Soccer Player David Swift Gives Age the Boot

Whether it’s on the field or in the courtroom, David Swift isn’t one to shy away from competition.

Soccer, in fact, has served as a healthy outlet for the local litigator, who claims being a lawyer is similar to sports because there are winners and losers.

Swift hopes to be on the winning side in December when he heads to Santiago, Chile for the Maccabiah Pan American Games as a member of the USA Masters (35 or older) soccer team. The criteria are simple: you have to meet the age requirement, you have to be Jewish and you have to be good.

“Sometimes after a long day at work I need to go kick somebody,” Swift jokes. “In soccer, just like in law, you have to like the competition and I like to push myself.”

Along with approximately 50 other Los Angeles-area players, Swift participated in tryouts at Loyola Marymount University in April and he was one of only 22 players across the country selected to the U.S. squad, which also has a large New York contingent and several players from the Midwest and Florida.

Swift is a partner at Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert, an entertainment law firm in Santa Monica that is currently representing the estate of Michael Jackson and Frank Darabont and CAA in their “The Walking Dead” profit participation case against AMC. Swift’s recent clients have included pop singer Mariah Carey, American Idol co-creator Simon Fuller, the Free City clothing brand and Suburban Noize Music.

In 2013, as a result of his entertainment litigation work, Swift was named as one of Hollywood’s New Leaders by Variety Magazine. Swift is also very involved in the Los Angeles County Bar Association, currently serving on its Board of Trustees, its Judicial Appointments Committee, and on the Executive Committee of the Litigation Section. Swift also served as the President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Barristers.

In 2011, Swift was named to the New Leaders Council’s “40 Under 40” (a national award recognizing 40 progressive leaders under the age of 40) for his work as President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Barristers.

Swift has played soccer since he could walk and at the age of 36 he still plays at a high level – largely because he’s been able to avoid serious injuries. He has kept his skills sharp by playing in his regular Sunday league and in a 7-on-7 league on Tuesdays at Santa Monica airport.

Over the years he’s also played in the Metro, East L.A. and South Bay Sports leagues, all of which his teams won.

“I consider myself lucky that I’m still playing but it gets harder every year to keep up with the young guys,” he says. “It takes a lot longer to recover from the nicks and bruises now.”

Swift played collegiately at Pomona-Pitzer in Claremont, a Division III program. He went to law school at USC, graduating in 2004.

For the last eight years he has played twice a week in the City of Santa Monica League and his current team, FC Equinox, consists entirely of former college players, several of whom played professionally.

The midfielder-turned-defender grew up in the Bay Area, starting in AYSO and joining the Sunnyvale Alliance club team in Palo Alto in middle school.

“I was a pretty scrawny kid, a late bloomer, and while I played baseball and soccer growing up, I was always better at soccer,” says Swift, who moved to Marquez Knolls with his wife Julie four years ago. The couple’s 3-year-old daughter Hannah is a preschooler at Kehillat Israel.

“We’re starting my daughter in Super Soccer Stars at Temescal Park this fall, so maybe she’ll follow in her dad’s footsteps,” says Swift, who was in town for the Fourth of July this year and watched the fireworks from his house.

The Pan American Games will run from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5 and will feature over 3,000 athletes from 15 countries. The U.S. team will travel to Phoenix in October for a tournament against other international teams.

“This will be my first international competition since I went to Canada when I was 15,” Swift says. “I’m really looking forward to it, although I have to use my vacation time with my family to go. Brazil is supposed to be the best team, but hopefully we can represent well.”

— Steve Galluzzo