Fred Brown is Partner-in-Charge of the San Francisco office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is a member of the firm's Litigation Department and its Intellectual Property, Consumer Class Action, Antitrust, and Securities Litigation Practice Groups. He is also a member of the firm's Bay Area Diversity Committee. Mr. Brown is a trial lawyer concentrating his practice on patent infringement and complex commercial cases, consumer class actions and arbitrations. Mr. Brown has tried to verdict or judgment many civil and criminal cases, including most recently several high profile patent infringement cases. He has extensive experience in civil, multi-jurisdiction litigation and often coordinates the work of local counsel in multiple jurisdictions. Mr. Brown has led teams in cases litigated in federal or state courts in New York, California, Delaware, Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Washington, Utah, and Idaho. He led a five-law-firm team representing several defendants in a five-month jury trial in Texas. Mr. Brown also has had experience in criminal matters as a federal criminal investigator and as a prosecutor with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office on a public service leave of absence.
Mr. Brown teaches trial skills for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and for the Intensive Advocacy Program at the University of San Francisco School of Law. He has also been a guest lecturer at Boalt Hall on trial techniques and has taught advocacy skills for the Practicing Law Institute.
Education
J.D., Duke University School of Law, 1975
Duke Law Journal: Administrative Law Editor
B.A., Bucknell University, 1970
Memberships
American Bar Association: Litigation, Intellectual Property, Antitrust and International Law and Practice Sections
Association of Business Trial Lawyers
Bar Association of San Francisco: Litigation Section
State Bar of California: Litigation and International Law Sections
Federal Bar Association
Federal Circuit Bar Association
Recent Representative Patent Matters
St. Jude Medical, Inc. Mr. Brown was lead trial lawyer in a patent case involving implantable defibrillators. The case involved novel questions on method claims, inducing infringement, extraterritoriality, and damages. This case is now on appeal after St. Jude recently prevailed on a summary judgment where the sole remaining claim in the case was found to be anticipated. Mr. Brown was part of a multi-office, Gibson Dunn team representing St. Jude in a series of litigations in multiple jurisdictions involving billions of dollars of potential damages. Mr. Brown was to lead the teams at trial in two of the four then pending cases. St. Jude was both a plaintiff and defendant in those actions. Those cases have settled favorably for St. Jude.
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. Mr. Brown led a multiple office team at trial to win a major victory before a Northern California jury for Cadence in a patent and trade secrets trial. After a four week trial, Cadence prevailed on all counts by invalidating three patents at trial and defeating claims of misappropriation of trade secrets and other common law causes of action. Mentor Graphics, the plaintiff, sought close to $1 billion but got nothing. The jury deliberated for nine days and answered all 19 verdict form questions in favor of Cadence. The jury trial victory for Cadence is remarkable because the court, prior to trial, had found infringement of two of the three patents that remained in the case. The jury invalidated all patents presented to them, including those subject to the court’s infringement findings. The technology at issue in the Cadence trial was field programmable gate arrays used in emulation systems. Both hardware and software patents were presented to the jury.
Nortel. Mr. Brown was brought into this case as lead trial attorney as the trial date drew near. The case involved a method patent involving internet technology. Nortel won the case on summary judgment shortly before trial. The Federal Circuit affirmed the trial court's decision.
Arvesta. Mr. Brown led a three-office team that obtained summary judgment on the grounds of non-infringement in a case involving an organic chemistry process patent on the manufacture of triones where BASF was seeking over $100 million from our client. BASF alleged that Arvesta and its manufacturer, Eastman Chemical, infringed a patent covering a process for creating an organic chemical used to make an herbicide. Mr. Brown and his team also secured an early stay of all damages discovery and a bifurcation of damages and willfulness issues from the liability trial, so that the client’s confidential business plans and competitively valuable financial information would be protected from disclosure. They also won a very favorable Markman decision. The Federal Circuit affirmed the lower Court’s summary judgment favoring our client.
Aureal Semiconductor. Following a one-month jury trial in Creative Technology Ltd. v. Aureal Semiconductor, Inc., Mr. Brown's client, Aureal, obtained a verdict of non-infringement, thus freeing the Aureal product line from the threat of injunction and damages. The patents involved in this case related to digital sampling.
Japanese R&D client. Mr. Brown led a bi-coastal team in litigating thin film transistor patents against infringers on behalf of a Japanese R&D client.
Affymetrix. In Oxford Gene Technology v. Affymetrix, a case involving GeneChip array technology, Mr. Brown led the damages team. The case was resolved after the first phase of the trial. GeneChip® arrays are manufactured using methods similar to those used in semiconductor manufacturing.
