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 February 08, 2010 18 Comments

Barack Obama was steadfast during the campaign and after his election in his willingness to enter into negotiations with Iran without preconditions.But Obama is not willing to enter into health care negotiations with Republicans without preconditions.In inviting Republicans to the negotiating table for the first...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 07, 2010 41 Comments

Writing-on-hand-gate reminds me of one of the reasons Sarah Palin was put on this earth: To bring out and expose the worst misogynistic impulses in the hard core of the Democratic base.I'm not talking about criticism or mockery of the handwritten notes. That's fair game....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 07, 2010 6 Comments

I will not react in haste. I will wait until TOTUS passes judgment, and tells us how to react.Oh TOTUS, wherefore art thou TOTUS when we need you most?Please call it "The People's Teleprompter" or something like that.And make them go away so I don't...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 07, 2010 33 Comments

At one level, Obama and his supporters have played the "Birther" issue brilliantly. By refusing to release his birth certificate and by equating a demand that Obama release his birth certificate with being a racist, Obama has created the single most toxic charge that can...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 07, 2010 7 Comments

Why is Obama calling the 2-3 foot snowfall in Washington, D.C. "Snowmaggeden"?In keeping with one of Obama's favorite lines repeated in his speeches, Obama should be saying:"This is the worst snowfall since the Great Depression." --------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 06, 2010 3 Comments

This is the latest in the Saturday Night Card Game series on the use of the race card for political gain:Max Blumenthal at Salon.com declared James O'Keefe to have a "race problem," which are just code words for being a racist.Blumenthal's story was based on...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 06, 2010 34 Comments

As readers of this blog already know, I am cursed with two of the looniest Congressmen in existence, Patrick Kennedy in my home state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and Maurice Hinchey in Ithaca, NY, where I live during the academic year.In the wake...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 05, 2010 12 Comments

Hissy fit alert. The left-wing blogs are screaming in perfect harmony about bad, bad, bad Richard Shelby of Alabama (R-of course), who put a hold on the entire government.That's not quite clear at this point, it appears that Shelby used a longstanding Senate mechanism to...

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

Seem pretty much like the bad present days. Maybe it is all W's fault, or Bubba's, or HW's, or Ronnie's, or Jimmy's, or Gerry's, or Dick's. We know it's not O's fault.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ThHrqlGdSk]--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 05, 2010 9 Comments

Scott Brown's election destroyed the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It would have been enough.Brown's election may have prevented the national disaster known as the Democratic health care bills. It would have been enough.Brown's election has killed the national disaster known as cap-and-trade. It...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 04, 2010 17 Comments

Earlier today, about 3000 visits ago, I passed 2 million visits since the start of this blog in mid-October 2008. The 1 million mark was passed in late September 2009 after 11.5 months, and the second million just 4 months later.I missed it earlier...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 04, 2010 6 Comments

Gallup has come out with another of its surveys showing how different groups self-identify in terms of liberal-conservative-moderate.The headline of the Gallup release focused on the liberal leanings of Asian-Americans, but the survey also showed that "non-Hispanic blacks" self-identified slightly more conservative (29%) than liberal...

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

Barack Obama held a question-and-answer meeting with Democratic Senators yesterday to field questions about where the administration is heading on various initiatives. I posted yesterday about Obama's clueless answer to Blanche Lincoln's comment that her constituents feel like no one in the administration understands what...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 03, 2010 7 Comments

This exchange between Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) and Barack Obama reflects just how clueless Obama is about the mood in this country and the damage his ideological intransigence is doing to his own party. As reported by The Hill:She also took a swipe at Obama's White...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 03, 2010 9 Comments

Almost as if on cue, DailyKos, Steve Benen, Andrew Sullivan, Sam Stein and others are pushing hard on the meme that Republicans are "crazy" and Taliban-like in their ways.The "crazy" findings are based on a poll commissioned by DailyKos using the same pollster which found,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 03, 2010 9 Comments

Mike Allen at Politico created news yesterday, by reporting that Shoe-bomber Richard Reid was read Miranda rights in December 2001. The argument goes that since the Shoe-bomber was given Miranda rights while George Bush was President in December 2001, Obama is insulated from criticism...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 02, 2010 13 Comments

An early draft of the Constitution has been found in Philadelphia. Although the handwriting is not perfectly clear, my sources tell me that this is how the Preamble read in this early draft:We the people of the United States, in order to form a more...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 02, 2010 6 Comments

Understandably, the raw numbers in Obama's budget -- both deficits and taxes -- are receiving huge attention.There is another aspect which makes the raw numbers even more pernicious. Many of the new tax increases are a function of the taxpayer's overall income, such as caps...

Accessibility by WAH