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Author: William A. Jacobson

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William A. Jacobson

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.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 23, 2020 39 Comments
In his Nevada caucus victory speech, Bernie Sanders rattled off -- before an ecstatic crowd of college-age supporters -- a laundry list of promises: Free public higher education, cancellation of all student loan debt, universal free healthcare, universal "affordable" childcare, minimum $60k per year teacher salaries, and a nationwide $15 per hour minimum wage, among other things. And not just for citizens, but for the "undocumented" as well.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 22, 2020 36 Comments
Chris Matthews on MSNBC is not taking Bernie's victory in the Nevada caucuses well. It signals to him that Bernie is unstoppable in the Democrat primaries. Such a result would be the end of the Democrat Party as a viable force, a result so serious that he compared it to the fall of France in 1940 to Germany.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 22, 2020 110 Comments
The lower federal courts repeatedly have had their orders and injunctions against Trump administration programs halted by the Supreme Court. In the travel cases, multiple stays were issued and when the case finally reached the Supreme Court on the merits, Trump won. This is not a matter of pro-Trump bias, but of out-of-control lower courts, particularly at the District Court level, where judges have overstepped their bounds to substitute judicial preferences for those of the executive branch in which the constitution vests matters related to entry into the country, among other things.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 20, 2020 48 Comments
Mike Bloomberg had a terrible night at the Las Vegas debate. On that point, I'm in agreement with the conventional wisdom. I'm not in agreement that he is done as a candidate, assuming he's still willing to spend an additional half-billion dollars on advertising, paying social media 'influencers' to hype him, and buying up Democrat policitians and media.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 16, 2020 16 Comments
Rasmea Odeh is a terrorist who not only was convicted of killing two Israeli students, she lied to get into the U.S. and become a U.S. citizen. Odeh was convicted of immigration fraud and deported in September 2017. Now she's making a comeback on campuses, glorified by groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, and just recently at UC-Berkeley, where anti-Israel activists ripped up a photo of her victims.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 15, 2020 34 Comments
All has been quiet lately on the Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College front. The case is on appeal, with a short remand to the trial court to memorialize certain oral trial rulings so that the record is complete for appeal. As we documented previously, there is ancillary litigation in the trial court by certain Cleveland media interests seeking to unseal confidential Facebook records of Allyn D. Gibson, the bakery clerk who stopped the Oberlin College student from shoplifting. That turned into a scuffle, arrests of three students, and the protests, boycotts, lawsuit, and jury trial.
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