THE IMPACT OF THE #METOO MOVEMENT, CYBERSECURITY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE ON SECURITIES CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS.

The last few years have seen a steady rise in the number of securities class action lawsuits. In 2018, securities lawsuit filings reached their highest level since 2001.[3] New filings have doubled since 2014, when there were 218 federal court securities class action filings, and filings had been relatively stable since 2007. Of the 341 securities class actions filed between January and September 2019, 204 were more traditional lawsuits alleging violations of U.S. securities laws.[16] This figure suggests a trend to a year-end total of 272 standard securities lawsuits, which is, by historical standards, an extraordinary number of securities lawsuit filings and would be higher than the annual total number of securities lawsuit filings in any year during the period 2003 to 2015. Event-driven securities lawsuits have a higher dismissal rate than more traditional securities lawsuits, with a dismissal rate approaching 60 percent.[28] This, of course, means that 40 percent of event-driven securities filings survive a motion to dismiss. [Extracted from the article]