The Hon. Simon J. Frankel is a judge for the San Francisco County Superior Court in California. He was appointed to the bench by Governor Gavin Newsom on December 23, 2022, filling a vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. Harold E. Kahn.
Prior to his appointment, Frankel was a partner at Covington & Burling, a law firm he joined in 2006. During his tenure there, he chaired the Intellectual Property Rights Practice Group, and he sat on the firm’s Management Committee. Frankel has also taught Art Law and Privacy Litigation at Berkeley Law School.
Frankel earned a bachelor’s degree in the history of science from Harvard University (1986) and a master’s degree in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge (1988). He then completed a J.D. at Yale Law School in 1991.
After graduating from law school, Frankel began his legal career as a law clerk to the Hon. Stephen Breyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1991 to 1992) and the Hon. Pierre Leval of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1992 to 1993). He subsequently entered into private practice, handling copyright and trademark litigation and internet disputes as an associate (1994 to 2001) and a partner (2001 to 2006) at Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin.
He is registered as a Democrat.