Richard Schoenberger

Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger

Richard Schoenberger Personal Injury Lawyer

Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger

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Firm Summary

Richard H. Schoenberger has enjoyed remarkable success in his 37 year legal career. His outstanding skills and presence in the courtroom have made him one of the most highly respected trial lawyers in California.

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 and San Mateo Counties. Eleven of his many jury verdicts have been for at least one million dollars and most have been for multiple millions, including eight figures. In the last year alone, Rich resolved individual cases for $20 million, $18.5 million, $19 million and $24.5 million, with the last constituting the largest known settlement of a medical malpractice case in California history. In the past five years alone, Rich has achieved results, either through verdict or settlement, that total more than $325 million, including more than 40 million and multi-million dollar recoveries. He has tried to verdict or settled well over 100 cases for a million dollars or more, including more than 20 eight figure cases.

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.

Rich has been selected Best Lawyers in America Plaintiffs “Lawyer of the Year” in the San Francisco area three separate times – in 2016, 2019 and 2022 – twice for Personal Injury Litigation and once 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.