Longtime litigator Christopher L. Frost loved to watch legal television shows when he was a kid, but he said becoming an attorney ruined his appetite for those programs.
“Now that I’m a lawyer, I can’t watch legal TV shows because I criticize them for everything they get wrong,” Frost explained with a laugh. “I’ll watch some scene in a courtroom, and I’ll be like, ‘You can’t ask him that.’ … I can watch anything else and suspend reality, but on the legal stuff I can’t do it.”
Frost joined Weinberg Gonser Frost LLP about a year and a half ago to help build a litigation practice at the Los Angeles based boutique, which was founded in 2009 as a business and intellectual property transactional firm.
“We’re on a rocket ship, and we plan to stay on that rocket ship,” Frost said. “We have grown dramatically, and we’re still extraordinarily busy and continue to add talent.”
Shahrokh Sheik, a business and intellectual property attorney who provides both outside general counsel and litigation services to clients, joined Weinberg Gonser Frost in January 2020. The now 27-attorney firm has effectively doubled in size since he and Frost were brought on to launch the litigation group, he said.
Sheik said he represents business clients ranging from cannabis to finance, hospitality and fashion. Assisting them with their transactional needs — such as employment agreements, corporate formation challenges or intellectual property management — is a substantial part of the firm’s service suite, but now the shop is also equipped to help with litigation problems.
“Whenever possible, we want to help resolve those disputes,” Sheik said. “We want to get clients back to focusing on their business. The more they’re focusing on their business and investing in their business, the more they grow. And the more they grow, the more they’re going to need us, and the more we’re able to grow together.”
Frost noted that the firm wants to help clients with whatever legal problems they may encounter.
“My view of litigation is I’m only a good service to my clients if I am full service to my clients,” he explained. “We represent professional athletes to professional musicians, real estate developers. … And I feel like I’m only doing my job if I can do that broadly. And anything they need from a business perspective or a litigation perspective — they know we can be their one-stop shop.”
Frost also insisted that Weinberg Gonser Frost isn’t easily intimidated.
“We punch way above our weight class,” he said. “We’re now in a multi-hundred-million-dollar class action defense on behalf of more than a dozen clients in Canada, China, L.A. and Taiwan against three of the largest class action plaintiffs’ firms in the country.”
That case involves antitrust and price-fixing claims levied against Torrance-based recreational telescope manufacturer Celestron Acquisition LLC. Sigurd Murphy, et al. v. Celestron Acquisition LLC et al., 5:20-cv-04049 (N.D. Cal, filed June 17, 2020).
“We’ve had some early success so far limiting the class period, and we were able to cut the class in half,” Frost said, noting that a certification hearing on the putative class won’t happen until 2024. “It’s a long slog, but we feel very confident in the merits of our clients’ position, and we’ll continue to advocate for those.”
Sherman Oaks trial attorney Michael A. Sherman opposed Frost in an unrelated business investment dispute about five years ago and described him as a professional and tough advocate with a distinctive personality.
“Some of his personal edginess and style and demeanor is disarming,” Sherman said. “But he’s a formidable opponent, and he’s not someone to in any way shape or form take lightly. … I just found him to be a tireless and fearless advocate for his clients.”
Frost said one of the most fulfilling parts of his job is that as an attorney he’s so frequently in position to protect his clients in situations where they can’t help themselves.
“And when you’re doing that, you recognize this is a human being with a real-life problem,” he explained. “This is not a file. This is not a billing opportunity. This is a real human being with a real issue that I can help solve, and that’s where I really get the most satisfaction.”