Buzz Frahn is Of Counsel in the Firm’s Litigation Department. His practice focus was on complex trials, particularly in intellectual property, antitrust and commercial litigation. With nearly 25 years representing technology, telecommunications, financial services and life sciences companies, clients look to Buzz for his unique ability to synthesize complicated, challenging and difficult-to-understand information into a compelling narrative that persuades judges and juries.
Buzz has first-chaired multiple jury trials. He has tried numerous complex, high technology cases, including trial wins for Cisco and other clients in patent cases tried to verdict. Buzz regularly represents Bumble, Cisco, Intel, Qualcomm, SAP, Spotify, Xilinx and other leading companies in patent, trademark and other litigation.
His antitrust experience includes a number of cases for technology clients, including achieving favorable results for Micron, Elpida, Chimei and HannStar in criminal and multi-district civil litigation relating to alleged price-fixing conspiracies. Buzz also represents leading investment banks and private equity funds.
Buzz is consistently recognized as a National “Litigation Star” for Intellectual Property by Euromoney’s Benchmark Litigation and The Legal 500. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a top IP trial lawyer for Northern California.
Representative experience includes:
- Micron, Innolux, HannStar and Elpida in criminal and multi-district civil litigation relating to alleged cartels in the LCD and computer memory industries.
- Bumble, Cisco, Qualcomm, SAP, Spotify, Xilinx and many other leading high-tech companies in patent and trademark litigation throughout the United States.
- Daiichi Sankyo, Human Genome Sciences and other leading life sciences companies in complex patent litigation.
Buzz is passionate about social justice issues and has been one of the Simpson Thacher partners leading the Firm’s efforts to ensure access to justice for those impacted by the Administration’s executive orders on immigration. Buzz has been providing pro bono representation of immigrants and refugees affected by the orders, including filing amicus briefs, obtaining relief for specific immigrants who have been trapped outside the U.S. or at the borders, and partnering with a range of civil rights and human rights organizations.
He is the past President of the Board of Legal Aid at Work, the oldest legal aid organization in the West, whose mission is economic justice for low-income populations. Legal Aid at Work has partnered with Simpson Thacher to bring high-impact class action litigation to help low-income middle school and high school girls get fair access to sports. The collaboration has secured major Title IX changes that ensure gender equity for facilities programs and resources. For his pro bono work, Buzz has been recognized with the Pro Bono Advocate award from Legal Services for Children.
A frequent speaker on patent litigation, intellectual property, legal ethics and complex commercial litigation topics, Buzz has addressed many audiences, including the Silicon Valley Association of General Counsel All Hands Meeting, PLI’s Open Source Software Conference, and the Forum on Patent Litigation Reform, in conjunction with the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.
Buzz was one of the founding members of the Simpson Thacher Palo Alto office, when the firm launched its Silicon Valley practice in 1999. He began practicing law in Simpson Thacher’s New York office. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia in 1989 and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he is a member of the Law School Board of Directors. He is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of California and New York, in the 2nd, 9th and Federal Circuits, and before the U.S. Supreme Court.