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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 December 11, 2013 25 Comments
Mary Landreiu is inextricably tied to the passage of Obamacare. The most recent Louisiana Purchase was not about land, it was about securing Landreiu's vote. She also voted against fixes proposed by Republicans to prevent people from losing their plans. The problem for Landrieu and all other Democrats up for reelection in 2014 is that the Obamacare rollout has been a disaster, and not just as to the website. Landrieu is getting hammered by ads throwing her own words back at her: Landreiu's apparent strategy is to try to thread a needle. Landrieu's first ad of the political season is damage control, an attempt to isolate the loss of plans and shift the blame to someone else, namely Obama (via Politico, h/t Townhall):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 10, 2013 13 Comments
Update 12-11-2013 a.m. The police action failed to dislodge the protest encampment, and may have backfired as more people are moving to Independence Square to join the protesters. You can still file live coverage at the video and Twitter embeds below. https://twitter.com/DEShellenberger/status/410767401555226625 https://twitter.com/herszenhorn/status/410769635492257792 --------------------------------- Is tonight the night Ukrainian police dismantle the protest camps in Independence Square in Kiev? The protesters are trying to keep Ukraine from falling back under de facto Russian control. For more background, see out prior posts. Several live feeds fro different locations are embedded below.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 10, 2013 29 Comments
I just watched the press statements from Paul Ryan and Patty Murray. The details are being described all around as "modest" and a time out. The key is that nothing much was accomplished as to the overall budget trajectory. There also was "sequester relief," meaning that one of the only things restraining spending was weakened (Ryan justified that by saying that new sequester cuts were mostly from the military). While there are no "new taxes," beleaguered airline passengers will see new ticket fees. But it's not a tax! Most of the MSM headlines are predictable -- Congress is working again! NBC summarizes the "deal" as follows:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 10, 2013 55 Comments
There war on little boys in elementary schools continues unabated. Little children are being punished with suspensions, expulsions, and permanent damage to school records based on standards of conduct carried into elementary schools from the adult world. Typically, but not exclusively, the insanity is directed at little boys for alleged violation of zero tolerance gun and sexual harassment policies. KRDO reports:
A Canon City school six-year-old boy has been accused of sexual harassment and the school suspended him for kissing a girl on the cheek and hand. A child psychologist said the tough treatment could have negative consequences. She said the kissing is normal behavior for children of that age. Lincoln School of Science and Technology is home to young growing minds from Kindergarten to 5th grade. Six-year-old Hunter Yelton is one of them suspended two days for kissing a girl once on the hand and another time on the cheek. Sandy Wurtele, a child clinical psychologist at UCCS, specializes in child sexual development and the prevention of childhood sexual abuse. She said she wasn't surprised when we told her about Hunter kissing a classmate. "For most six-year-old boys, absolutely. That would be a normal behavior,” said Wurtele. However, she was surprised to hear the school suspended him.
The Principal is defending the punishment:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 10, 2013 16 Comments

