Claudia Wilson Frost is a partner in the Houston office of Steptoe, LLP and is a nationally recognized trial and appellate lawyer. She represents energy, technology, and finance companies in complex commercial and patent litigation. Given that many of her clients are headquartered overseas and operate globally, she is particularly skilled at resolving cross-border disputes. She has led trial teams in well over 100 cases, trying to conclusion 40 cases as lead or co-lead counsel and arguing 40 appellate cases in courts throughout the country.

On behalf of clients in the telecommunications, semiconductor, energy, and financial services industries, Claudia has extensive experience resolving intellectual property matters. In addition to the 50-plus patent infringement cases she has handled, Claudia also has significant experience with theft of trade secret and breach of confidentiality matters, as well as pirated software cases involving the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Her work for financial services firms has included patent infringement actions involving encryption technology, Check 21 implementations, and other software and internet applications in the fintech space, including payment apps. She has also helped her financial services clients resolve securities law claims, lender liability actions, and ERISA issues.

Claudia has worked on many landmark energy cases, representing companies in the oil and gas industry in particular. Matters have involved lease issues such as breach of pooling clause provisions and implied covenants to develop, protect from drainage, and market gas or oil, as well as continued viability. She has also resolved disputes pertaining to ownership of and title to minerals, trespass claims, area of mutual interest provisions (AMIs) and preferential rights, operator status and enforcement of joint operating agreement rights and obligations, refinery and oil field accidents and plant equipment failures, and alleged groundwater pollution from underground storage and disposal as well as from pipelines. She has also handled antitrust investigations and class actions involving pricing of crude oil royalties, qui tam actions, and both trade secrets and mass tort litigation.

Leading legal publications and media outlets have recognized Claudia’s contribution to the legal industry. Chambers USA notes, “Clients admired [this] ‘highly responsive and fabulous strategist’ for her powers of ‘brilliant analysis.’ She has a trial background and a depth of appellate experience.” The Legal 500 has called her “one of the best-known names in the field.” Claudia was featured in 2016 as a “Trial Pro” by Law360, and she has been recognized in Euromoney’s “Guide to Leading US Litigators,” “Guide to Leading World Litigators,” and “Guide to the World’s Leading Women in Business Law.” She has been honored by Super Lawyers, Texas for over a decade and is ranked in their list of Top 50 Women Lawyers in Texas and Top 100 Lawyers in Houston. She was also named one of Law360’s “20 Most Influential Woman in IP Law,” has been included as an IP STARS, and has been listed in IAM Patent 1000 for many years. Finally, in 2018, Best Lawyersrecognized Claudia as a “2018 Houston Litigation ERISA Lawyer of the Year,” an honor bestowed on only one lawyer in each community per year.