Securities Litigation Recruiters

Geography moved inside a flat Second Circuit. Cornerstone’s core-federal count put the Second Circuit at 63 filings in 2025, against 64 in 2024, still above the 1997–2024 average of 56. The Ninth Circuit fell 30 percent, from 69 filings in 2024 to 48 in 2025. The Third Circuit rose from 19 to 26, which Cornerstone tied in part to four biotechnology filings and seven pharmaceutical filings. The Eleventh Circuit went from seven filings in 2024 to 13 in 2025. New York remains the place a defense group adds a senior associate. San Francisco and Los Angeles are hiring against a smaller new-case count. Life-sciences defendants in the Third Circuit, and a thicker Eleventh Circuit docket, are where a regional group asks for a lawyer who has done the case rather than a New York lateral who will not move.

Sector mix moved with it. Core filings in the Consumer Non-Cyclical sector rose from 67 in 2024 to 78 in 2025 and were 41 percent of the 2025 Disclosure Dollar Loss index. Healthcare-Services alone was 25 percent of that index. Healthcare Products filings rose from nine in 2024 to 13 in 2025. Technology core filings fell from 37 to 30, while Maximum Dollar Loss on technology filings rose from $347 billion in 2024 to $1,250 billion in 2025. A technology defendant in 2025 was less common and, when named, much larger. That is a partner-level staffing problem, not a junior one.

Trend cases did not all move the same way. Cornerstone counted 16 artificial-intelligence-related filings in 2025, of which four were filed in the second half. Cryptocurrency-related filings were nine. COVID-19-related filings fell from 15 in 2024 to three in 2025. SPAC-related class filings were 10. SPAC IPOs, a different series in the same report, rose from 57 in 2024 to 144 in 2025. The class cases from that IPO cohort are not in the 2025 filing count yet.

Offering cases are on a lag, not on the IPO headline. Cornerstone counted 234 IPOs on major U.S. exchanges in 2025. Operating-company IPOs rose 25 percent, while combined federal and state 1933 Act class filings rose from 22 in 2024 to 23 in 2025, about 5 percent. The lag between an IPO and a federal Section 11 or state 1933 Act filing was 308 days in 2025, up from 304 days in 2024, around the 2010–2024 median of 306 days. Cyan, Inc. v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund, 583 U.S. 416, decided 20 March 2018, left state courts with jurisdiction over class actions that allege only 1933 Act claims, and left those cases where they were filed. A Section 11 lawyer still needs both forums. The 2025 IPO class, on that 308-day lag, is a 2026 filing problem.

Two decisions changed what “has done a securities case” means on a résumé. On 12 April 2024, in Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. v. Moab Partners, L.P., No. 22-1165, the Supreme Court held that a pure omission is not actionable under Rule 10b-5(b). A failure to disclose under Item 303 supports a private 10b-5(b) claim only when it makes an affirmative statement misleading. Complaints now plead half-truths, not silence. On 13 August 2025, in In re FirstEnergy Corp. Securities Litigation, No. 23-3940, the Sixth Circuit vacated a class-certification order. The court held that a mixed misstatement-and-omission case is analyzed under Basic rather than Affiliated Ute when it is primarily about misrepresentations, and that Exchange Act damages need the Comcast analysis rather than a cross-reference to the Securities Act formula. Certification briefing is a separate skill from the motion to dismiss. Groups that try the case through class certification are hiring for that brief.

The SEC changed the forum question and the enforcement count in the same year. Release No. 33-11389, issued 17 September 2025 and effective 19 September 2025, states that an issuer-investor mandatory arbitration provision will not affect whether the staff accelerates a registration statement. The staff looks at whether the arbitration clause is disclosed. That does not decide state-law enforceability. It does mean offering documents can now carry a clause that tries to move investor claims out of court, which is a 2026 counseling and litigation question for both the disclosure lawyer and the securities litigator. On the enforcement side, the Commission announced on 7 April 2026 that fiscal 2025, ended 30 September 2025, produced 456 enforcement actions, including 303 standalone actions and 69 follow-on proceedings, and orders for monetary relief of $17.9 billion. The same release said the results do not include 1,095 matters that were investigated and closed without an action. Filed cases fell. The investigation docket did not disappear. In-house securities-litigation counsel and enforcement-defense partners are hired against that second number as much as against the 303.

Law360 reported on 2 June 2026 that Milbank raised associate base pay to a floor of $235,000 and a ceiling of $455,000. Above the Law reported the same day that the scale is effective 1 July 2026. Securities litigation associates at firms that match that scale are paid the class year, not a practice premium. The class-year cells are on Milbank scale 2026. How a litigator’s firm paycheck compares with a company’s is on litigation attorney salary 2026 and commercial litigation attorney salary 2026. The securities-specific comparison, including the point that no securities-only band is published, is on securities attorney salary 2026.

In-house cash is a different table. The Association of Corporate Counsel and Empsight, in the 2025 Law Department Compensation Survey, data as of 1 March 2025, 1,632 U.S. respondents, put Attorney median base at $148,000 and median total cash at $160,000. Senior Attorney median total cash was $228,000. Assistant general counsel median total cash was $294,000. The executive summary says securities, antitrust, and bankruptcy tend to pay higher base salaries and total compensation. It does not publish a percentage or a securities-litigation median. A general counsel who prices a securities-litigation counsel off the Attorney median, and a candidate who prices the same seat off a fifth-year lockstep base, are not looking at the same number. Partner compensation is not on either grid. Equity partner salary 2026 is the firm-side partner discussion. A lateral partner search is about the book and the conflicts, then the guarantee, not about a class year.

Company mandates are retained only. The fee is 25–30% of the hire’s total first-year compensation. The retainer is 30% of the fee, paid at engagement and kept if the client cancels. A securities-litigation counsel or deputy general counsel is an in-house search other than GC, CLO, or CCO, so the replacement guarantee is 6 months. A GC, CLO, or CCO mandate carries 12 months. We do not approach lawyers we placed for as long as they stay, and we do not recruit from a client’s legal department for 24 months after a mandate. Law-firm searches are retained. They are not priced off the in-house fee sentence above.

The companion market note is Legal hiring 2026: practice areas across key markets. It tracks which practices added laterals as transactional demand cooled. It is not a securities-litigation census. Use it for the wider disputes hiring climate. Use the Cornerstone filing and settlement record, and the SEC’s 7 April 2026 enforcement release, for this specialty. A firm that adds “litigation” headcount may still have nobody who has briefed a 10b-5 motion. A company that adds a disclosure lawyer may still have nobody to manage the class case.

Sibling specialties on the securities tree are securities regulation and IPOs and public offerings. The disputes neighbors are litigation and disputes and class actions. City pages where this docket concentrates: New York, San Francisco, Washington, and Boston. Partner moves in the wider disputes market are on lateral partner recruiting for litigation.