Following the March 2018 Supreme Court decision in Cyan v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund, players in the financial markets immediately began speculating that the door had effectively opened for plaintiffs to seek friendly jurisdictions, to avoid federal procedural regulations, and to exploit the ease of filing in state courts to file meritless cases.

In a widely circulated law firm memo just months after the decision, a trio of attorneys (Michael S. Flynn, Paul S. Mishkin, and Edmund Polubinski III) contended “Cyan undoubtedly will be a catalyst for class action litigation lawyers to search for the most plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction and thus introduce all the well-recognized perils associated with forum shopping and inconsistent, unpredictable standards across multiple jurisdictions.”