Image 01 Image 03

Author: William A. Jacobson

Profile photo

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.

From reader @surmesa: "Good Intentions" in Bismarck, ND (Harpist, miniVan, trailer hitch, bumper damage at right…. all fits - Accept, Cope, Obey). Guessing the Kerry-Edwards sticker has been removed after jury started deliberations. Seen in Bismarck, ND, week of 5/21/2012 ...

This is a little scary, particularly if it were put in the wrong hands. Via The Times of Israel: A new, unprecedented computer virus called “Flame” (or “sKyWIper”) has hit Iran, the West Bank, and other Middle Eastern locations. It is already considered one of the...

As Politico notes, The Boston Herald has outdone The Boston Globe in reporting on Elizabeth Warren, although The Globe finally is coming around to some hard reporting after its editorial board declared the issue over weeks ago: Long before Republican Sen. Scott Brown vs. Elizabeth Warren...

What an ironic statement from Jennifer Rubin (emphasis mine): It is awfully tempting for pundits to use people and personal conflicts as stick figures in a polemic play reaffirming one’s preexisting impressions and biases. That’s certainly been the case in the Richard Grenell case...

On this day we honor all the fallen, three of whom we have remembered here before, Johnny "Mike" Spann, Cpl Jonathan Daniel Porto, and U.S. Army, Spc. Dennis Weichel . We add a new person to our memory, Air Force Lt. Roslyn Schulte, of Ladue, Missouri, killed by a roadside bomb...

Spotted by a reader in Orange County, CA: ...

Congratulations to Power Line Blog on its 10th Anniversary.  Scott Johnson writes: It was ten years ago this weekend — ten years ago today, I think, but maybe tomorrow — that John Hinderaker went to Blogger and set up Power Line. On Memorial Day that weekend...

Al Sharpton: Meghan McCain and Al Sharpton: Now Meghan is whining about criticism of her over the Sharpton interview, which is part of her schtick as pointed out by Noah Rothman at Mediaite , Meghan McCain Looks For Fight, Finds Many, Now Wants Sympathy? MSNBC contributor Meghan McCain appeared on...

Its case for a separate state is as good as if not better than the Palestinians since it was its own entity prior to French colonial rule. Via JPost: For Ferhat Mehenni, Israel is an ideal partner and friend for Kabylie, a geographic sliver of Algeria’s northern...

In the continuing on-line war, Brett Kimberlin's Wikipedia entry which documented his history has been taken down, and get this, the excuse given is that Kimberlin was the victim of a harrassment campaign. Patrick Frey, the victim of a true harrassment campaign, has the story: I have...

I wasn't going to do an Elizabeth Warren post today.  Really. But in my in-box was a link to this story at The Boston Herald, Elizabeth Warren shuts door on Herald’s inquiry (video at the link): Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren, in a sequel to an awkward on-camera encounter...

A reader sends this photo: This is the back of my 1996 ford explorer that i drive around in charlottesville, virginia. Some days i stop in to whole foods. Heh. ...

Obama has lost roughly 40% of the Democratic primary vote to an imprisoned felon in West Virginia, to "uncommitted" in Kentucky, and to a Tennesee lawyer who "could fit snugly on Dylan Ratigan's MSNBC show" and who no one in Arkansas likely had heard of before...

We're just about a month away from the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare. David Hogberg has a column at Investors Business Daily on the political fallout if the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare: A Supreme Court ruling next month striking down Obama-Care would immediately shift the battle...

There already are efforts to bus supporters of the recall to the polls for early voting. There's nothing illegal or unethical about that, so long as only eligible voters vote.  But it's a reminder that some good polling is not a substitute for going to the...

Alan Colmes appears to be going the Ed Schultz route and practically begging Elizabeth Warren just to come clean. Like Schultz, Colmes still is a supporter, but feels a pain from Warren twisting in the winds which have come sweeping off the plains of Warren's obfuscation...