Judge Morris Jacobson, Adjunct Professor

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson was raised primarily in Oklahoma and Texas. He received his B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma in 1981. Between college and law school, he worked for two years as a correctional officer for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. He received his J.D. degree from Hastings College of the Law and was admitted to the California Bar in 1986.

After graduating from law school, Judge Jacobson served as a law clerk to the Hon. Mary Lou Robinson, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas. Following this clerkship, he returned to San Francisco and spent a year and a half working for the California Attorney General's Office, specializing in prison related civil litigation and criminal law at both the trial and appellate levels.

In 1989, Judge Jacobson left the Attorney General's Office and joined the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. He spent more than half of his career as a prosecutor trying sexual assault and murder cases. He also developed expertise in hate crimes prosecutions, habeas corpus litigation and extraditions.

Since 1994, Judge Jacobson has been an Adjunct Professor at Hastings College of the Law, teaching courses in evidence and criminal trial advocacy. Since 2005, he has been a contributing editor of the C.E.B. publication "California Criminal Law and Procedure".

Judge Jacobson was appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and began his judicial career in December, 2005. He served as a Family Law Judge for two years and then spent three years as the Executive Criminal Judge in the master felony calendar court in Oakland. He currently presides over a felony trial department in Oakland. Judge Jacobson serves on the California Judicial Council's Criminal Law Advisory Committee and also serves on the California Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER) Criminal Law Education Committee.