Securities litigation is present process a quiet however consequential transformation. The rise of synthetic intelligence and a shifting regulatory setting are altering not solely the varieties of claims being introduced, but additionally how plaintiffs plead instances, how regulators form and implement guidelines, and the way corporations handle litigation threat. Collectively, these forces are difficult conventional approaches that not match the realities of immediately’s market.
As these dynamics evolve, corporations and their advisors are being pushed to rethink disclosure practices, litigation technique, and the position of specialists sooner than ever within the course of. Precision, innovation, and the power to translate complicated monetary and market information into defensible positions have grow to be more and more vital, significantly on the movement to dismiss stage, the place instances are sometimes gained or misplaced outright.
We sat down with Eric Poer, Managing Director at Secretariat Worldwide, an skilled advisory and disputes consulting agency whose professionals have labored on a few of the most impactful issues throughout the globe, to debate the altering panorama of securities litigation.
Q: Are you able to inform us about Secretariat and your position throughout the agency?
A: Secretariat is a number one advisory agency that focuses on disputes and investigations with greater than 700 specialists and advisors worldwide. Our specialists have been engaged by many of the Am Legislation 100 legislation companies and have accomplished greater than 10,000 engagements on six continents. We function strategically, rising by selectively hiring top-tier professionals who not solely deliver deep subject material experience, but additionally match a extremely collaborative and entrepreneurial tradition.
I now lead Secretariat’s securities litigation and complicated monetary disputes practices. Our work sits on the intersection of economic markets, regulation, and litigation, supporting shoppers in issues the place the factual, financial, and accounting points are each extremely technical and extremely consequential. I’ve practiced on this space for greater than 20 years and have labored on a few of the largest, most complicated, and highest-profile securities litigation and investigations issues within the nation, together with the Wells Fargo gross sales practices investigation, one in every of Apple’s most vital securities litigation issues, the latest Rivian Automotive securities litigation associated to its IPO, and plenty of extra.
Q: What varieties of shoppers and issues does your follow deal with?
A: Our major shoppers are Am Legislation 100 legislation companies and administrators and officers going through regulatory inquiries, enforcement actions, or securities litigation. We’re most frequently engaged in conditions the place the problems are technically demanding and time-sensitive, and the place early strategic choices can materially have an effect on the trajectory of a case. From an business perspective, we routinely work with giant, world monetary establishments and most of the most extremely regarded Fortune 100 expertise corporations on the planet.
The issues we usually work on embody securities class actions, by-product litigation, complicated monetary disputes, together with damages assessments, and forensic investigations involving disclosure points, market exercise, valuation, or transaction-related allegations. More and more, we’re introduced in early, typically earlier than a movement to dismiss is even filed. At this early stage, we assist to form protection technique earlier than positions harden and prices escalate.
Q: What differentiates your securities litigation follow from others out there?
A: The core differentiator is our expert-led, technology-enabled workforce mannequin. We function with a lean, deeply skilled group of pros who’ve labored collectively for greater than 15 years. That continuity issues. It permits us to maneuver rapidly, talk effectively, and apply judgment that has been refined throughout many years of coping with comparable issues.
Our dimension additionally permits us to take a extremely strategic and tactical method. Moderately than making use of a one-size-fits-all framework, we tailor our evaluation to the particular allegations and strategic targets of every case. We’re technology-enabled, however expert-driven—the instruments assist the evaluation, not the opposite manner round.
Simply as necessary, we’re snug going very slender and deep. In lots of instances, essentially the most impactful points hinge on a really particular nuance and our shoppers require area of interest experience to assist their wants. Now we have entry to greater than 1 million business specialists that we incessantly companion with to complement our accounting, financial, and monetary specialists. Our expertise permits us to floor these nuanced points early and assist shoppers focus their sources the place they matter most.
Q: How have shopper expectations in securities litigation advanced lately?
A: Securities litigation is rapidly altering—each procedurally and attributable to technological shifts.
