Sweta Patel

Sweta Patel
Partner
Contact:
Bar Admissions:

District of Columbia
Florida
United States District Court of Maryland
United States District Court of Columbia

Sweta Patel is a litigation attorney and partner at Bruckheim & Patel, specializing in criminal defense, civil litigation, and family law. She has litigated a wide range of cases, from DUI and assault to drug trafficking and other serious felonies, including sex abuse allegations, robbery, and murder charges.

In her role at Bruckheim & Patel, Ms. Patel works very closely with founding partner Michael Bruckheim, defending cases within the District of Columbia and Maryland. Together, they litigate personal injury cases and have pending lawsuits against police departments for constitutional rights violations.

Ms. Patel is prepared to defend your rights with compassion and strength from overzealous prosecutors and law enforcement. Her extensive trial experience allows her to deftly navigate the D.C. court system while developing the strongest defense strategies possible.

Experience

Prior to joining Bruckheim & Patel, Ms. Patel worked extensively as a criminal defense attorney in the District of Columbia and Florida, representing adults and juveniles facing misdemeanor and felony charges. She formerly worked for a litigation defense firm in the District of Columbia.

She served as an assistant public defender in DC, where she gained significant trial experience with cases that included allegations of various crimes, including attempted murder, sexual assault, gun possession charges, drug trafficking, burglary, robbery, and driving under the influence (DUI).

American University Washington School of Law Adjunct Professor

Ms. Patel is an adjunct professor at American University Washington School of Law, where she teaches Pre-Trial Civil Litigation to law students in their prestigious Trial Advocacy program. She has been a member of their distinguished faculty since the fall of 2020.

WCL’s advocacy program is ranked 4th nationally by U.S. News and World Report and is one of the ten best advocacy programs since 2012. Prior to 2020, Ms. Patel was a coach for American University’s moot court team and engaged in speaking engagements at the American University with the undergraduate criminal justice program.

Continuing Legal Education

In addition to her role as an adjunct professor at American University, Ms. Patel has been invited to educate and instruct attorneys through her continuing legal education seminars through the District of Columbia Bar Association.

She teaches a yearly DUI and Grand Jury seminar series where attorneys can gain knowledge from her expertise in the field. Ms. Patel has received numerous not-guilty verdicts in her DUI cases at trial. She can negotiate favorable resolutions in a vast majority of her cases due to extensive pretrial litigation. She is trained and certified in DWI Detection & Standardized Field Sobriety Testing, the same training and certification officers that testify in DUI/DWI trials undergo.

Criminal Investigations

Ms. Patel is often retained for criminal investigations to minimize risks and exposure for defendants and witnesses while the case is in the pre-charging or grand jury stages. Clients find peace of mind in working with the assurance and knowledge she provides during stressful situations her clients are facing.

In addition, Ms. Patel actively represents college students in Title IV investigations and college administrative hearings. In this role, she acts as an attorney advisor to minimize the academic and criminal risks students may expose themselves to as part of a Title IX investigation or college administrative hearing. She strategizes a detailed and cohesive plan and prepares students, in consultation with their families, to achieve their individual goals for each matter with compassion and patience.

Ms. Patel has conducted over 200 depositions, filed more than 500 motions, and conducted countless hearings and trials throughout her career. Moreover, Ms. Patel has had over 500 cases dismissed based on thorough mitigation or motion practice or through aggressive and deft litigation at trial.

To date, Ms. Patel has handled over 5,000 cases from arraignment to appeal if necessary. As a successful DC DUI lawyer, she has become well-known throughout the community for her zealous advocacy and ability to obtain favorable results in her DUI cases and a variety of criminal cases. She remains an active member of the Criminal Justice Act panel of the D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals, representing indigent clients with appellate matters. Ms. Patel has proudly sat on the CJA panel selection committee board since 2022.

Accolades

Attorney Sweta Patel was awarded the Top 100 Trial Lawyers and Top 40 Under 40 by the National Trial Lawyers in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. She has a perfect 10 rating on Avvo, a website that compiles attorney reviews from peers and clients.

Ms. Patel received the Avvo Client’s Choice Award for DUI and Criminal Defense. In 2017, she was awarded the American Society of Legal Advocates’ prestigious Top 40 Under 40 Criminal Defense Lawyers in DC. She has consistently been selected as a Super Lawyer—40 under 40—yearly since 2018.

Education

Ms. Patel earned her Juris Doctor at the St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, Florida, and graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science from Florida State University. While attending law school, she was a certified legal intern with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and interned with the Honorable Maxine Cohen Lando.

Ms. Patel also served as the symposium editor of the university’s Intercultural Human Rights Law Review, received honors in legal writing and trial advocacy, and played a vital role in the successful bid to elect Florida State Senator Eleanor Sobel (D-Hollywood).

Community

When she is not in the courtroom or hard at work at the office, Ms. Patel can be found dedicating much of her time and her services to various professional and philanthropic organizations, including Street Law Program (D.C. Public School’s Incarcerated Youth Program); Big Brothers Big Sisters; Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia (WBADC); the South Asian Bar Association (SABA); and the Bar Association of the District of Columbia (BADC).

Ms. Patel is barred in the District of Columbia and Florida. She is federally barred by the United States District Court of Maryland and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She is fluent in Gujarati and proficient in Hindi.

If you have been charged with a crime or are under investigation and need a D.C. criminal defense attorney or civil attorney, contact Sweta Patel today by calling 202-930-3464 or sending a confidential message to Patel@BruckLaw.com for a free consultation.

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