us and our family. After being inhumanely cast aside by an “establishment” firm, we are building a new paradigm of what a law firm can be. Not just a soul-crushing profit machine, but something that is actually a force of good for our clients, their families, our family, and the people we work with.

We run Pathfinder on our terms, without regard for “the way it’s done.” We don't wear suits and ties. We don't have shiny offices or a big support staff. When we meet with a client, we’re probably going to be in shorts. Uncomfortable shoes don’t make you a better lawyer, and if you need a shiny office to make people respect you, you’re probably not very good at your job. We don't have to fake pomp and circumstance to make our clients think we're good. We do that by treating them with respect and delivering the most attentive representation and the most excellent results possible under the circumstances in every single case.

We are building not only a business, but also a lifestyle for our family. We are showing our son by example that the old saw about lemons and lemonade is great, but in

• Member | Virginia State Bar
  Member | Virginia Trial Lawyers Association
  Member | Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group

• SuperLawyers - Rising Stars - 2021
  
  Top Attorney in Virginia – Workers’ Compensation, Client Satisfaction - 2018

• McCarter v. Philip Morris USA
  Held that communications between independent medical examiners and the attorneys that hire them can be disclosed subject to subpoena and are not protected by the attorney work product doctrine.

• Frequent contributor to VTLA questions and answers.

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