Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

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.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 06, 2010 2 Comments

Photo below sent by a reader in Arlington, VA, which apparently has a large Green Party contingent.  Some of the true believers have recognized that the change thing isn't working out as people expected.  The old slogans were:Change We Can Believe InChange We NeedThe new slogan...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 06, 2010 11 Comments

I really haven't tried to do the Facebook fan page thing, although I do have a Facebook Networked Blog with close to 500 followers.I find Facebook really confusing, although if my 80+ year old mother-in-law can do it, maybe I need to get with the program.So...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 06, 2010 4 Comments

Jonathan Adler at Volokh Conspiracy (via Instapundit) has a very good take down of the nutroots best and brightest economics-professor blogger, Brad DeLong:Would you consider it sound for one academic to attack a paper written by another, calling it (among other things) “obviously erroneous” and...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 06, 2010 10 Comments

I haven't pestered you with that many requests to support a congressional candidate.  So indulge me one more time, and help me support Richard Hanna, who is running in NY-24 in central upstate New York against incumbent Democrat Michael Arcuri.  The seat had been Republican for...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 05, 2010 4 Comments

Tom Daschle reveals that a secret deal was cut with hospital executives in the summer of 2009 for the hospitals to accepts approximately $155 billion in cuts in exchange for Dems dropping plans for a public option, which would have foisted massive cuts in reimbursements...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 05, 2010 10 Comments

I posted earlier about how Cash-for-Clunkers, by driving up the values of used cars, would hit Rhode Islanders because Rhode Island municipalities tax car ownership based on the Blue Book value at December 31 of the prior year.We just received our tax bill for this...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 05, 2010 3 Comments

A FoxNews/Pulse Research poll of likely voters in Nevada holds some hope for Sharron Angle:Republican Sharron Angle seems to be solidifying her support in her bid to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada.In the latest Fox News battleground state poll of likely voters, Angle...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 05, 2010 7 Comments

Who knew there was such a thing as the Al Gore Support Center?I stumbled upon the website when tracking down Gore's reputed statement about Al and Tipper being the role models for the 1970 movie Love Story, since I was running a movie clip as...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 05, 2010 5 Comments

USA Today has a particularly trite, even by USA Today standards, article bemoaning the likely decrease in the number of women in Congress:The prospects for female congressional candidates have been hurt by a combination of a tough political landscape for Democrats — women in Congress...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 05, 2010 13 Comments

MSNBC has given up any pretense of being a news organization, and is staking out an explicitly left-wing political persona as part of a new marketing campaign under the slogan, "Lean Forward."As reported by The New York Times:MSNBC, once the also-ran but now the No. 2...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 04, 2010 1 Comment

The media trolls are out in full force trying to demoralize the opposition by floating stories about how the Democrats have regained their footing, are coming back across the country, and the Republican insurgency peaked early.  See Erick Erickson's column for a round up...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 04, 2010 4 Comments

Was traveling all day, and of course, stuff happened:Sneaky little Scott Ashjian, or whatever his name is, proved that he is a sneak by secretly taping a conversation with Sharron Angle, and then leaking it to the Man.  The real shocker is that Angle, who...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 04, 2010 8 Comments

Spotted by a reader in Chapel Hill, NC (the Ithaca of the South), a now rare and suprisingly well-preserved Haughty-Naughty (Kerry-Edwards) bumper sticker, with a touch of Ohio Moonbat thrown in:--------------------------------------------Related Posts:Bumper Stickers - The SeriesFollow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2010 27 Comments

I clicked through on a Dan Riehl tweet to his post about a column by Conor Friedersdorf at Forbes, about something or other.I don't know who Conor Friedersdorf is, but Riehl doesn't seem to like him, which is really surprising because Riehl likes just about...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2010 11 Comments

The Stuxnet malware apparently was designed to damage or destroy industrial system controllers of the type used in Iran's nuclear program.It is too early to assess what, if any, damage has taken place in Iran because of the secrecy of the Iranian regime.  Based on...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2010 10 Comments

Ben Jealous, President of the NAACP, has launched a high-profile media and web campaign to demand that people in the Tea Party movement renounce racist "elements" in the movement.  As I have posted before, Mr. Jealous took islolated, and in some cases planted, signs at...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 02, 2010 16 Comments

Not just any photos.Photos of communist and socialist participants.But not just any photos of communists and socialist participants, because that would be too easy.No, the photos I want are of communists and socialist participants which appear in the mainstream media.I want examples of the mainstream...

Accessibility by WAH