Settlements are more and more rising, with median settlement worth in 2025 at a 10-year excessive, significantly if a matter survives a movement to dismiss. In consequence, shoppers more and more count on advisors who may also help them win—or considerably slender—the case early. There’s far much less urge for food for broad, unfocused evaluation. As a substitute, shoppers need precision, credibility, and a transparent articulation of why sure theories fail underneath scrutiny on the pleadings stage.
This has elevated the significance of focused monetary and market evaluation and the power to reply creatively and credibly when translating complicated technical points into persuasive, defensible positions underneath intense judicial scrutiny.
As well as, shoppers more and more count on that specialists know how you can use AI successfully and responsibly. Deliverables that depend on generative or analytical AI should meet rigorous and defensible requirements—with sturdy human oversight.
Q: What main enforcement and regulatory shifts are influencing securities litigation this 12 months?
A: Probably the most notable shifts is the elevated position of state attorneys basic in enforcement exercise. As federal enforcement priorities have shifted and staffing reductions have affected companies just like the SEC and DOJ, state attorneys basic seem poised to step in to fill perceived gaps. That dynamic introduces new dangers for corporations that will have traditionally centered their compliance and litigation methods on federal regulators.
On the identical time, the SEC itself has undergone important modifications, with extra anticipated. These developments are creating uncertainty, but additionally alternative, for public corporations as they reassess disclosure practices, governance constructions, and litigation threat.
Q: What about arbitration provisions as a solution to restrict litigation?
A: One of many extra attention-grabbing and probably transformative developments is the rising alternative for public corporations to implement arbitration provisions that would restrict or remove securities class actions as we all know them. The SEC has taken a extra impartial stance on arbitration clauses in registration statements, opening the door for corporations to revisit this challenge.
What’s particularly important is that prices for corporations and insurers may skyrocket, whereas alternatives for plaintiffs may diminish. Securities class actions of their present type, typically lasting for a number of years, are nonetheless way more environment friendly than dozens and even a whole lot of particular person arbitration claims, every requiring separate protection.
It’s an space that warrants shut consideration, as future challenges and regulatory responses will form how viable this technique in the end turns into.
Q: We haven’t actually talked in regards to the focus that appears to be on everybody’s minds today: synthetic intelligence. How is AI influencing securities litigation?
A: AI-related securities claims have emerged as one of the vital important latest developments. Plaintiffs are more and more specializing in alleged misrepresentations about corporations’ AI capabilities, deployment, or strategic significance. Many of those instances revolve round what has been described as “AI-washing,” the place corporations are alleged to have overstated the sophistication or influence of AI initiatives.
Plaintiffs are testing how courts will consider statements about AI which may be aspirational, forward-looking, or grounded in quickly altering technical realities. In consequence, we’re seeing that AI-related filings usually have been dismissed at a decrease fee than different filings however are settled at the next fee.
Outdoors of traits in securities class actions, my private view is that we have to be leaning into AI or we’ll be left behind. At Secretariat, we’re actively pursuing and implementing alternatives to make the most of AI in a sensible and accountable manner.
We prefer to equate AI to a first-year analyst. It’s sensible and succesful however must be checked for accuracy and reasoning. So sure, we’re at all times on the lookout for methods to deploy superior expertise to profit our shoppers, however that expertise is at all times supported by skilled judgment and by no means replaces it; the stakes are just too excessive in our enterprise to do in any other case.
Q: AI is actually an more and more litigated space. What different matters are seeing elevated litigation?
A: Crypto-related disputes and enforcement stay a rising space. In 2025, there have been 14 instances with crypto-related claims, 75% greater than in 2024. As well as, healthcare-related filings at all times account for a good portion of securities litigation filings, and this continued in 2025, with healthcare-related filings accounting for extra new filings than some other sector. Every of those traits is more likely to proceed in 2026.
Conclusion on the Securities Litigation Panorama
Though the SEC has shifted from its regulation by enforcement period, it’s evident that personal litigation and state attorneys basic will fill at the least a few of the enforcement void. As well as, the potential for public corporations to implement arbitration provisions may have a transformative impact on securities litigation as we all know it; nevertheless, at the moment, it isn’t clear {that a} important variety of corporations have or will undertake such provisions. Undoubtedly, this 12 months might be a 12 months of change within the securities litigation area.
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