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.
Shinnefield 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. Shinnefield 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.
Shinnefield 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.
Lawdragon Honors
| Honor | Year | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America | 2026 | Plaintiff Securities Litigation |
| The 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers | 2025 | Securities Litigation |
| The 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers | 2024 | Securities Litigation |
| The 2023 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers | 2023 | Securities Litigation |
| The 2022 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers | 2022 | Securities Litigation |
| The 2021 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers | 2021 | Securities Litigation |
| The 2020 Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers | 2020 | Securities Litigation |
| Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers | 2019 | Securities Litigation |
Shinnefield 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. Shinnefield has also successfully appealed lower court decisions in the Second, Seventh, and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals.
Shinnefield 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. Shinnefield earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.