Tasha Schwikert has only been practicing law for five years, but she has clearly made a significant impact in her short time as a lawyer.
Part of her success springs from the reason she pursued a law career in the first place. A former gymnast who won a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics, Schwikert said she decided to become a lawyer to fight the systematic abuse and gender discrimination she witnessed firsthand both within specific sports organizations and throughout the industry.
She first experienced this as one of 500 survivors of Larry Nassar, the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor and perpetrator of the largest sexual abuse scandal in sports history.
After college, she noticed it again as an agent representing Olympic athletes. Schwikert said male athletes were paid more for endorsements than females and that women’s contracts with sponsors took longer to complete.
“I realized that I needed to go to law school so I could do the contracts myself,” Schwikert said. “I attended law school in my late twenties so I could have the skills necessary to spearhead change within sports organizations … and to create a more equal environment for female athletes.”
Fast-forward several years and Schwikert, 35, is putting her law degree from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas to good use. Beyond her day job brokering multimillion-dollar deals at technology-focused law firm Munck Wilson Mandala, Schwikert spends her time advocating for fellow Nassar survivors and other victims of sexual assault and promoting diversity and inclusion within the legal profession. Plus, she’s a mother to two young children.
“The work that I do with the survivor committee is one of the most impactful things I’ve done. While I’m a lawyer, I’m also one of the plaintiffs. It’s an interesting spot to be in.”
The Dallas Business Journal is honoring Schwikert as one of its 40 under 40, which recognizes 40 North Texas men and women under the age of 40 who are making a mark in their professions and the Dallas-Fort Worth community.
Schwikert serves as co-chair for a special committee formed to aid Nassar’s survivors and to unify their interests in the ongoing bankruptcy and litigation involving USA Gymnastics, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and others.
“Being able to be a voice for the approximately 500 survivors is just incredible,” Schwikert said. “Most don’t have a legal background, so navigating through this is challenging … The work that I do with the survivor committee is one of the most impactful things I’ve done. While I’m a lawyer, I’m also one of the plaintiffs. It’s an interesting spot to be in.”
Schwikert is also an advocate for sexual assault victims as legislatures across the nation reexamine their statutes of limitations for child sex abuse victims. Last May, Schwikert testified before the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee, which would eventually pass a bill extending the statute of limitations from 15 years after the victim’s 18th birthday to 30 years.
Schwikert said there’s still more work to be done. While Texans now have until their 48th birthday to sue for childhood sexual abuse, studies have shown that the average age to speak out is 52. And while the new bill does apply to organizations, it got close to only applying to individual perpetrators.
“There are several states that have no statute of limitations for those sex crimes, so at the next legislative sessions hopefully that’s something they’re talking about,” Schwikert said.
“Children who participate in a sport or any type of youth organization should be able to be kids and feel like they’re safe with the adults who are running the organization, and shouldn’t feel like they need to be in fear of being abused,” she added. “At a very basic level it’s child safety.”
At Munck Wilson Mandala’s offices in North Dallas, you can find Schwikert most days handling mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions for clients in the construction, real estate and technology industries.
Just after joining the firm last August, Schwikert helped handle a lucrative merger between LLR Partners and Munck Wilson client Geoforce, a Plano-based provider of traceability solutions for field equipment and vehicles. The complex deal closed on an accelerated time schedule, which caused about four months of work to be compressed into two-and-a-half, Schwikert said.
“We worked late nights and weekends, but it was an amazing experience,” she said. “The whole team jumped in the trenches. I was excited for [Geoforce] because not even a decade ago, they were just a startup. They were just regular people starting a business and finally it’s payday for them.”
Through her unique experience as an elite athlete, Schwikert also plays a significant role in building her firm’s new sports law practice. Although the firm is still in the early stages of developing the practice, Schwikert said the NCAA’s decision to let college athletes profit from their names and likeness will be a hot area for legal work in the near future.
(Editor’s Note: Tasha Schwikert is one of the honorees for Dallas Business Journal’s 2020 40 Under 40 Awards. The Texas Lawbook wrote this piece as part of its content partnership with the DBJ. Keep an eye out for additional 40 Under 40 profiles as the awards event on March 12 nears. For more information on the event, click here.)