After two consecutive years in which the annual number of federal court securities class action lawsuit filings increased, the number of federal court securities class action lawsuit filings decreased slightly in 2025 compared to 2024, to the lowest level since 2022. The number of federal court securities class action suit filings during past year reflected the impact of several ongoing securities lawsuit filings trends, such as the new lawsuit filings relating to artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrencies. The slight decline in the annual number of filings reflects the diminishing impact of certain long-term trends that waned during the year, as discussed below.
The Importance of Securities Suit Filing Trends
D&O insurers closely track the annual number of securities class action lawsuit filings. The number of annual filings can provide some indication of insurers’ ultimate loss costs during the year. The current year’s filing patterns can also inform the insurers’ efforts to try to determine the profit-making price for their D&O insurance products.
The Annual Number of Filings
According to my tally, there were 205 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings in 2025, compared to 222 in 2024, representing about a 7% decrease. The 205 federal court securities suit filings in 2025 represent the lowest annual number of securities suit filings since 2022, when there were 197 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings.
Please note that these annual figures reflect only federal court securities suit filings; the numbers do not include state court securities class action lawsuit filings. Please also see the endnote below with respect to my counting methodology.
The Impact of Long-Term Filing Trends
The 2025 federal court securities suit filings total reflects a number of continuing securities lawsuit filing trends. For example, of the 205 federal court securities suit filings during the year, 14 involved artificial intelligence-related allegations, representing about 7% of all securities suit filings during the year. Similarly, there were eight crypto-related securities lawsuit filings, representing about 4% of all 2025 federal court securities lawsuit filings.
On the other hand, a number of long-term securities lawsuit filings trends that contributed to the number of filings in recent years appeared to have tailed off during 2025, arguably contributing to the decline in the overall number of federal court securities lawsuit filings during the year compared to the year prior.
Thus, for example, while there were 16 COVID-related securities lawsuit filings during 2024, during 2025, there were only three COVID-related suit filings (and none at all after early July, suggesting that perhaps this long-term filing trend may finally have run its course). Similarly, during 2024 there were nine SPAC-related securities suit filings, while during 2025, there only five SPAC-related filings, and no SPAC-related filings at all after April 2025.
Merger Objection Lawsuits
According to my tally, there were only three federal court M&A-related securities class action lawsuit filings during 2025, meaning that there were 202 “core” or “traditional” filings during the year. The number of federal court securities class action lawsuits has declined significantly since the 2016-2020 time frame, resulting in a significant decrease in the overall number of federal court securities suit filings since that time. It is important to note that federal court merger objection securities suits continue to be filed; however, in more recent years, plaintiffs’ lawyers, for tactical reasons, have chosen to file these actions as individual lawsuits rather than as class actions, and as a result, these filings do not show up in the class action filing numbers.
Place of Filing
The 2025 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings were first-filed 36 different federal district courts. The federal court with the highest number of first-filed securities suit complaints in 2025 was the Southern District of New York, which had 49 class action lawsuit filings during the year, representing about 24% of all 2025 filings. The district courts with the next highest number of first-filed securities suit complaints were the Northern District of California (23) and the District of New Jersey (14).
Of the 205 federal court securities class action lawsuits filed in 2025, a total of 64 were filed in district courts in New York, representing more than 31% of all 2025 federal court securities suit filings, and 41 were filed in district courts in California, representing about 20% of all 2025 federal court securities lawsuit filings. A total of 105 federal court securities suits were first-filed in either California or New York federal district courts, representing over half (51.2%) of all 2025 federal court securities suit filings.
Industries Targeted
The 2025 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings were filed against a wide variety of different kinds of companies. The 205 federal court securities class action lawsuits were filed against companies in 85 different Standard Industrial Classification codes. The SIC Code with the highest number of 2025 filings was SIC Code Category 2834 (Pharmaceutical Preparations), which had 29 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings in 2025, representing about 14% of all 2025 federal court securities suit filings.
The SIC Code Industry Group with the most 2025 federal securities suit filings was the 283 SIC Code Industry Group (Drugs), which had 42 securities suit filings, representing about 21% of all 2025 securities suit filings. In addition to the filings in the 283 Industry Group, there were an additional eight securities suits filed in the 384 SIC Code Industry Group (Surgical and Medical Instruments). Together, lawsuit against companies in these two industry groups totaled 50 federal court securities suit filings in 2025, meaning that about one-quarter of the total number of 2025 securities suits were filed against biotechnology and medical device companies.
Companies in the SIC Industry Group 737 (Computer Programming and Data Processing) collectively had 30 securities suit filings in 2025, meaning that lawsuits filed against companies in the high technology industry represented about 15% of all 2025 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings.
A total of 80 securities suits were filed in 2025 against companies in the biotechnology and high-tech industry groups take collectively, meaning that during 2025, lawsuits against these two industry groups represented about 39% of all federal court securities class action lawsuit filings.
Securities Suits Against Non-U.S. Companies
Of the 205 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings in 2025, 33 were filed against companies either organized under the laws of a country outside the United States or that have their principal place of business outside the U.S., representing about 16% of 2025 securities suit filings. The companies named in these suits represented 12 different countries. The countries with the highest number of 2025 securities suit filings were Canada (8), the United Kingdom (7), China (3), Ireland (3), and Israel (3).
Securities Suits Againts IPO Companies
Twelve of the 205 2025 federal court securities suit filings involved IPO companies, representing about 6% of all 2025 filings. Of these twelve lawsuits, one represented the IPO class of 2023; six represented the IPO class of 2024; and 5 involved the IPO class of 2025.
Methodology: I count each company that has been sued in a securities class action lawsuit for essentially the same allegations only once, regardless of the number of complaints filed. This counting methodology may differ from the methodology used by other public sources that track securities suit filings, which in turn may cause my tallies to differ from other published tallies.
I count all securities class action lawsuits that are filed, regardless of whether the entity defendant is listed on a U.S. exchange and regardless of whether or not the entity defendant has an SIC Code. This counting methodology may differ from the methodology used by other sources that track securities suit filings, which in turn may cause my tallies to differ from other tallies.
In tracking the securities suit filings, I rely on several different sources, including the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse; Law360; Justia; and Stanford Securities Litigation Analytics. I audit my tally against other resources periodically throughout the year.
The Top Ten Stories of 2025 Webinar: Please note that on Thursday, January 15, 2025, at 11:00 am EST, my colleagues Marissa Streckfuss, Chris Bertola, and I will be conducting a free, hour-long webinar in which we will discuss The Top Ten D&O Stories of 2025. Registration for this webinar can be found here. I hope you can join us for the webinar. In addition, keep your eyes open for my annual Top Ten blog post, which I will be publishing tomorrow.
Top Travel Pictures of 2025: You may not have seen it over the holidays, but in late December I published a post with review of my top travel pictures of 2025. The post can be found here. I hope readers will take a moment to review the travel pictures post, and I also hope readers will take my up on my invitation to send me their own top 2025 travel pictures. I am hoping to publish a post in the next few days with readers’ travel pictures.
Travel Hacks, Gripes and Likes: Readers may also have missed my post over the holidays in which I listed my top travel hacks, gripes, and likes. The post can be found here. I am hoping readers will take a look at the post, and I am also hoping that readers will send me their own travel hacks, which I also hope to publish in a future post.