What brings Jonathan Dickey, co-chairman of national securities litigation at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, to New York City from temperate Silicon Valley? Better prospects for litigation, that’s what. “There was a time that Silicon Valley companies were the poster children for securities class-action litigation. They were seen by the plaintiffs’ bar as easy targets,” Dickey says. But as tech companies have matured, they have been subject to fewer investor class-action claims. On Wall Street though, no surprise, things are heating up. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which includes Silicon Valley, was once the leading circuit court for securities class-action cases. But it has been overtaken by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which encompasses Manhattan. Subprime-mortgage litigation has been driving the trend, Dickey notes, which he expects to continue. “I believe, and the firm believes, that the center of gravity has shifted to New York for the foreseeable future,” he says.