The news of the day is that John Podesta, the founder and head of The Center for American Progress,  is becoming a White House advisor.  The NY Times reports, Ex-Clinton Aide Expected to Join Obama: President Obama, after a rocky year that leaves him at the lowest...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 10, 2013 8 Comments
We covered the Alabama last second loss to Auburn.  Even that game became political when the Alabama student newspaper ran the cartoon featured above. James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal reports:
This isn't a sports column, but there's a reason we opened with a nine-day-old play-by-play. Back in Tuscaloosa, the Alabama loss led to a kerfuffle last week involving the student newspaper, the perplexingly named Crimson White. Its cartoonist drew a strip, published Thursday, depicting the final play under the title "This Is What Happens in OBAMA'S AMERICA." The last two words were in massive letters, drawn in horror-movie style, with what was supposed to look like blood dripping from them. Later that day, editor Mazie Bryant posted "A Statement From the Editor-in-Chief" in which she explained that "the cartoon was meant as satire . . . as a lighthearted look at some of the more absurd explanations given for Alabama's collapse at the end of the Iron Bowl game against Auburn last Saturday."Only in Obama's America could something so obvious have eluded anyone. "Unfortunately," Bryant noted, the cartoon "has been perceived by many readers as having racist intentions."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 09, 2013 60 Comments
I told you there were problems with the most recent arrest of George Zimmerman allegedly for pointing a shotgun at his girlfriend, when it came out that the girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, was shopping for a paid interview prior to the incident. Now, according to court filings (embedded at bottom of post), Sheibe wants to drop the charges. Via Orlando Sentinel:
George Zimmerman's girlfriend — who authorities said accused him of pointing a shotgun at her — no longer wants him to be prosecuted, and wants to resume their relationship, according a new motion. A sworn statement made by the girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, was attached to a motion by Zimmerman's lawyer seeking to modify the conditions of Zimmerman's bond in his domestic violence case. In the statement, Scheibe says she felt "intimidated" when police questioned her about the Nov. 18 incident that led to Zimmerman's arrest. She adds that she "may have misspoken." "I want to be with George," Scheibe says in the statement, adding later: "I do not want George Zimmerman charged. I make this decision freely, knowingly and voluntarily," and without coercion, she says. She says that she and Zimmerman had an "argument," but Zimmerman "never pointed a gun at or torward my face in a threatening manner."
The original 911 call (language warning):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 09, 2013 32 Comments
With each passing day, we learn more and more about the horrible effects of Obamacare. Here are just some of the "new" revelations. While there is ample evidence that premiums have risen for many if not most people, the NY Times finds that the supposedly lower premiums come with much higher deductibles, On Health Exchanges, Premiums May Be Low, but Other Costs Can Be High:
For months, the Obama administration has heralded the low premiums of medical insurance policies on sale in the insurance exchanges created by the new health law. But as consumers dig into the details, they are finding that the deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs are often much higher than what is typical in employer-sponsored health plans.... In El Paso, Tex., for example, for a husband and wife both age 35, one of the cheapest plans on the federal exchange, offered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield, has a premium less than $300 a month, but the annual deductible is more than $12,000. For a 45-year-old couple seeking insurance on the federal exchange in Saginaw, Mich., a policy with a premium of $515 a month has a deductible of $10,000. In Santa Cruz, Calif., where the exchange is run by the state, Robert Aaron, a self-employed 56-year-old engineer, said he was looking for a low-cost plan. The best one he could find had a premium of $488 a month. But the annual deductible was $5,000, and that, he said, “sounds really high.” By contrast, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average deductible in employer-sponsored health plans is $1,135.
That is not exactly news, but that the NY Times is now up to speed with the rest of us is important because it helps filter the information down even to low information NY Times readers. https://twitter.com/gabrielmalor/status/410029530636894208 Jim Geraghty has more bad news, But Other Than All That, Obamacare Had a Good Weekend!:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 09, 2013 25 Comments
The trial of the murderers of British army drummer Lee Rigby with machetes and knives on a London street continues. We reported before, Murderers of Lee Rigby searched for British soldier to kill. The trial is receiving almost no mainstream media coverage in the U.S. One of the killers took the stand today, and was proud of what he had done, as reported by The Telegraph:
Michael Adebolajo, 28, also told the Old Bailey jury that he was a “soldier of Allah” and that he had no regrets over the killing because he was obeying his god. He said after the case he should be either “ransomed” back to his Mujahideen brothers, freed or killed.
At the start of his defence in chief, Adebolajo sat in the witness box of Court number 2, surrounded by five security guards and just feet from Fusilier Rigby’s family. He and Michael Adebowale, 22, are accused of murdering Fusilier Rigby by running him down with a car and then hacking him to death with a meat cleaver and knives near Woolwich Barracks in south east London on May 22. Asked who al Qaeda were by his counsel, David Gottlieb, Adebolajo replied: "Al Qaeda, I consider to be Mujahideen. I love them, they're my brothers. I have never met them. I consider them my brothers in Islam." He added: "Mujahideen are the army of Allah." He said: “I am a soldier and this is war.” When asked what his defence to the charge of murder is, Adebolajo said: "I'm a soldier. I'm a soldier of Allah and I understand that some people might not recognise this because we do not wear fatigues and we do not go to the Brecon Beacons and train and this sort of thing. But we are still soldiers in the sight of Allah as a mujahid. "This is all that matters, if Allah considers me a soldier, then I am a soldier."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 09, 2013 2 Comments
We previously have highlighted the Ukrainian protest movement seeking to prevent Ukraine from falling back under Russian domination: The protests continue, but as of this writing it appears that police are moving in, although it's unclear if it's an attempt to evict the protesters completely. LIVE VIDEO and Twitter stream at bottom of post. Kyiv Post has live reporting updates. Here is video of yesterday's protest at Independence Square in Kiev:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 09, 2013 4 Comments

You'll need it in 2014. From Raging Conservative, who tweets: https://twitter.com/RagCon/status/409969991476576256 ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 08, 2013 16 Comments
We noted previously the Senior Hezbollah commander assassinated, Hassan Laqqis. Hezbollah immediately blamed Israel. It certainly makes sense when you consider how professionally it was carried out. Unlike the Jihadis who blow up cars or themselves, the Laqquis hit was carried out precisely and using silenced weapons. The hit men (or women?) got into a heavily secured area without notice, and located their target late at night. There must have been precise intelligence not only as to his location, but his movements. Even more impressively, the gunmen escaped without being captured. There must have been help to get them away from the scene, and likely out of the country, before Hezbollah security woke up to what had happened. So we are talking minutes to get out of the area, and hours to get out of the country. While we cannot eliminate that the hit was carried out by Jihadis or some other intelligence service, it seems unlikely. Foreign Policy magazine had an article asserting that Laqqis was on Israel's Kill List:
There'll be a summit conference in the sky," smiled an Israeli intelligence official Wednesday morning when he learned of the assassination of Hassan Lakkis, the Hezbollah commander in charge of weapons development and advanced technological warfare, in a Beirut suburb around midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 3. The killing of Lakkis is yet another in the latest in a long series of assassinations of leading figures in what Israeli intelligence calls the "Radical Front," which comprises two countries -- Syria and Iran -- and three organizations: Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 08, 2013 10 Comments

I don't thing the left side bumper can handle the right side bumper sticker. Or the truth. From J: A product of the Obama worshipping "education" system, no doubt....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 07, 2013 37 Comments
Nelson Mandela died on Thursday. I have been deliberately deliberative on writing about his death, in this post for the first time. As so many rushed out with statements based on self-proclaimed expertise on Mandela's life, I realized that I knew little of his life other than the big picture -- A fight to end Apartheid and a famous lack of desire for revenge. Maybe that was enough to know. What I've read the past couple of days confirms both the greatness of his accomplishments, yet also the mixed record of his life which does not justify simplification. Mandela embraced totalitarian communist and socialist regimes during his struggle against another form of unjust regime; he embraced the murderous thieving Yasser Arafat, yet also insisted on Israel's right to exist in secure borders. Here are just a few of the more informative pieces, among many dozens I've read: This immediate post-release press conference seems to embody the conflicting aspects of his history and that of South Africa:
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