Patrick J. Schiltz graduated summa cum laude from the College of St. Scholastica and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After serving as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Schiltz practiced law at Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis. Schiltz left private practice in 1995 to join the faculty of Notre Dame Law School, where he taught Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Sports Law. While at Notre Dame, Schiltz wrote "On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession," one of the most widely read law-review articles ever published. The Vanderbilt Law Review made the article the focus of a symposium, and the Washington Post identified the article as one of nine works that every law student should read. In 2000, Schiltz left Notre Dame to become the founding associate dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Schiltz had primary responsibility for almost every significant aspect of creating the new law school, from hiring the faculty to designing the building. In 2002, Schiltz was named the St. Thomas More Chair in Law, the first endowed chair at the School of Law.

Schiltz was nominated to the federal bench by President George W. Bush on December 14, 2005, and his nomination was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on April 26, 2006. From 1997 to 2006, Schiltz served as the Reporter to the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. Among those who served on the Committee during Schiltz's tenure were then Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. and then Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. In 2010, Chief Justice Roberts appointed Schiltz and then Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Judicial Conference's Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure. In 2020, Chief Justice Roberts appointed Schiltz to serve as Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence.