They’ve Got Next: The 40 Under 40 - Jonathan Schneller of O’Melveny

Please describe two of your most substantial, recent wins in practice.
In announcing his judgment limiting the State of Oklahoma to 2.6 percent of the $17.5 billion it sought in the first opioids lawsuit to go to trial, the trial judge cited separation-of-powers concerns that my team identified in our defense of Johnson & Johnson. We spent many late nights identifying the flaws in the state’s unprecedent public-nuisance theories and it was gratifying to see that work yield concrete results. The arguments we developed are now the backbone of J&J’s appeal in Oklahoma and its defenses against radical public-nuisance theories nationwide.

I was also pleased to help Kia defend its defeat of class certification on appeal in a case alleging a design defect. It was a career highlight to have a Sixth Circuit panel including Judge Sutton—one of the judges I most admire—adopt our arguments across-the-board.

What is the most important lesson you learned as a first-year attorney and how does it inform your practice today?
As a first-year attorney, I was fresh out of appellate clerkships and had a high opinion of my skills. I was surprised and intimidated to find more experienced attorneys regularly rewriting my work. Over time, I learned that success in law requires patience and a growth mindset—that those revisions and corrections were lessons, not failures. And as those small lessons accumulated over years, my legal abilities grew exponentially. Even a decade out of law school with dozens of briefs under my belt, every day is still a lesson—I’m an infinitely stronger lawyer than I was a year ago and will be stronger still a year from now. I love this profession precisely because it offers endless occasions for learning. That viewpoint drives my approach to mentoring and training. I pepper the younger lawyers on my teams with constructive feedback and always remind them not to compare themselves to more experienced attorneys. The key to growing as a lawyer is to focus on the work in front of you and treat every case and every assignment as a learning opportunity.

How do you define success in your practice?
The cases I work on tend to involve novel, complex, and high-stakes legal issues that defy swift or easy resolution. Rather than gauge my performance by outcomes on a scorecard, I focus on my clients’ big-picture goals—their long-term term legal interests, reputational concerns, and business goals. My clients want—and deserve—an advocate who prioritizes their business, who understands what keeps them up at night, and who executes a legal strategy focused not just on the next motion or the next case but on their long-term objectives. In short, my clients want to be heard. I succeed when my clients feel that I’ve approached their most pressing legal and reputational issues as if they were my own.

What are you most proud of as a lawyer?
As a lawyer, I have both the opportunity and responsibility to promote greater equity and inclusiveness in my profession and community. At O’Melveny, I’ve focused on recruiting and mentoring diverse young associates, entrusting them with meaningful work, peppering them with constructive feedback, and ensuring they receive credit when they excel. O’Melveny encourages associates to anonymously review their supervisors, and I’m proudest and most gratified by my work when associates share that they feel part of an inclusive team that allows them to grow and contribute.

Outside the firm, I’ve worked to bring that same commitment to underrepresented students as a member of the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League. I was fortunate to have had early success as a high school and college debater, and I know the life-changing skills, passions, and opportunities that this experience can unlock. The LAMDL builds debate programs and sponsors tournaments for thousands of public high school students from low-income and immigrant backgrounds in Los Angeles public schools. I am proud to recruit judges for those tournaments, raise funds for the organization, and watch talented students take their early steps on the road to becoming future leaders and engaged citizens.

Who is your greatest mentor in the law and what have they taught you?
I’ve had many great mentors, but none set the bar for me higher than U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. Anyone who has witnessed her in action knows that she is razor-sharp and always several steps ahead of even the elite practitioners on the receiving end of her questions. As one of her clerks during her second term on the Court, I felt like a 1L all over again. She was uncompromising in her preparation, unwavering in her standards, and incisive in her questions to her four clerks. Working with her through the Supreme Court’s docket taught me to set appropriately high expectations for myself and others. I now do my best to model that same rigor and intellectual discipline to the young associates I work with. In that way, her extraordinary influence on me (and her other clerks) will ripple through the legal profession and influence countless careers.

Just for fun, tell us your two favorite songs on your summer music playlist.
One song I’ve had on repeat while editing briefs this summer is the Vijay Iyer Trio’s jazz cover of “Human Nature” by Michael Jackson. It’s a beautiful piece of artsy 80s nostalgia that could have been custom-made for me in a laboratory.

I’ve also really enjoyed the song “2100” by Run the Jewels. It is powerful protest music that resonates more strongly after what the country has been through recently. I’ve been a fan of both members of the group since college, and their huge success is a nice affirmation that talented people can do their best work in their 40s.