Jessica T. Shinnefield

Jessica Shinnefield is a partner in Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP’s San Diego office. Currently, her practice focuses on initiating, investigating, and prosecuting securities fraud class actions.

Jessica served as lead counsel in In re Am. Realty Cap. Props., Inc. Litig., a case arising out of ARCP’s manipulative accounting practices, and obtained a $1.025 billion recovery. For five years, she and the litigation team prosecuted nine different claims for violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Securities Act of 1933, involving seven different stock or debt offerings and two mergers. The recovery represents the highest percentage of damages of any major PSLRA case prior to trial and includes the largest personal contributions by individual defendants in history. Jessica also served as lead counsel in Smilovits v. First Solar, Inc., and obtained a $350 million settlement on the eve of trial. The settlement is fifth-largest PSLRA settlement ever recovered in the Ninth Circuit.

Jessica was also a member of the litigation team prosecuting actions against investment banks and leading national credit rating agencies for their roles in structuring and rating structured investment vehicles backed by toxic assets in Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank v. Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated and King County, Washington v. IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG. These cases were among the first to successfully allege fraud against the rating agencies, whose ratings have traditionally been protected by the First Amendment.

Jessica also litigated individual opt-out actions against AOL Time Warner – Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Parsons and Ohio Pub. Emps. Ret. Sys. v. Parsons (recovery more than $600 million). Additionally, she litigated an action against Omnicare, in which she helped obtain a favorable ruling for plaintiffs from the United States Supreme Court. Jessica has also successfully appealed lower court decisions in the Second, Seventh, and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals. 

Jessica has been named to the 40 & Under Hot List and a Future Star by Benchmark Litigation, a Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer, and a Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer by Lawdragon. Additionally, she was named a Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazer by The National Law Journal, listed as a Best Lawyer in America: One to Watch by Best Lawyers®, and has been recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine. 

Jessica received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Communication Studies, with highest honors, from the University of California at Santa Barbara. While at UCSB, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Jessica earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.

• Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer, Lawdragon, 2019-2023
• Best Lawyer in America: One to Watch, Best Lawyers®, 2023
• Future Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2023
• Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazer, The National Law Journal, 2021
• Litigator of the Week, The American Lawyer, 2020
• Rising Star, Super Lawyers Magazine, 2015-2019
• 40 & Under Hot List, Benchmark Litigation, 2018-2019

University of San Diego School of Law, J.D., 2004

University of California at Santa Barbara, B.A., 2001, with Highest Honors

• Phi Beta Kappa

• California
• United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits
• United States District Courts for the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of California

Notable Cases