January 2, 2026
SEC policy shifts, rulings on investor class status and actionable company statements, and discussions about the future of artificial intelligence set the pace in 2025 and may have a lasting effect in securities cases in 2026.
A Securities and Exchange Commission pivot allowing companies to issue stock with the condition that disputes must be arbitrated remains one of the year’s most talked-about developments in securities litigation. Mandatory arbitration brings the potential to upend that area of practice by handing corporations a new means of avoiding class actions, while raising the specter of mass filings to arbitrators.
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Companies that adopt arbitration provisions will lose advantages they have in court, including legal rules, the discovery stay, and the high pleading standard, said plaintiffs’ attorney Carol Gilden of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. “Plus, lawsuits can still be brought in federal court against underwriters and accountants.”
Unlike a class action, arbitration won’t give companies “total peace,” she said. “I would not expect mandatory arbitration to be embraced by companies on a widespread basis.”
Read Investor Arbitration, Class Status, AI Shake Up Securities Bar.