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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 November 25, 2020 103 Comments
Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to former General Michael Flynn, who was wrongfully targeted by the FBI during the 2016-2017 transition as part of a broader effort to undermine and sabotage the incoming administration.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2020 41 Comments
Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager who is charged with murder in a shooting during Kenosha, Wisconsin, riots, has been freed on $2 million bail.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 18, 2020 90 Comments
We are quickly moving towards two internet universes, one controlled by liberal and leftist tech giants, the other controlled by upstart conservative services providing a refuge for deplatformed, demonetized, and throttled conservatives.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 12, 2020 41 Comments
Harvard discriminates in admissions, that is beyond doubt. So do many other elite colleges and universities. That's illegal, right? Kinda, sorta, but not if you discriminate against certain groups to benefit other groups and couch it in Supreme-Court-approved verbiage about wanting to provide a diverse educational environment.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 11, 2020 27 Comments
New York Magazine has performed what Rush might call a 'random act of journalism' by taking a deep dive on the transformation of the NY Times into both a paper whose growth was fueled by resistance to Trump, and fundamentally transformed internally by young "insurrectionist" staffers from outside the traditional journalism pipeline.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 10, 2020 37 Comments
Today starting at 10 a.m. is the oral argument in (1) the appeal byOberlin College and Dean of Students Meredith Raimando seeking to overturn the compensatory and punitive damage awards totalling, after reduction under Ohio tort reform law, $25 million, plus over $6 million in attorney's fees, bringing the judgment to over $32 million, and (2) the cross-appeal by Gibson's Bakery and two members of the Gibson family (including the widow of the late David Gibson) seeking to restore the full $33 million punitive damages award, arguing the tort reform reduction was unconstitutional, which would add back about $15 million to the judgment.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 09, 2020 104 Comments
There is a lot of litigation regarding election fraud. Some of it is significant, some of it small ball, but it all needs to work it's way through the legal system. The allegations are serious and pervasive; whether they are successful remains to be seen.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 08, 2020 24 Comments
There is a lot of usual inside-the-beltway conventional nonsense analysis and bluster going around about the elections. Ignore it, it's the same dishonest take we've seen in the mainstream media and polling organizations for years.
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