Jonathan Youngwood is Co-Chair of the Firm’s Litigation Department and is a member of the Executive Committee. With more than two decades of experience, Jon has represented clients in a wide range of high-profile complex commercial litigation and regulatory matters, including securities, corporate control, antitrust, and ERISA disputes.

Jon was named a “Distinguished Leader” by the New York Law Journal in 2017, an award that recognizes lawyers in leadership roles who have achieved impressive results in the last year. Chambers and Partners consistently recognizes Jon as a leading securities litigator (Band 1), describing him as a “very well respected lawyer with a tremendous reputation, and is very good in the courtroom”; “a great advocate; “the best lawyer on his feet – he is incredibly comfortable before judges and panels”; and a “smart, focused and creative lawyer who brings the required intensity to the job.” Chambers also describes him as “a detail-oriented litigator with the ability to get to the nub of an issue” who “has extensive securities knowledge”; a “flair for written work and oral advocacy”; who “commands respect in the courtroom”; and “is highly esteemed for his distinguished securities litigation practice, with a number of major financial institutions calling upon his skills in defending class actions, derivative claims and wider disputes work.” He is recognized as a “Leading Lawyer” by The Legal 500, where market commentators describe him as “very talented”; who has a “client-oriented approach”; “technically superb, bright and articulate”; an “outstanding securities litigator”; and “smart, hardworking and extremely professional.” In 2017, he was the recipient of the “Securities Lawyer of the Year” award by Euromoney’s Benchmark Litigation, an award that recognizes the country’s most distinguished litigators; he was listed as a “Top 10 Nationwide Securities Star”; and is consistently recognized as a national and New York “Litigation Star” in Securities Litigation by Benchmark Litigation, where sources have described him as “one of the smartest lawyers I know. He not only is hardworking, but he has the ability to be both a big picture thinker and also pay incredible attention to detail.”

He edits the Securities Law Alert, a monthly newsletter published by the Firm and is the Co-Chair of PLI’s annual program entitled “Handling a Securities Case: From Investigation to Trial and Everything in Between,” and received the Burton Award for Achievement in Legal Writing.

Among a number of significant pro bono achievements, Jon served on the Simpson Thacher team that achieved a finding (after a seven-month trial) that the New York City public schools fail to provide a constitutionally adequate education.

Jon received his B.A. with honors from Brown University in 1990. He received his J.D. in 1994 with honors from the University of Chicago, where he served as Comments Editor of The University of Chicago Law Review. He also holds a Master of Public Policy from The University of Chicago (1992). Jon joined Simpson Thacher in 1995 following a one-year clerkship with Hon. Dennis G. Jacobs of United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He became a Partner in 2003.