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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 April 22, 2019 27 Comments
Democrats, who now control the House of Representatives, are using their committee powers to wage an all out war on Donald Trump regarding his personal finances, including businesses. This use of government power to go after all things Trump is not new. Various state Attorney Generals, particularly Tish James in New York, have signaled a desire and intent to subject Trump's personal and business finances to extreme scrutiny looking for a crime.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 12, 2019 15 Comments
Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann sued The Washington Post for defamation related to its coverage of the incident in which Sandmann was portrayed as the perpetrator of the harassment of a Native American 'elder' after the March for Life in D.C. Sandmann also sued CNN in a separate lawsuit, and other lawsuits may follow.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 11, 2019 9 Comments
Students for Justice in Palestine brought a thoroughly misleading and false resolution divesting from certain companies doing business in Israel before the Cornell University Undergraduate Student Assembly. The President of Cornell previously rejected the SJP divestment request. So the vote in front of the Student Assembly would have been merely symbolic.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 10, 2019 14 Comments
A conservative victory in Wisconsin now is a done deal in the election to replace retiring uber-liberal Justice Shirley Abrahamson. We previously reported on the victory by conservative appeals court Justice Brian Hagedorn, Wisconsin Sup Ct election has Democrats worried for 2020 – Conservative has unexpected lead heading into possible recount.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 09, 2019 2 Comments
We previously covered the policy implemented by Airbnb last November to ban listings from Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"). That amounted to a de facto Jewish boycott because Jews are forbidden under Palestinian Authority law and practice from buying homes outside the settlements, and Palestinians could be killed for selling or renting to a Jew.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 05, 2019 24 Comments
Elizabeth Warren's campaign is stuck in neutral at best, in reverse at worst. She just isn't getting any momentum despite assembling a high-powered campaign team before anyone else, and announcing before any other major candidates. The DNA rollout was an unmitigated disaster, and compounded Warren's original sin, her false claim to be Native American.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 03, 2019 12 Comments
Wisconsin Supreme Court election fights have been some of the most intense and bizarre elections we have covered over the years. According to US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Robert, "We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges." Maybe, maybe not, but in Wisconsin there sure are conservative and liberal judges, and the battle for control of the court has moved in sync with the battle by former Governor Scott Walker to wrestle control of the state from public sector employee unions.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 03, 2019 22 Comments
With a long video history of creepy touching and nuzzling women and young women in front of the cameras, Joe Biden now has four women who accuse him of doing similar things off camera. There is little doubt this has hurt Biden because it throws off his plans for a smooth campaign announcement -- if he announces. It also cements his nickname for the campaign: Creepy Joe.
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