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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 November 19, 2010 13 Comments

We all have heard of ballots being found in the trunks of cars, and elsewhere during recounts.  In a hotly contested race for the State Senate in New York, Democrats have gone one better, and found two new (and uncounted) voting machines.Traditionally Republican, the State Senate...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 19, 2010 3 Comments

I was a guest last Monday of Mark Finkelstein, who writes for NewsBusters, on his Ithaca-based television talk show, The Right Angle.We talked about Legal Insurrection, the elections, the vice-presidential and presidential candidates, and a lot about you know who.   The video is here.   Hopefully...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 19, 2010 10 Comments

Once again, Barack Obama is creating a phony crisis to rush a major legislative vote without having done the preliminary legwork to address Republican concerns.Think Stimulus and Obamacare.  This time, it arguably is the most important vote, the Senate ratification of the new START Treaty...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 19, 2010 11 Comments

What a whack job.  What kind of idiot would use Grey Poupon to prove a point?  Are you suggesting that only fancy, foreign, John Kerryish types use it?  No real American would use that stuff, right Alan?Sure, sure, you were just joking around to make a...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 18, 2010 9 Comments

Your brain:Their brains at TSA:  -------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 18, 2010 9 Comments

The GM stock offering is being hailed as a huge success by the Obama administration:President Barack Obama says General Motors' plan to sell stock marks a major milestone not only in the turnaround of that iconic company, but of the U.S. auto industry as a whole....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 18, 2010 2 Comments

I have written several times before about the controversial nomination of John J. "Jack" McConnell, Jr. to an open federal court seat in Rhode Island.  It appears that Democrats will use the lame duck session to force through McConnell's nomination, which has been stalled for...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 17, 2010 3 Comments

And I'm sure he hates it too.I agree with John Cole of Balloon-Juice about the Willow Palin Facebook brush fire, Count Me Out:Yes, Willow Palin said something stupid on her facebook page. Big deal. She’s sixteen, and most of the time when a sixteen year...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 17, 2010 9 Comments

This is good news beyond belief.  The faces of 2010 will be the faces of 2012.  Via CBS News:Nancy Pelosi has been elected to lead House Democrats in the new Congress despite presiding over the loss of more than 60 House seats in the midterm...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 17, 2010 3 Comments

S.E. Cupp writing in The Daily News today, Sarah Palin's happiness is what really irks liberals:William A. Jacobson, writing at Legal Insurrection Blog, October 31, 2008, Why Do They Hate Sarah Palin So Much? She's Happy:--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 17, 2010 12 Comments

In response to my post calling out leftist Jewish bloggers for stoking charges of dual loyalty againt American Jewish supporters of Israel, M.J. Rosenberg of Media Matters (one of the bloggers mentioned in my post) tweets that I'm just a tribalist:Pathetic.--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 17, 2010 17 Comments

Via Doug Garrett comes word that the TSA requested that international carriers ban airmail packages headed to the U.S. which weigh over one pound.  Garrett links to this report in the Japan Times:Japan Post Services Co. said it will stop accepting airmail packages bound for the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 17, 2010 5 Comments

... slowly I am destroying the economy, one reader at a time:"I’ve been reading this guy’s website for the last hour or so (and not getting any work done). It's pretty good."--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 16, 2010 18 Comments

I posted earlier about how left-wing bloggers deliberately misrepresented a statement issued by Eric Cantor's office about a meeting Cantor had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  Glenn Greenwald accused Cantor of pledging allegiance to Israel over the U.S., and Greenwald's accusations were amplified with...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 16, 2010 14 Comments

If Republicans had taken control of the Senate in the mid-term elections, that long-shot win would have been razor thin, probably only by one seat.The Senate would be controlled by those who were willing to sell their votes to the highest bidder or those with...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 16, 2010 13 Comments

James Pethokoukis wrote an interesting article the other day, Why Wall Street Should Fear Sarah Palin.Palinomics, embryonic as it is, seems to be rooted in “free-market populism,” a version of conservative thinking that is pro-market rather than pro-business. It says the role of government is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 15, 2010 9 Comments

I posted previously about how Rhode Island Republican Governor Donald Carcieri had issued an executive order requiring companies that did business with the state to use E-verify to verify the immigration status of employees, and also requiring the state police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.Now The...

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