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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 January 08, 2020 61 Comments
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 the attack on the American Embassy in Baghdad, together with planned attacks in the near future, were too much and provoked the drone attack on Soleimani.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 07, 2020 52 Comments
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 portion of the lawsuits were reopened by the court and all three lawsuits were reactivated.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 06, 2020 31 Comments
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.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 02, 2020 137 Comments
Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, is the architect of Iran's war on the West and Israel, including through Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist group. There was an airstrike on a convoy of vehicles at Baghdad airport, and reportedly Soleimani was killed along with the leader of the Iraqi militia aligned with Iran.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 31, 2019 32 Comments
What a year. The politics have been b**s*** crazy. It's been hard to focus on longer term projects and investigations when you don't know from one minute to the next, much less one day to the next, what the next fire alarm will be about.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 29, 2019 31 Comments
The recent spike in attacks on Jews in the greater New York City area follows a pattern that does not fit with the media portrayal of violence against Jews being solely a 'white nationalist' problem. All or almost all of the attacks were perpetrated by non-whites, including the deadly shooting in Jersey City, street attacks in Brooklyn, and the machete attack in Monsey. While this seems to come out of nowhere, in fact there has been a highly organized and aggressive campaign to stoke and exploit pre-existing racial tensions against Jews as part of anti-Israel activist tactics. The effort goes back decades to Louis Farrakhan, who serves as an inspiration for "intersectional" activists like Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, and Linda Sarsour, formerly of the Women's March.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2019 20 Comments
Joe Biden was clear twice on the record in the past month that he would refuse to obey a Senate subpoena to testify at Trump's impeachment trial. There was no lack of clarity in the questions or Biden's answer. As documented in my prior post, Biden said it in an NPR interview earlier this month and again to the Des Moines Register yesterday.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 27, 2019 39 Comments
There is no indication that Mitch McConnell and his Republican majority in the Senate are going to let the impeachment trial turn into a wide-ranging free-for-all. Democrats desperately want to try to rescue their woefully inadequate impeachment case by locating evidence outside the record on which impeachment was based. At the same time, some Republicans wish for the day they can get Joe Biden, Adam Schiff and other Democrats on the witness stand.
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