Philip A. Schnayerson

Super Lawyers, San Francisco Magazine 2005-2008 and 2014–2020.

President of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice 2002

In 1986, the state of California and Los Angeles city attorney, James K. Hahn brought charges of obscenity against Eric Boucher, more commonly known as Jello Biafra, lead singer of the band the Dead Kennedys. The band's recently released album, Frankenchrist, came with a poster of the painting Penis Landscape, by the academy-award-winning Swiss artist, H. R. Giger, whose work Schnayerson argued was “legitimate.” Boucher was accused of distributing harmful material to a minor after a complaint from a San Fernando Valley woman whose 14 and 11-year-old children came into possession of the album and poster. The case was concerned with freedom of speech as well as the responsibilities a recording artist might have in creating records for an audience that could include minors. Schnayerson argued that if artists were held liable for any material that might fall into the hands of minors, “that everyone will have to adhere to [that] standard and that adults would be reduced to reading and seeing things that would be acceptable only for minors.” Schnayerson also argued that the poster's intent was not to arouse but to act as sociological commentary. The album bore a sticker with a warning.

Having become a Certified Criminal Law Specialist in 1975, Schnayerson established a private criminal law practice in 1978.

Board of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice 1975-1976

Board Certified Specialist, Criminal Law, State Bar of California 1975–present

Schnayerson married Elizabeth Sher on December 17, 1967. They have two children and five grandchildren and currently reside in Oakland, California. He is an avid long-distance cyclist and has, amongst other endurance cycling events, completed the Markleeville Death Ride annually for the past three decades.

In 1965, Schnayerson moved to California to serve as a VISTA volunteer, working in San Francisco on the S.F. Bail Project until 1967. In 1968, he joined a labor law firm but soon left civil law to join the Alameda County Public Defender's Office in 1969. As an Alameda County public defender, Schnayerson defended many University of California students arrested for protesting the Viet Nam War in 1971. In 1976, Schnayerson left the Alameda County office to join the newly created California State Public Defender's Office.  While there he worked on appeals, prison trials and serious offender hearings when the determinate sentence law came into effect. He remained in the California State Public Defender's Office until 1978.

Philip A. Schnayerson (born October 31, 1940, in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American criminal defense attorney.

Philip A. Schnayerson was born in the industrial town of Paterson, New Jersey in 1940. He attended Paterson East Side High School and Rutgers University, from which he graduated in 1962. He went on to study law at New York University Law School, where he earned his JD in 1965.