Litigator/Trial Lawyer, Technology and Intellectual Property
Palo Alto, CA

Claude Stern is a 40+ year trial lawyer focusing on technology, intellectual property and complex civil disputes. Claude’s clients range from Fortune 50 companies to cutting-edge start-ups. Since 2003, he has served as Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice Group of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, the world’s largest litigation-only law firm. For more than 20 years, Claude has been repeatedly recognized as a leading national and international legal expert in intellectual property disputes, and has tried precedent-setting cases in all areas of intellectual property. Throughout his career, he has taught and lectured nationally and internationally on various intellectual property and litigation-related topics. Claude has been a lecturer in the Trial Advocacy Course at Stanford Law School for 28 years.

Claude was managing partner of Quinn Emanuel’s Silicon Valley office for 12 years, overseeing its growth from 10 lawyers to more than 50 lawyers.
Claude was born in Syracuse, New York to parents who emigrated to the United States from Switzerland after World War II. He attended UCLA, majoring in Philosophy, and attended UC Hastings College of Law, graduating Order of the Coif.

Claude has been active locally and nationally in the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for almost 40 years. His family has been active in the peace movement in Israel for decades.

Claude and his wife Andrea have lived in Palo Alto for 25 years and have two sons, both of whom graduated from Brown University and work in San Francisco.