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.

Not by right-wingers, but by left-wingers, Leftists harass immigrants for supporting Germany:Leftist anarchists in Berlin have reportedly been harassing immigrants showing their support for the German football team during the World Cup, tearing down national flags and even setting one on fire.The leftists have been...

So stifle the economy and scare employers into not hiring that people simply give up looking for jobs, and therefore are not counted in the unemployment rate.That is what the jobs numbers just released show (emphasis mine):Employers cut 125,000 jobs last month, the most since...

The media has been there (Obamamania), done that (destroyed its credibility and any pretense of objectivity). Now it's time for "Presidential Scholars" to befool themselves, Professors rank President Obama 15th best president:A new poll of leading presidential scholars ranks Barack Obama as the 15th best...

Rifles, machines guns, now "The Burp."Jim Bender, running for the Republican Senate nomination in New Hampshire. Listen for "the burp" of overstuffed government:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUvd2fDsBos]You can support him here.--------------------------------------------Related Posts:Will Political Ads Move To Tank Warfare?"The pretty, big-boobed, gun-toting hottie paradigm"Dale Peterson For Gulf Clean Up CzarFollow...

Four months left until the November election. Time is running out on the Obama agenda.Not the time to ease up, but to push harder because soon it will be too late.Democrats are approaching ramming speed trying desperately to complete the picture, having taken over the...

Sharron Angle has come under withering fire from Harry Reid's campaign and its operatives for highlighting the need to move away from the entitlement state in favor of policies which foster personal choices and responsibility.Yet a budget report just released by the Congressional Budget Office...

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is one of the most polarizing Senators. His favorite form of argument is reduced to the following: "You are bad, we are good."If you were from Rhode Island, as I am, you would understand that this has been Whitehouse's political character long...

First it was Dale Peterson firing off a shotgun. Then Pamela Gorman a machine gun. Great advertisements, both. Home runs.Caution. If you move to tank warfare, you better know what you are doing.If not, history will not be kind.--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook,...

The narcissistic mainstream media and its supporters in the left-wing blogosphere have been toeing the Harry Reid campaign line that Sharron Angle has been "hiding" from the press.What they really meant was that Sharron Angle didn't grant them an interview. She appeared on plenty of...

There is a question no one has asked so far. What did Elena Kagan mean when she wrote, in a prior confirmation hearing when she was nominated for Solicitor General:"There is no federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage."This statement, which seems pretty clear to me...

Markos Moulitsas, the founder of Daily Kos, has accused Research 2000 of defrauding Daily Kos in conducting research polling.The accusation is about as inflammatory as one can get. For professional pollsters, a reputation for fairness and accuracy is everything.The damage to Research 2000 will be...

... is Andrew Sullivan's derisive explanation for the success of female Republican candidates, like Sarah Palin and "clone" Pamela Gorman.Anywhere else that would be called sexist (and also a feature, not a bug).You can support Pamela Gorman here, just to drive them crazy.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqnjzONrPiA]Update: Will Political...

A class action lawsuit has been filed in Florida against Charlie Crist and the Crist campaign seeking the return of donations made to Crist while he was running as a Republican. The attorney in the lawsuit, Thomas Grady, was a former regional chair for...

(Please try not to fall asleep while reading this post.)There is something profoundly depressing about the nomination of Elena Kagan.Kagan has an impressive resume. But ...

We all know how carefully the Obama administration touts the mythical "jobs created or saved" (or is it "saved or created"?).We also know how many jobs have been lost since the Stimulus Plan passed (well over 2 million, even including expansion of government jobs).But,is anyone...

As I posted before, Harry Reid's campaign is attempting to create the appearance of a groundswell of opposition to Sharron Angle by staging purportedly independent protests against Angle's alleged plan to eliminate social security (Angle's actual position is here).The protests are organized by the Nevada...

...[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO13_tJ6x44]Update: A reader e-mailed me as follows:While Biden’s remark demonstrates the hubris of the Governing Class, Obama’s Ex-Im Bank Board takes the food off their tables.See: http://www.jsonline.com/business/97225544.htmlWherein, for POLITICAL and IDEOLOGICAL reasons alone, a Milwaukee success story may lose 1,000 employees AND a $600++ million...

Gen. Stanley McChrystal was relieved of command in Afghanistan after an article in Rolling Stone magazine.The article widely was described as evidencing McChrystal's insubordination by criticizing the political leadership, but as I demonstrated, such explanation did not make a lot of sense. There were almost...