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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 July I reported on the absurdity of federal Stimulus Plan money going to building miles of new sidewalks in Warren, Rhode Island, in areas where few people walked.Last November, I reported on the fact that the unnecessary new sidewalks were built improperly.Now I can report that...

It should be over, like disco.(video h/t HotAir)Update:  Thanks to reader DinoRightMarie for the link to this Wall Street Journal article which points out the fallacy of the 9-to-5 movement, There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap.  The 9-to-5 movement should go the way of disco,...

Barack Obama promised us hand-to-hand combat, and his speech yesterday was the start.The nation is facing a debt crisis of historic proportions, but nothing will be done because Obama already has launched his presidential campaign.  A compromise must included serious changes to unsustainable entitlements which...

I've had a chance to read Obama's budget speech, and have seen clips on television. I was right in my anticipation that Obama would play the blame Bush game, and that he would demonize the "Top 2%," and he did.  With gusto.But even I could...

I did not get a chance to listen to Obama's "the end of the deficit as we know it" speech.  Karl Rove is speaking on campus tonight, and I attended a private, off-the-record meeting with Rove and all of the openly conservative faculty in this...

If not, it's all over in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, as reported by WiscPolitics Election Blog:The canvasses from Sauk and Taylor counties have now been posted to the GAB website. But it could be until the end of today or even tomorrow before Milwaukee...

You think dealing with insurance companies is hard, at least you have choices, for now. Once government takes over, you get what you get, just like at the airports now. And fighting with an insurance company may land you in court, but fighting with the...

Alexander Burns at Politico argues that Wisconsin in 2011 is a template for what will happen nationally in 2012, a split electorate with a narrow margin of victory:Wisconsin’s contested Supreme Court race has set in motion a drama that’s by now almost painfully familiar. It...

I previously posted about The Culture of Jumping To Conclusions At Widener Law School, including allegations by Widener law school professor Lawrence Connell that Widener Dean Linda Ammons falsely accused Connell of racism and sexism, and of engaging in threatening behavior by using a hypothetical example in criminal law class involving an...

If you have not realized it by now, Public Policy Polling -- which works for DailyKos -- has become an important part of the left-wing messaging machine, with a relentless series of polls spun as bad news for Republicans since the November 2010 elections, and...

In case you were wondering.Spotted by a reader near Chicago this weekend:--------------------------------------------Related Posts:Bumper Stickers - The SeriesFollow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTubeVisit the Legal Insurrection Shop on CafePress!...

The Government Accountability Board (GAB) in Wisconsin is the governmental entity which is responsible for elections.Ever since Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickaulous discovered during the county's election canvass that the city of Brookfield was not included in numbers initially reported to the press, Democrats have been crying foul...

I posted yesterday about how Recall Wirch expects to submit several thousand more signatures than required for a recall election of Democratic state Senator Robert Wirch, who fled along with 13 other Democrats to Illinois.Now Democrats are organizing to challenge as many of the signatures...

The Democrat in Waukesha County who verified -- on video -- that the numbers from the city of Brookfield mistakenly were left out of the count reported to AP now insists she didn't see nothin' (via The PJ Tatler):I am 80 years old and I don’t understand anything...

In a split decision, the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has upheld a lower court decision to enjoin implementation of key provisions of S.B. 1070, the Arizona immigration law.  A copy of the 9th Circuit opinion is below.  The opinions was written by...

Having absented himself from the budget debate until the end, having run up several trillion dollars in debt, having expanded government, having proven himself completely incapable of comprehending that government is not the answer, Barack Obama is set to announce a deficit reduction plan.But as all things...

A few weeks ago, when the protests in Madison were still raging, it appeared that Justice David Prosser would go down to defeat by at least several percentage points, and the recall efforts seemed lopsided against Republican Senators.  I urged readers to get involved because we could not...

I never paid much attention to gun laws.  Now that I've finished my NRA basic handgun course, I'll start on what will be a very, very long process to get a hand gun permit.The laws are byzantine.  In New York State, where I live about...