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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.

Last we reported, while you were focused on the pandemic, Mitch McConnell kept moving judicial nominees through the Senate confirmation process, with an eye on filling every vacancy by November. If Republicans lose the presidency or the Senate, the ability to transform the judiciary for a generation will be lost notwithstanding substantial success in the first term confirming judges. Appeals courts arguably are the most important because the Supreme Court takes so few cases, and Trump is about to run out of appeals court vacancies. CBS News reports:

There are at least two cases in which we may get rulings soon from the U.S. Supreme Court on issues of religious liberty in the age of lockdown. Both cases allege that religious groups are being treated more harshly than secular businesses and groups. This type of disparate treatment has been at issue in many lower court cases, but now cases from California and Illinois have emergency motions for injunctive relief submitted to the Supreme Court, with responses due May 28.

Ilana Feldman, a professor of anthropology at George Washington University (GWU), recently was appointed Interim Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at GWU. There was an immediate firestorm of controversy, since Feldman is a supporter of and longtime activist leader of the academic boycott of Israel, which is part of the larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

Each Memorial Day we try to focus on the lives of a small number of individuals who gave their lives for our country, and whose stories we have followed for several years. In this way we put human faces and life stories honoring all those who paid the ultimate price. Click on each hyperlinked heading for prior posts about the person.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered Judge Emmet Sullivan to respond to Michael Flynn's Emergency Petition for a Mandate ordering the district court to dismiss the prosecution against Flynn as the government wants, and removing Sullivan from the case. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reacted by singling out and attacking only one of the three judges on the panel, Neomo Rao. Whitehouse tweeted a Politico article about the panel order with this commentary:

On Obama's last day in office, January 20, 2017, National Security Advisor Susan Rice wrote an email memo to herself (pdf.) regarding the investigation into Michael Flynn and a January 5, 2017, meeting attended by Obama, Biden, Rice, Sally Yates, and James Comey. The email was mostly public previously, though supposedly classified portions were redacted.

The repressive, often petty and irrational, lockdown measures implemented in many states and localities has caused a backlash that grows daily. Increasingly, we see hairdressers, restaurants, gyms, and other small businesses saying they are willing to risk arrest in order to reopen and save their businesses. People who normally obey the law are engaging in acts of civil disaobedience against orders and restriction that are viewed as illegitimate, both constitutionally and from a health perspective.

Judge Emmet Sullivan has opened up the District Court criminal prosecution to an outsider, former Judge John Gleeson, to argue why Sullivan should not dismiss the case against Michael Flynn even though the Department of Justice wants to drop the case based on FBI and prosecutorial misconduct. Gleeson has a documented history of hostility towards Flynn.