Eric Randol Schoenberg (born September 12, 1966) is an American lawyer and

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

, based in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, specializing in legal cases related to the recovery of looted or stolen artworks, particularly those by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime during

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

Patt Morrison Patt Morrison is a journalist, author, and radio-television personality based in Los Angeles and Southern California. Media Morrison is a writer for the ''Los Angeles Times'', with the weekly '' 'Patt Morrison Asks' '' column, and received the ...

"Patt Morrison Asks: E. Randol Schoenberg -- for the gold Klimt"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', March 17, 2012. Schoenberg is widely known as one of the central figures of the 2015 film '' Woman in Gold'', which depicted the case of Maria Altmann against the government of Austria. Schoenberg is portrayed by

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...

Early life

E. Randol Schoenberg was born to a

Jewish American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

family of Austrian Jewish descent in 1966. He is the grandson of two Austrian-Jewish composers:

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

and

Eric Zeisl Erich Zeisl (May 18, 1905 – February 18, 1959) (often spelled Eric) was an Austrian-born American composer. Life and music Born to a middle class Jewish family in Vienna, then capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Zeisl was the son of Kamilla ...

. His parents are Ronald R. Schoenberg and Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg. His grandmother

Gertrud Schoenberg Gertrud Bertha Schoenberg (, Kolisch; pen name, Max Blonda; 11 July 1898 – 14 February 1967) was an Austrian opera librettist. She was the second wife of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, whom she married in 1924, and the sister of his pupil, ...

was the sister of Jewish violinist

Rudolf Kolisch Rudolf Kolisch (July 20, 1896 – August 1, 1978) was a Viennese violinist and leader of string quartets, including the Kolisch Quartet and the Pro Arte Quartet. Early life and education Kolisch was born in Klamm, Schottwien, Lower Austria and r ...

. His aunt Nuria is the widow of the Italian composer

Luigi Nono Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music. Biography Early years Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono beg ...

. His younger sister Marlena Fejzo is a medical scientist. Both "Randol" and "Ronald" (father of E. Randol) are anagrams of "Arnold" (grandfather of E. Randol). Schoenberg graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1988 and graduated with a J.D. degree from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

Legal career

Schoenberg represented Maria Altmann in her suit to obtain five

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's pr ...

paintings from the estate of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer as well as the "Palais", the Viennese house in which the paintings had been housed. Altmann won her case before the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...

against the government of Austria in ''

Republic of Austria v. Altmann ''Republic of Austria v. Altmann'', 541 U.S. 677 (2004), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, or FSIA, applies retroactively. It is one of the most recent cases that deals wi ...

'' in 2004. Schoenberg operated on a

contingent fee A contingent fee (also known as a contingency fee in the United States or a conditional fee in England and Wales) is any fee for services provided where the fee is payable only if there is a favourable result. Although such a fee may be used in man ...

basis and reportedly received 40% of the proceeds from the Klimt paintings, amounting to a legal fee of over $120 million. He used a portion of his fee to fund a new building and expansion of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Schoenberg is featured in the documentary films ''

Stealing Klimt ''Stealing Klimt'' is a 2007 documentary film about Maria Altmann's attempt to recover five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis in 1938, from Austria.http://www.stealingklimt.com ''The Stealing Klimt Story'' from the ''Steal ...

'' and '' Adele's Wish'', which deal with the events surrounding Altmann's case against the government of Austria. He is depicted by

in '' Woman in Gold'', a 2015 feature film dramatizing the case. Schoenberg acted for the defendants-appellants in the case of '' Yahoo! Inc. v. La Ligue Contre Le Racisme et l'Antisemitisme (LICRA)'' 433 F.3d 1199 (9th Ci. 2006), in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 2016, Schoenberg filed suit to obtain the release of the October 2016 search warrant obtained by the FBI against

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

. In 2020, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. District Court's summary judgment ruling for the FBI. As of April 2015, Schoenberg was counsel at the small law firm of Burris, Schoenberg & Walden, LLP, and a lecturer at the

. He previously was an associate of the law firms Fried Frank and Katten Muchin. He was awarded the ''

California Lawyer ''California Lawyer'' was a monthly legal magazine based in San Francisco, California.

'' "Attorney of the Year" award in 2007.

Philanthropy and genealogy

Schoenberg served as president of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust from 2005 to 2015. He is an avid genealogist and serves as a volunteer curator for

Geni.com Geni is an American commercial genealogy and social networking website, founded in 2006, and owned by MyHeritage, an Israeli private company, since November 2012. As of 2021, MyHeritage has kept its genealogical website separate from Geni's webs ...

, one of its most active users, managing over 150,000 profiles. He is a board member of

JewishGen JewishGen is a non-profit organization founded in 1987 as an international electronic resource for Jewish genealogy. In 2003, JewishGen became an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York C ...

and the Co-Founder of its Austria-Czech Special Interest Group. He is the author of the ''Beginner's Guide to Austrian-Jewish Genealogy'' and the co-author of ''Getting Started with Czech-Jewish Genealogy''.

Personal life

Schoenberg resides in Brentwood,

, with his wife, Pamela Mayers Schoenberg. They have two sons and a daughter.

References

External links

Resumé at Burris, Schoenberg & Walden LLP Geni Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoenberg, E. Randol 1966 births American genealogists American people of Austrian-Jewish descent California lawyers Living people People from Brentwood, Los Angeles Princeton University alumni University of Southern California faculty USC Gould School of Law alumni Historians from California Lawyers from Los Angeles