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.
"Recognizing the extraordinary circumstances presented by this case, the District Court determined that the appointment of a special master and entry of a limited injunction were “fully consonant” with “the public interest, the principles of civil and criminal procedure, and the principles of equity.”...
UCLA's pro-CRT map has money and institutional power behind it. Our CriticalRace.org maps have none of that, just lots of inconvenient facts: "What our database has turned into over time is more than a parent tool. It's really a documentation of, in many ways, the...
"The district court has entered an unprecedented order enjoining the Executive Branch’s use of its own highly classified records in a criminal investigation with direct implications for national security."...
"Legal Insurrection, Professor Jacobson, and your readers, gave the family the support and the courage that they needed ...
“the university will hold off on all undergraduate club activities while it immediately takes steps to follow the roadmap provided by the US Supreme Court to protect YU’s religious freedom.”...
As to DOJ claims that documents are classified and not subject to executive privilege: "The Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly...
If Trumpworld and conservative world and Republican world legitimately were deserving of carpet bombed subpoenas regarding January 6, it would have been done a year ago, not now in the runup to the 2022 midterms. It's reminiscent of the 2013-2014 prosecutorial attempt to freeze the...
Majority: "The application is denied because it appears that applicants have at least two further avenues for expedited or interim state court relief." Alito Dissent: "As the [Pride] Alliance has contended, this would force Yeshiva to make a 'statement' in support of an interpretation of...
"This investigation of the 45th President of the United States is both unprecedented and misguided. In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the Government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his...
"I think this paragraph sort of sums it up for me" as to where the country is heading....
"… the sound of the PASS (Personal Alert Safety System) alarms worn by firemen, which continued chirping after the buildings collapsed, each one representing a life lost. I never have been able to erase that sound from my memory."...
"Yeshiva shouldn’t have been forced to go all the way to the Supreme Court to receive such a commonsense ruling in favor of its First Amendment rights." Eric Baxter, Vice President and Senior Counsel at Becket, said, "We are grateful that Justice Sotomayor stepped in to protect Yeshiva’s...
"the government seeks a stay to the extent the Order (1) enjoins the further review and use for criminal investigative purposes of records bearing classification markings ...
Says Tuomas Malinen. Adds Murtaza Hussain of The Intercept: "If you turned the electricity off for a few months in any developed Western society 500 years of supposed philosophical progress about human rights and individualism would quickly evaporate like they never happened."...