Recent Representative Commercial Cases
Fair Isaac Corporation. Mr. Brown represents Fair Isaac in consumer class actions involving the federal Credit Repair Organization Act. The cases involve allegations of statutory violations, fraud and misrepresentation. He and another partner also are national coordinating counsel for Fair Isaac on related litigation. The Gibson Dunn team defeated a request for class certification involving a potential class of seven million members. The team also received a favorable ruling on statutory liability. These cases recently settled on favorable terms after a fairness hearing.
Allied Capital Corporation. Mr. Brown successfully represented an affiliate of Allied Capital in a month-long arbitration hearing in Chicago involving the consolidation of several independent businesses. The claimant demanded the right to participate in the consolidation transaction on financial terms that are materially different from the terms offered to others. Plaintiff's theories were based on fraud, intentional and negligent misrepresentation.
People of the State of California ex rel. Bill Lockyer v. PG&E Corporation, et al. Mr. Brown led the litigation team representing PG&E Corporation and its directors in a section 17200 (California Business and Professions Code) action filed by the Attorney General of California (AG) seeking in excess of $5 billion. The AG alleged that PG&E Corporation engaged in unfair business practices in its relationship with its subsidiary. Those alleged unfair practices involved siphoning billions of dollars from its subsidiary in various complex financial transactions. The lawsuit followed a dismissal by the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of its proceeding investigating these same issues.
Wilson v. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, et al. Mr. Brown headed a team that defended PG&E Corporation in two state court cases where the plaintiff alleged that PG&E Corporation violated its fiduciary duties and section 17200 in its financial relationship with Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Both Wilson cases, which sought billions of dollars, were dismissed.
Gillam v. PG&E Corporation, et al. Mr. Brown and others defended PG&E Corporation in a class action in the Northern District of California where the plaintiff alleged that PG&E Corporation and certain officers violated federal securities laws by issuing allegedly false and misleading financial statements in the second and third quarters of 2000. The case was dismissed and the dismissal was upheld by the Ninth Circuit.
Tate v. PG&E Corporation, et al. Mr. Brown represented PG&E Corporation in a $300 million antitrust, section 17200, and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) action. Plaintiffs alleged that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, PG&E Corporation, and other companies monopolized the low emission fuels market. Mr. Brown and his team defeated the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction and negotiated a no-money dismissal for our client.
Merrill Lynch. In a series of trade secret actions relating to the theft of customer lists and other valuable information by departing employees, Mr. Brown secured 10 TROs in several different states and secured multiple money judgments in arbitrations awarding Merrill Lynch its attorney fees and extensive damages. Mr. Brown has also represented Merrill Lynch in hard fought arbitrations before the NASD and NYSE involving highly paid employees seeking millions of dollars in damages.
Barclays Global Investors and Wells Fargo Bank. In a copyright case, Mr. Brown was the senior member of the team defending Wells Fargo and Barclays Global Investors and secured a summary judgment in favor of our clients.
Arvesta. Mr. Brown represented Arvesta in a fraud, intentional and negligent misrepresentation action seeking in excess of $100 million against a multi-national drug and chemicals corporation. The case involved the purchase of assets and the duties of the seller to disclose truthful information impacting the value of the assets being sold.
Smith Barney/CitiGroup. Mr. Brown was asked to be the lead trial lawyer on an investment banking case that had been pre-tried for several years by other lawyers. The case resolved favorably in mediation shortly before trial.
Intel Corporation. Mr. Brown represented Intel in a bankruptcy proceeding where the debtor was attempting to block Intel's termination of a license agreement.
Merrill. In Merrill v. Navegar. Mr. Brown represented one of the plaintiffs in a public service action against a manufacturer of an illegal firearm used in the slaughter of eight people at 101 California.
Mr. Brown has also represented the following companies among others: Xerox Corp., Texas Instruments, Crocker Bank, Transamerica, Knight-Ridder, Tomen Corporation, Applied Materials, Crum&Forster Insurance (and related subsidiaries), Kaiser Engineers, Zero Gravity (a Hummer-Winblad investment), and Florida Power and Light. He has also represented the Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco.
Mr. Brown has published numerous articles on international and domestic arbitration, and litigation management. Mr. Brown is a frequent lecturer on various litigation topics throughout the United States as well as in Germany, England, Japan, and Korea.
Mr. Brown has held leadership positions in the following organizations: International Law and Practice Section of the ABA (Chair of International Arbitration Committee, Member of Council), Bar Association of San Francisco (Board of Directors; Chair, Litigation Section; Chair, International Section), State Bar of California (Executive Committee, International Section; Chair, International Technology Committee), the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (Board of Directors and Program Chair); and the Federal Bar Association (Steering Committee for Northern California Chapter).