William A. Jacobson is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell Law School.
He is a 1981 graduate of Hamilton College and a 1984 graduate of Harvard Law School. At Harvard he was Senior Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal and Director of Litigation for the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project.
Prior to joining the Cornell law faculty in 2007, Professor Jacobson had a highly successful civil litigation and arbitration practice in Providence, Rhode Island, concentrating in investment, employment, and business disputes in the securities industry, including many high profile cases reported in leading newspapers and magazines.
Professor Jacobson has argued cases in numerous federal and state courts, including the Courts of Appeal for the First, Fifth and Sixth Circuits, and the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Professor Jacobson has a national reputation as a leading practitioner in securities arbitration. He was Treasurer, and is a former member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, a professional organization of attorneys dedicated to protecting public investors. He frequently is quoted in national media on issues related to investment fraud and investor protection, and in the past has served as one of a small number of private practice attorneys who trained new arbitrators for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Professor Jacobson is co-author of the Securities Arbitration Desk Reference (Thomson-Reuters), updated annually.
Professor Jacobson is frequently quoted in the media on political and legal topics, has authored many Op-Eds in major publications, and appears on television and radio to discuss politics and the law.
A more complete listing of Professor Jacobson’s professional background is available at the Cornell Law School website. The views expressed here are his own and not those of any employer or organization,
The best way to reach Prof. Jacobson is by e-mail here.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases presenting the issue of whether Electoral College electors can be bound by state law to vote consistent with the state popular vote winner. The concept of electors voting as the voters in their states voted is central to the viability of the...
The last time we checked in on the so-called Kids’ Climate Change lawsuit, in November 2018, we noted that the trial was on hold, Trial of Kids Climate Change Lawsuit indefinitely postponed:
Lev Parnas is to the Impeachment Trial as Julie Swetnick was to the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, if Republicans let Democrats get away with it.
Recall that after the Kavanaugh hearings were done, but before the committee vote, Democrats leaked that they had a surprise witness they had known about for several...
One of the most disgusting spectacles I’ve seen in a national presidential debate was CNN’s obvious hit job on Bernie Sanders.
Stacey covered it in Elizabeth Warren Refuses Bernie Post-Debate Handshake as #NeverWarren and #CNNisTrash Trend.
Just two days before the final Iowa debate, CNN ran a story — obviously leaked by the Elizabeth Warren campaign and based on second- and third- hand sourcing — claiming that in a private meeting in 2018, Bernie Sanders told her a woman couldn’t win the presidency.
That claim is frequently made...
There hasn’t been much news lately in the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case.
We are waiting on the judge’s ruling as to a motion by Cleveland media entities to unseal the confidential Facebook records of Allyn D. Gibson, the grandson of Allyn W. Gibson and the son of the late David...
The medieval Mullah death cult routinely puts American and Israeli flags on the ground for people to walk on. (So do Palestinian terror groups.)
Protests have broken out across Iran over the downing of the Ukrainian passenger airplane by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. — which tried for days to cover it up.
The protests are a continuation of the protests last fall, which were crushed by the IRGC under leadership of the late Qassem Soleimani,...
Iran had a story, and it stuck to it for a couple of days: There was a mechanical failure that brought down Ukrainian civilian airliner Flight PS752 that had just taken off from Tehran airport. Iran refused to hand over the black boxes and bulldozed the debris field to make it...
In March 2013, I noted that Israel’s discovery and development of huge offshore natural gas fields was a game-changer, putting Israel on course to become an energy superpower.
At that time, the field that had just come on line was the Tamar field. I wrote, Yesterday the Middle East changed forever, and you...
You just knew that in an era of pathological Trump Derangement Syndrome, Democrats would blame Trump for Iran shooting down a Ukrainian airliner at Tehran airport on the night Iran fired ballistic missiles at bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops. Iran fired the missile, there were no U.S. planes in action...
In the short run, the killing of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps., is a complete victory for Trump. The killing came after a long series of Iranian provocations over the past several months and years.
The killing of an American and...
U.S. miliary bases in Iraq are under Iranian missile attack, the U.S. Department of Defense and Iranian media have confirmed.
Fars News posted this tweet:
CNN has settled the lawsuit brought by Nicholas Sandmann over coverage of the incident in which Sandmann falsely was accused of trying to intimidate a Native American activist, according to local TV reports. Sandmann filed lawsuits against CNN, The Washington Post, and NBC. Initially the lawsuits were dismissed, but recently a...
Readers of Legal Insurrection know who Linc Chafee is.
For several years we covered the once-upon-a-time Republican Senator (in a seat he inherited from his father), and Independent former Governor of Rhode Island, is quirky, to put it mildly.
One word summarizes the past three days since the killing of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, by an American drone on order of Donald Trump: Speculation.
