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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.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 02, 2011 21 Comments

Obama is planning on 5 1/2 more years in office, so he can complete what he has not yet finished. At a campaign fundraiser on June 30, Obama made these comments, as reported byReal Clear Politics (emphasis mine): "And, Philadelphia, I know there are some of you...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 02, 2011 3 Comments

Spotted by reader Verlin in Sweetwater, TN: ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 01, 2011 9 Comments

This ad by Crossroads GPS, for which Karl Rove consults, has been running very heavily in upstate NY. It's critically important that these type of ads run early before Obama starts spreading his hoped-for billion dollars around, the unions spend their hundreds of millions, and Hollywood/Wall...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 01, 2011 19 Comments

Dominick Strauss-Kahn was released today on his own personal recognizance, as detailed in The NY Times: In a letter sent to Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers and filed with Justice Michael J. Obus on Friday, prosecutors outlined some of what they had discovered about Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s accuser, poking...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 01, 2011 5 Comments

From the NRSC: ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 01, 2011 10 Comments

I have referred to Obama's $5 dinner promotion as a "raffle."   I am not alone, as virtually every major news organization has used the same terminology. Under any common understanding, it is a raffle, you pay money for a chance to win.  Payment of money is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 01, 2011 8 Comments

The Barack Obama we saw at the press conference earlier this week, the one who inspired the controversial comment by Mark Halperin, is the real Barack Obama. The Barack Obama of 2008 was a charade. It only serves our interest to draw out the real Barack Obama,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 01, 2011 6 Comments

... to my readers for making June the best month ever at Legal Insurrection in terms of blog traffic (just over 600k visits and 800k page views).  Considering that it was the transition month, I was concerned that I'd leave a lot of people behind. ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 30, 2011 36 Comments

If you noticed, when Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested for the alleged sexual assault on a maid at a hotel in New York, I didn't join in, almost alone in the blogosphere. Something didn't seem right. The story was too neat, and too couched in political correctness....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 30, 2011 10 Comments

As mentioned yesterday, Obama not only is running a cheesy $5 raffle fundraising stunt, he also is pushing donors hard to contribute something, even if it's only $5, before the June 30 fundraising period closes.  Whether to pad the dollar amounts or the numbers of donors,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 30, 2011 2 Comments

I reported the other day how RI Gov. Linc Chafee was refusing to turn a murderer over to the feds because the murderer potentially was subject to the death penalty.  The murderer attempted to plead guilty to the murder in state court so as to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 30, 2011 19 Comments

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley has accused Justice David Prosser of using a "chokehold" on her.  The Dane County Sheriff's office is investigating. Remember the term "chokehold" as the investigation as to what really happened progresses and the facts eventually come out. "Chokehold" is a very specific term, and...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 30, 2011 7 Comments

Mark Halperin confirmed my impression of Obama's divisive, dismissive and demeaning performance at his press conference yesterday: The interesting thing for me is not that Halperin thought it, but that he said it thinking it would not make it to the airwaves. Compare such a...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 30, 2011 6 Comments

Is there any doubt that if Obama could do it on his own, Jerusalem would be divided and Israel forced back to the 1949 armistice borders?  A point I have made before is that the real danger comes in a second term, when he is freed of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 30, 2011 12 Comments

The Revolt of the Kulaks has come to California. Via Drudge, California's attempt to tax internet sales has met with a reaction: Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law California's tax on Internet sales through affiliate advertising which will immediately cut small-business website revenue 20% to 30%, experts...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 30, 2011 0 Comments

Lebanon has been pushed closer to the brink, as four senior members of Hezbollah have been indicted by a U.N. prosecutor: Four Hezbollah members have been indicted in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Lebanese media outlets reported on Thursday. A delegation from the Special Tribunal...

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