About Scott
Scott Swier earned his undergraduate degree at Mount Marty College before returning to the University of South Dakota School of Law, where he received his J.D. in 1997. While in law school he served as Lead Articles Editor for the South Dakota Law Review in 1996–1997. Those years shaped an early interest in public law and issues that arise at the intersection of government, schools and local entities.
He began his legal career as a law clerk for the South Dakota Unified Judicial System in 1997. The next year he entered private practice, where he handled a range of civil matters. In 2008 he joined state service as an Assistant Attorney General for South Dakota. His time in government included work on an Open Government Task Force in 2007–2008 and other assignments that involved public records and administrative law.
In 2010 he founded Swier Law Office, Prof. LLC and continues in a managing role there. He is admitted to practice in South Dakota and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Over the years he has balanced private work with public-sector representation, advising school districts, municipalities and state entities on legal issues that affect day-to-day operations.
Swier’s professional activities extend into several civic and educational arenas. Since 2011 he has served as an adjunct professor at the University of South Dakota School of Law, teaching a course called "Education and the Law." He has been a member of the Mount Marty College Board of Trustees since 2011 and previously taught criminal law there as an adjunct in 2003–2004. He has been legal counsel to the School Administrators of South Dakota since 2013 and holds a seat on the Council of School Lawyers for the Associated School Boards of South Dakota beginning in 2015. His municipal work is reflected in membership on the South Dakota Municipal League’s Council of Municipal Lawyers, a role he has held since 2010. Earlier civic involvement included chairing South Dakota Voices for Children from 2005 to 2007.
His background includes trial training—the South Dakota Trial Academy lists him as a 2005 graduate—and ongoing participation in state bar committees, including the Law School Committee for the State Bar of South Dakota. He brings this institutional knowledge to the clients he represents. His current practice focuses on education law, municipal law and other public-sector matters.
