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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 June 11, 2019 18 Comments
There's not question that Elizabeth Warren has generated buzz with her serial proposals to transform the country. Whether her plans, which impose a government control of the economy that makes Obama seem like a free-market zealot, will sell in a general election is something even the NY Times is questioning:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 11, 2019 46 Comments

Update

[3:20 p.m.] The Court has rejected plaintiffs' request to use the mass email sent by Oberlin College's Vice President and General Counsel, Donica Thomas Varner, to the Oberlin community criticizing the jury. The plaintiffs subpoenaed her to testify, and the defense filed a motion to quash the subpoena. The Judge ruled: "this was a letter sent by the Oberlin general counsel after the verdict. We are talking about the actions of the defendants that demonstrated malice. What we will use is only what was litigated in court."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 10, 2019 14 Comments
During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump famously put out a list of judges he would consider for the Supreme Court if he were elected. The list served both to assure conservatives and also to motivate Republican voters. It's widely agreed that the Supreme Court specifically, and the federal judiciary more generally, were key factors in Trump's victory.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 10, 2019 41 Comments
As you know, last Friday the jury rendered a verdict of $11.2 million against Oberlin College and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo for compensatory damages. Allyn W. Gibson was awarded $3 million, David Gibson $5.8 million, Gibson Bros. $2,274,500. Legal Insurrection readers heard it here first. Our Verdict post has been shared tens of thousands of times on social media.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 09, 2019 17 Comments
It has been a busy few months here since launching the Legal Insurrection Foundation in early March 2019. We have continued to put the systems in place to effectuate our mission to put together a small but effective research, investigative and educational team. We have a special focus on intersectionality and the red-green alliance, the cross-over of anti-capitalism, anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism that motivates so much of the activism ripping at the fabric of our freedoms.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 09, 2019 152 Comments
There are a lot of things about the way Oberlin College handled the Gibson's Bakery dispute and lawsuit that have had me wondering who, if anyone, is in control over there. As mentioned numerous times, "from the start of this case I have questioned the aggressive and demeaning attacks on the Gibsons as a defense strategy," and "I’m still shaking my head at the tone-deafness of the defense in belittling this family business." The jury seems to have agreed, rendering a combined $11.2 million compensatory damages verdict against Oberlin College and its Dean of Students, Meredith Raimondo.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 08, 2019 73 Comments
A jury has awarded Gibson's Bakery and its owners $11 million in compensatory damages against Oberlin College, for libel, intentional interference with business, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The punitive damage hearing next week could add another $22 million, bringing the total to $33 million. There will be post-trial motions to set aside the jury verdict and/or reduce the dollar amounts, and then appeals. So while the Gibson family won a major victory, it is not over.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 07, 2019 245 Comments
The Jury in the Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College case has reached a verdict. According to our reporter in the Courtroom, the jury awarded $11 million. Here are the details: Allyn W. Gibson was awarded $3 million, David Gibson $5.8 million, Gibson Bros. $2,274,500. Next Tuesday there will be a separate punitive damages hearing which could be a double award (meaning tripling the $11 million to $33 million).

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 06, 2019 5 Comments
When a coalition of student groups at Cornell University, led by Students for Justice in Palestine, recently tried to pass a divestment resolution against certain companies doing business in Israel, a couple of interesting things happened. First, as is now a common tactic, the dispute was racialized to portray it as a coalition of "students of color" against the white supremacist (Jewish) Israelis.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 06, 2019 67 Comments
FRIDAY (by WAJ) See new post

VERDICT: Jury awards Gibson’s Bakery $11 million against Oberlin college

Update 2:30 p.m. -- Dan tells me the judge read the verdict in court and the jury awarded $11 million. I am waiting for details as to which plaintiffs got what, and against which defendants, and for which claims. UPDATE 2 p.m. -- Jury has reached a verdict. We should know soon.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 05, 2019 19 Comments
When Elizabeth Warren rolled-out her DNA test in October 2018, there was a lot of laughter and mockery because the test revealed that she may be as little as 1/1024th Native American by DNA. Even that finding was suspect given the DNA sample used for comparison was not from North American Indians, so Warren may be 0% Native American. But it was no joke to actual Native Americans, particularly Cherokee, whose identity Warren had misappropriated for employment purposes as she was climbing the law professor ladder to Harvard Law School.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 04, 2019 20 Comments
Elizabeth Warren has been getting a lot of good press lately as she rolls out a series of dramatic proposals to fundamentally change the society she views as rigged. These proposals, far grander than anything even Obama proposed, get her into the news cycles, but it's not clear that it's caused more than a minor bounce in her popularity.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 30, 2019 15 Comments
In early December 2018, Israel launched "Operation Northern Shield," the effort to locate and destroy Hezbollah cross-border tunnels along the Lebanese border in northern Israel. There were many dramatic videos of the operation, including that moment when Hezbollah operatives on the Lebanese side came face-to-face with an Israeli surveillance camera inserted into one of the tunnels:
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