John F. Frost

I’m a litigator who represents startups, venture funds, executives, investors, and entrepreneurs in courts and arbitral bodies throughout the country. My clients have ranged from early-stage technology companies to some of the largest companies in the world, from emerging venture funds to tier-one funds, from founders of their first companies to C-suite executives and Silicon Valley titans.

I focus on cases involving founders’ disputes, private-company insider trading and equity disputes, trade-secret misappropriation and employee mobility, and other business disputes, including breach of contract, fraud, and other business torts. I approach my work with pragmatism, focusing on resolving disputes efficiently and on terms that serve my clients’ long-term interests. But I’m always prepared to litigate aggressively when it’s strategically appropriate or otherwise in a client’s interest.

As a result of my firm’s focus on long-term client relationships, my work is split between representing plaintiffs and defendants. In my firm’s first year, I’m proud of securing multiple seven-figure outcomes for clients who were plaintiffs. And I’m equally proud of providing effective and efficient representation that resulted in exceptional resolutions for defense-sided clients in that same period.

I also have unique expertise in representing nonparties subpoenaed in civil and criminal matters—a capability that is particularly important to technology companies seeking to protect confidential business information and preserve user data. And I provide fractional in-house services, including litigation management and strategic legal counsel for early-stage companies.

Before founding Frost LC, I practiced for eight years at Lewis & Llewellyn LLP, one of the premier litigation boutiques in the Bay Area. I also served as a Judicial Fellow for the Honorable Joseph C. Spero, then-Chief Magistrate Judge of the Northern District of California, as a Deputy Attorney General at the California Department of Justice, and as a post-bar Judicial Fellow in the California Superior Court, County of Kern.

I have been named a Northern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine every year since 2021—an honor reserved for 2.5% of U.S. lawyers. I received my Juris Doctor magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School and my Bachelor of Arts in History from UCLA. When I’m not working, I enjoy outdoor adventures, live comedy, baseball, and spending time with my family in San Francisco.