William A. Jacobson

William A. Jacobson is an American lawyer, Cornell Law School professor, and conservative blogger. He has "a national reputation as a leading practitioner in securities arbitration." His cases have been covered by "The Wall Street Journal","The Boston Globe", "The Providence Journal", TheStreet.com, RegisteredRep.com, and Investment News.
Education.
Jacobson is a 1981 "summa cum laude" graduate of Hamilton College. He received his J.D. degree in 1984 from Harvard Law School. During his time at Harvard Law School, Jacobson served as Senior Editor of the "Harvard International Law Journal", for which he wrote a Case Comment entitled "Process Due Resident Aliens Upon Entering the United States," 24 "Harv. Int’l Law J." 198, and as Director of Litigation for the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project.
Career.
Early career.
From 1984 to 1993, Jacobson practiced litigation with Cahill Gordon & Reindel and with Miller & Wrubel in New York City. From 1993 to 2007, he was a litigator in Providence, Rhode Island, with a civil litigation and arbitration practice. His work was focused around investment, employment, and business disputes in the securities industry.
Cornell Law School.
In 2007, Jacobson joined Cornell Law School as a Clinical Professor of Law. He is also the Director of the law school's Securities Law Clinic, which provides legal services to small investors in upstate New York who have been the victims of investment fraud.
"Legal Insurrection".
Jacobson is author of the conservative law blog, "Legal Insurrection", which was founded in 2008. As of January 2011, "Legal Insurrection" was ranked number 24 in politics, and number 67 overall, by Technorati, and number 7 for top legal blogs by Avvo.
Jacobson is a conservative pundit, writing for a variety of outlets. He is a contributor to "Politico"s "Arena".
Author.
Jacobson is co-author of the "Securities Arbitration Desk Reference" (Thomson-Reuters).
Activities.
Elizabeth Warren.
During Senator Elizabeth Warren's 2012 U.S. Senate campaign against Republican Scott Brown, Jacobson was cited by Massachusetts and national news outlets, namely for his critique of Warren's claim that she was 1/32nd Cherokee Indian and her decision to claim minority status as a law professor during the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically, Jacobson carried out in-depth research into Warren's claims about her "high cheekbones" and family tensions, both allegedly a result of her Cherokee heritage. After concluding his research, he found no evidence to substantiate these claims.
Jacobson is also credited with raising the issue of whether Warren was actually licensed to practice law in Massachusetts, where she lived and practiced law. After extensive research on the subject, and following the Warren campaign's refusal to release a full list of her caseload, he concluded that she never obtained the right to practice law there.
Israel and Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS).
Jacobson has lobbied against the BDS movement. He has participated in numerous speaking engagements on the matter, most notably events at Harvard Law School (hosted by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) in association with Alliance for Israel), Cornell University (sponsored by Cornellians For Israel), Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, Vassar College (a Vassar Conservative Libertarian Union event), and the Florida Region of CAMERA.
When Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi spoke to third graders at an elementary school in Ithaca, New York, in 2015, Jacobson covered the event on his blog. Jacobson filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) to further investigate the circumstances surrounding the speaking event. After a year-long court battle with the ICSD demanding that the ICSD remove extensive redactions in the documents provided, a judge sided with Jacobson, after which the ICSD was ordered to release the video of the event. That video included one of the speakers saying to the children, "You can defend us, you can be freedom fighters for Palestine, you can bring peace;" a child is also heard saying, "When I grow up, I'm going to go to Palestine and protest."
David Gregory.
After NBC's "Meet the Press" anchor David Gregory displayed a 30-round gun ammunition magazine during a show in 2012, Jacobson filed a Freedom of Information Act request in the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department to obtain records on the matter. Despite no criminal charges being brought against Gregory, a police affidavit was released revealing that the police department had warned NBC that possession of the magazine was illegal, making the case in support of an arrest warrant for Gregory. Jacobson was thereafter cited for his report exposing the hypocrisy of D.C.'s decisions to prosecute lesser-known people who, like Gregory, lacked criminal intent.
Controversies.
On January 13, 2017, Jacobson's YouTube channel was taken down, with YouTube citing copyright violations. However, Jacobson stated that he was targeted for his conservative political views. His channel was restored on January 15, 2017.
In 2020, Jacobson authored two articles that criticized the history of Black Lives Matter. Jacobson described Black Lives Matter's founders as "anti-American, anti-capitalist activists, who want to destroy capitalism, in an act of revenge." This caused controversy and Cornell Law School students called for action against him. Jacobson was interviewed about the incident by the "The Daily Signal" in December 2020.