Jonathan Youngwood is Global Co-Chair of the Firm’s Litigation Department, leads the Civil Securities Litigation Practice and is a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. He has more than 25 years of experience representing corporations, boards of directors, and other clients in a wide range of high-profile complex commercial litigations, arbitrations, investigations, and regulatory matters. In addition to securities and M&A related litigation, Jon’s practice focuses on disputes concerning corporate control, ERISA, antitrust, and bankruptcy. Jon is also an experienced appellate lawyer, having argued more than 25 appeals, including cases in the majority of the federal circuit courts.
Jon is widely recognized as a leader in his field by Chambers USA (Band 1), The Legal 500 (“Hall of Fame” and “Leading Lawyer”) and Euromoney’s Benchmark Litigation (National Securities Star). Jon has been described as one of “the best pure civil securities class action litigators”; a “very effective lawyer with a keen business sense and deep knowledge of the law”; “always prepared and fearless” and “everything that a client would want in a difficult case” in Chambers’ guides. In Benchmark Litigation, a client emphasized that, “[Jon is] a brilliant lawyer. [He is a] great communicator with incredible experience that allows him to evaluate a matter on the front end and accurately predict the best path for the client.” In The Legal 500, Jon is described as “one of the best securities litigators in the country, hands down.”
Jon was also named a 2024 Law360 Banking “MVP.” He is the Co-Chair of one of PLI’s annual programs on securities litigation and the Co-Editor of the third edition of PLI’s treatise, Securities Litigation: A Practitioner’s Guide (2024).
Updated Oct 2025
