Richard H. Schoenberger has enjoyed remarkable success in his 38-year legal career. His outstanding skills and presence in the courtroom have made him one of the most highly respected trial lawyers in California. In honor of his achievements in the courtroom, Rich was inducted as the 37th member of the California Lawyers Association Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame in August of 2024.
In an article printed in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, an opponent was quoted as follows: “Schoenberger is everything that a good plaintiff’s lawyer should be: ethical, professional and smart, and he works hard.”
At various times he has held or shared the record for the largest verdict in particular case types in San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo and Sonoma Counties. He has tried to verdict or settled well over 100 cases for a million dollars or more, including more than 30 eight figure cases. In August of 2023, Rich’s clients received a $16.1 million verdict against the State of California, Department of Transportation, believed to be the largest personal injury verdict in Sonoma County history. In the last few years alone, Rich has resolved individual cases for $50 million, $25 million, $23.3 million, $20 million, $19 million and $18.5 million. His recent $24.5 million recovery is considered one of the largest known settlements of a medical malpractice case in California history. In the past ten years alone, Rich has achieved results, either through verdict or settlement, that total more than $500,000,000.
In December of 2022, Rich received the prestigious Don E. Bailey Award given to a distinguished San Francisco ABOTA member who continually exemplifies civility, professionalism, and integrity in the practice of the law while always vigorously, courageously and expertly advocating his clients’ causes. Most recently, Rich was named one of Daily Journal’s 2023 Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California, recognizing his exceptional trial advocacy and placing him among the state’s most accomplished legal professionals.
Rich has been selected Best Lawyers in America Plaintiffs “Lawyer of the Year” in the San Francisco area four separate times – in 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2024 – twice for Personal Injury Litigation and twice for Medical Malpractice Litigation. Only a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year”. Rich has been nominated several times and selected as the Trial Lawyer of the Year by the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, and in 2021 was a finalist for Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Marin Trial Lawyers Association. He has been recognized as one of the “Top 100” lawyers in Northern California for the past 12 years, is “AV” peer review rated by Martindale-Hubbell, has been included in the national publication The Best Lawyers in America for the past 18 years and has been a Super Lawyer in Northern California for every year the designation has existed. For the past three years, he has been selected as one of the top 500 Lawyers in America by Lawdragon. In 2021, Rich was named to The American Lawyer’s list of West Trailblazers for his impactful resolutions that resulted in policy and design changes which improved public safety.
Owing to his many achievements in the courtroom, Rich is an invited member of the most prestigious trial lawyer organizations in the country: The International Academy of Trial Lawyers; the American College of Trial Lawyers, where he serves as the Northern California State Committee’s Chair; the International Society of Barristers, where he serves on the Foundation Board; and the American Board of Trial Advocates, where he served as President for the San Francisco Chapter during its 50th Anniversary year.
As a highly sought after trial advocacy teacher on a national and international level since the early 1990s, a partial list of where Rich has been invited to teach includes the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law; the Judicial Council of California’s Judicial Studies Program; dozens of programs for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy; Emory Law School’s renowned Kessler-Eidson Trial Techniques Program in Atlanta, Georgia; the Republic of Georgia where he taught advocacy to 24 selected attorneys whose government had only recently allowed the right to a jury trial; Northern Ireland solicitors in Belfast; and trial lawyers in Sarajevo. This year, Rich was an invited faculty member of the ABOTA National Trial College at Yale Law School.
After graduating from Santa Clara University in 1982, Rich attended the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He began practice in 1985 as a Deputy District Attorney in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted serious felonies. He joined the Walkup office in August of 1987, became a partner in 1995 and a named partner in 2005.
Since 2013, Rich has taught Mock Trial and other subjects at Bridge the Gap, a wonderful Marin City school designed to prepare at-risk youths for high school and college. For years before that, Rich served as CYO Athletic Director at St. Patrick’s in Larkspur and as Minor League Rep for the Twin Cities’ Little League Board of Directors. Rich also used to be found on some field or court, having coached more than 30 of his three kids’ teams. All three went on to play four years of Division I volleyball or baseball where they were coached by people who, unlike their dad, knew what they were talking about.
