Claude M. Stern serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s National Intellectual Property Litigation Practice, the largest practice area within Quinn Emanuel. In his thirty-three years of practice, he has developed extensive national experience in all areas of intellectual property and technology litigation.

Mr. Stern has been repeatedly recognized as one of the preeminent intellectual property trial lawyers and litigators in Silicon Valley, California and the United States, by such publications as Chambers: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), Law Dragon, San Francisco Magazine, and San Jose Magazine. Mr. Stern has consistently been recognized as one of California’s Super Lawyers (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), and in 2009 and 2013 was recognized as one of California’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers, and since 2008 has been recognized as one of California’s Top 75 Intellectual Property Litigators. In 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, Chambers identified Mr. Stern as one of 8 lawyers in California designated as Band 1, or "most recommended."In 2014, Corporate International Magazine awarded Mr. Stern its Global Award of "IP Attorney of the Year in California." In 2006, Mr. Stern served as President of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, the most prestigious bench-bar educational organization for trial lawyers in California. In 2014, Global Law Experts awarded Mr. Stern IP Attorney of the Year in California. Also in 2014, Managing Intellectual Property named Mr. Stern an IP Star in both the United States and California.

Mr. Stern has been lead trial counsel in numerous precedent-setting cases within the intellectual property field. For example:

Mr. Stern represented Brøderbund Software in Brøderbund Software, Inc. v. Unison World, Inc., 648 F. Supp. 1127 (N.D. Cal. 1986), the first reported case to recognize and enforce the copyrightability of the user-interface of a non-video game computer program.