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.
"They are emboldened by their win in the New York City Mayor's race, and they're going straight for the children."...
"Now that the Supreme Court definitively has determined that ‘sex’ in Title IX means biological sex, we see expanded opportunity moving forward,”...
Reserving the seats for members of the federally unrecognized Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe likely violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it limits eligibility for public office based on ancestry....
"He's very good at what he does. And what he does is selling the destruction of the United States."...
The use of the Fair Housing Act through HUD complaints reflects how innovative EPP is in rooting out the DEI discrimination that permeates campuses....
"The Roberts Court sees only white."...
"The Trump administration is opening civil-rights investigations into the University of Connecticut and the University of Minnesota after receiving complaints alleging the schools are operating dorm programs that may be steering students into campus housing services based on race."...
"Your median professor sits so far left that AOC, Sanders, and Warren would count as moderates in any faculty lounge."...
Under the Fair Housing Act, "this kind of 'steering' toward or away from housing based on race is strictly prohibited ...
One of many observations from law Prof. John F. Banzhaf on the fallout from the Supreme Court ruling on protecting girls' sports....
"What people need to understand is that this is not really about Israel and Jews. This is about the United States. This is an attempt to destroy our country from inside."...
After SCOTUS ruling on Title IX and girls sports, expect protecting female private spaces to heat up. “No woman should be forced to change in front of a man — this is not and should not be controversial,” said Kemberlee Kaye....
5-Justice majority on core constitutional ruling included three liberals: "And as much as we kind of expected this would be the result, to see it come out with that configuration is, I think, very demoralizing and disheartening"...
Roberts Opinion, joined by Barrett and the liberal block, fully embraces birthright citizenship for all. Children born to women illegally or temporarily in the country "are citizens at birth."...
“That program discriminates on its face and unequivocally on the basis of national origin"...
Barrett joined by Roberts and the three liberals: "A Mississippi law permits the counting of absentee ballots postmarked by election day but received up to five days later. We must decide whether the federal election-day statutes preempt Mississippi’s law. They do not."...
