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 Jussie Smollett claim of a racial and homophobic attack in late January in Chicago by two white men wearing MAGA hats is falling apart.
The story was suspicious from the start. While not impossible, it was improbable that two white guys were running around Chicago in the middle of the night...
The Jussie Smollett story of a racial attack was too politically convenient to be true. And as with investments, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
We have covered several dozen hoaxes, including
I told you that the Streisand Effect would be the end result after REM gets Twitter to take down Trump tweet of “everybody hurts” satirical video mocking Dems at SOTU.
Not only is the REM version of the video spreading on social media, now Trump has tweeted a new version set to the...
On Friday night Donald Trump tweeted a really funny satirical video created by Twitter user @CarpeDonktum.
The video (see below) used the REM song “Everybody Hurts” mixed with Trump’s State of the Union speech audio to mock Democrats and Mitt Romney, with video clips of them in the audience at SOTU. The...
The Trump administration wants to reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. Opponents allege that the administration did not follow proper administrative procedures in coming to and announcing the change.
The “compromise” omnibus spending bill negotiated in Congress is a POS. As usual, Republicans in Congress got their asses handed to them in negotiations.
It not only doesn’t give Trump even the 55 miles of border fencing reported, it has numerous poison pill provisions in it undermining existing immigration lawsw. Read these...
In the fictional book and 1964 movie Seven Days in May:
“United States military leaders plot to overthrow the President because he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty and they fear a Soviet sneak attack.”
We have devoted extensive coverage to the terror tunnels built by Hamas and other terror groups under the Gaza-Israel border, as well as the Hezbollah tunnels under the Lebanese border. Those tunnels are uniformly dug to prepare for or carry out terror activities.
I’m so old, I remember when the Democrats’ Green New Deal was going to build so much high speed rail there would be no need for airplane travel.
Totally overhaul transportation by massively expanding electric vehicle manufacturing, build charging stations everywhere, build out highspeed rail at a scale where air travel stops...
I’ve long predicted that the point would come when Democrats, frustrated and forlorn at the mediocre qualities of their primary candidates, would search for a salvation candidate.
Think about who have declared so far: Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Amy from Minnesota, Kirsten Gillibrand — all second tier politicians who will...
One of the necessary, but gut-wrenching, tasks here is to chronicle the systematic war against Jews by Palestinian terrorists, often using “children” (under 18) to carry out the attacks.
This war started long before Israel recaptured Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) in 1967, and it has continued unabated.
The Democrat Green New Deal, which has been endorsed by at least four leading Democrat presidential candidates (Harris, Warren, Booker, Gillibrand) is a grab-bag of longstanding left-wing policy dreams to nationalize the economy and healthcare, and redistribute wealth, with fighting ‘climate change’ just the latest pretext.
Among the many, many crazy proposals...
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a character familiar to anyone who has spent substantial time on campuses in the past two decades
She’s a walking, talking social justice warrior soundbite machine, someone whose knowledge is a mile wide and an inch deep. Social media, where she excels, is perfect for shallow but...
The Supreme Court has granted a stay of the new Louisiana anti-abortion law, in a 5-4 vote with Chief Justice Roberts siding with the four liberal Justices. The law in question requires a doctor performing abortion to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, which critics alleged would result in only...
There has been a fair amount of conservative frustration that the Trump administration was slow to get off the mark to renominate and start the confirmation process for judicial nominees held over from the last Congress.
Particularly as to vacancies on the 9th Circuit, there were fears that the administr...
Democrats are right to be worried that Elizabeth Warren’s Native American controversy is eating away at her viability as a national general election candidate. The analogy to Hillary’s emails is on point, an oozing campaign wound that saps the candidate’s strength.
The recent revelation that Warren signed her Texas State Bar registration...
The mainstream media must sense that Elizabeth Warren is a wounded candidate due to her Native American controversy.
And it may be time for them to turn on her.
