Schwartz became a lobbyist and legislative consultant on local, state and national issues. He has appeared in the PBS documentary "Vote For Me: Politics in America" (1996) and "Bush's Brain" (2006). Between 1996 and 2005, he taught Legislation and Coastal Zone Management Law at the University of Houston Law Center as an adjunct professor. In 2009, he began teaching Coastal and Ocean Law at the University of Texas School of Law. In September 2008, he was quoted in "The New York Times" on the subject of damage to Galveston from Hurricane Ike and other hurricanes over the years. The 1900 Galveston hurricane that devastated Galveston, he said, was a “message from God.” He explained: “God’s message was, ‘man wasn’t meant to live on no damned island.’” In an Associated Press story after Hurricane Ike about the fact that the 1959 Texas Open Beaches Act, a state law protecting public access to beaches might cause some Galveston-area homes to be seized by the state, Schwartz said, ""We're talking about damn fools that have built houses on the edge of the sea for as long as man could remember and against every advice anyone has given." That story, in turn, led to an attack on Schwartz by radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who said, "You know, folks, it’s one thing to be smacked by a natural disaster; it’s quite another to have to be smacked around by the government that you’re looking to for help." His oral history for the Texas Legacy Project is featured on the project's site and in a 2010 book published from those interviews.