E. Randol Schoenberg gives the inaugural lecture sponsored by Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law’s new endowed Faculty Chair in Legal Ethics and professionalism. The David and Nancy Wolf Program in Ethics and Professional Identity was established at Chase College of Law in 2022 to enhance instruction and programming for tomorrow’s leaders and change makers. Schoenberg is an American lawyer and genealogist, based in Los Angeles, California, specializing in legal cases related to the recovery of looted or stolen artworks, particularly those by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. Schoenberg, a top litigator and the grandson of composer Arnold Schoenberg, succeeded in getting back the “Golden Lady” painting and other works of art after an eight-year struggle against the Austrian government. The film “Woman in Gold” — starring Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, and Katie Holmes — is the true story of Schoenberg’s decision to take on a seemingly hopeless case for a close family friend, Maria Altmann, who was trying to recover six Klimt paintings stolen from her family home in Austria in 1938. Schoenberg presents on this groundbreaking case followed by a conversation with Schoenberg and Professor Jack Harrison, the David and Nancy Wolf Chair in Ethics and Professional Identity at Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law.
Schoenberg is of-counsel and was the co-founding partner of Burris, Schoenberg & Walden, LLP, where he handled a number of complex business litigation matters, specializing in cases involving looted art and the recovery of property stolen by the Nazi authorities during the Holocaust. Schoenberg has tried and argued cases before the United States Supreme Court, Second and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, United States District Court, California Court of Appeal and the Los Angeles Superior Court. During the past decade, he has litigated several prominent cases, including Republic of Austria v. Altmann case. In the Altmann case, he sought return of six famous Klimt paintings to his client. After persuading the United States Supreme Court that Maria Altmann could sue Austria for return of the paintings, he agreed to arbitrate the dispute in Austria.
In January 2006 the arbitration panel decided that the paintings, valued at over $325 million, should be returned to Mrs. Altmann. In 2007, Schoenberg received the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award for outstanding achievement in the field of litigation. He also received the 2006 Jurisprudence Award from the Anti-Defamation League and the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award from the American Jewish Congress.
Schoenberg graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in 1988 and a certificate in European Cultural Studies. In 1991, he received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California.
Sponsored by Cindependent Film Festival and Mayerson JCC. In partnership with the Ohio Innocence Project, the Northern Kentucky Bar Association, the Cincinnati Bar Association, and the Cincinnati Art Museum.
