Dennis A. Schoville

Chairman of the Board

A native of Richland Center, Wis., Dennis Schoville joined the U.S. Army after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and trained as a helicopter pilot. While serving in Vietnam, he was awarded two Silver Stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts, along with several other Air Medals and service awards.

Following his medical retirement from active duty at the rank of captain, Schoville earned a law degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1973, and a master’s degree in law at Northwestern University in 1974. For the next 23 years, Schoville was an associate and then partner at San Diego’s biggest law firm, Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye, and later with Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich.

He established the firm of Schoville & Arnell, LLP, in 1997 which obtained record-setting verdicts. His primary areas of practice focused on personal injury, product liability, medical malpractice, and insurance law. Schoville is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a Past President of the American Board of Trial Advocates – San Diego Chapter, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. In 2021, Schoville was the fourth San Diego County civil trial lawyer ever, to be inducted into the California Trial Lawyers Association (Ca. State Bar) Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame. There are less than 40 inductees to date.

Schoville is a Life Member of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, a past national general counsel, secretary and board member of the Distinguished Flying Cross Society, and a past director of the San Diego Veterans’ Museum and Memorial Center where he chaired the Combat/Military Nurse Support Project.

Schoville also served six terms on the Board of Directors of Alzheimer’s San Diego, and twelve terms as a Trustee of the Jamul-Dulzura School Board including multiple terms as President.