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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 June 21, 2012 36 Comments

I noted the other day the odd attack by various StopRush activists on one of their own, #StopRush turns on itself, devolves into name calling, accusations. Now the details are coming out, and it turns out that StopRush was infiltrated by a Blue Dog type Democrat who didn't like their online...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 21, 2012 18 Comments

The Supreme Court has wrapped up releasing its decisions today, and no decisions were released in the Obamacare or Arizona immigration law cases. The key decision released today was a loss for SEIU on imposing fee assessments on non-members for political purposes.  The case is being portrayed as...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 21, 2012 40 Comments

Alethea Harney, Elizabeth Warren's press secretary, is the one feeding my name to Boston media as a "right wing extremist." Yet Harney apparently is not proud of her personal Twitter history.  As reported by The Washington Free Beacon, Harney has turned her Twitter history private, trying...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 21, 2012 6 Comments

Spotted in the parking lot of Lee's Chinese Restaurant in Riverside, Rhode Island: ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 20, 2012 6 Comments

From friend of the blog Bill Dyszel who has brought us such classics as Mercurial Redemption, An Eco-Maniacal Opera and The Blagojevich Polka. ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 20, 2012 28 Comments

There are several really important Supreme Court decisions to be handed down tomorrow at 10 a.m., Monday at 10 a.m., or next Thursday at 10 a.m. ScotusBlog has a "plain English" summary of the remaining cases, and almost all have huge legal implications (forced union contributions for...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 20, 2012 13 Comments

With so much going on in the domestic political arena, it's easy for attention to get distracted from the Iranian-Hezollah-Russian attempt to keep Bashar Assad in power. Other than when there is a heavy one-day body count, Syria is not in the U.S. news media radar. This...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 20, 2012 39 Comments

Are you on Twitter yet? If not, why not?  We need you. My post, Elizabeth Warren loses it, lashes out at “right wing extremist” (me), is a Topsy Top 100 most tweeted post (a/o 8:30 a.m. today, how high can it go?). You can retweet any of the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 20, 2012 11 Comments

From reader J: I have the privilege of living in Charlottesville, recently named the smartest city in America. Yet most of the bumper stickers we see are like the one in the first attached JPG [to be run at later date], no doubt because of the influence...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 19, 2012 99 Comments

As you know, Elizabeth Warren has been caught in a series of at best misleading and at worst false responses since The Boston Herald first broke the story in late April that Harvard Law promoted her as Native American in the mid-to-late 1990s. First she played...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 19, 2012 29 Comments

MSNBC in the form of Andrea Mitchell and guest Chris Cillizza of WaPo had a good laugh over video of Mitt Romney saying it's "amazing" that WaWa markets in Pennsylvania have automated sandwich machines. Ha, Ha, what an out of touch dolt. But that's not what...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 19, 2012 23 Comments

There's an interesting brouhaha developing in the Brown-Warren race. Vicki Kennedy (widow of Ted) has teamed up with MSNBC and the Warren campaign to organize a debate in late September. Scott Brown accepted the invitation on the conditions that MSNBC not be a sponsor and that Vicki...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 19, 2012 30 Comments

I mentioned the other day the growing demographic divide in the New York City area Jewish community, which has a rapidly growing Orthodox community and stagnant if not shrinking "secular" community. That demographic shift has political implications as Orthodox Jews are not a core Democratic constituency. It...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 19, 2012 53 Comments

Via SooperMexican( emphasis in original): Today it’s being widely reported that Romney had a moment were he was amazed at the existence of WAWAs, a convenience/gas store, and the electronic touchtone ordering of sandwiches. They have spun this to make it seem like he’s out of touch...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 19, 2012 7 Comments

We could get the Supreme Court Obamacare decision as early as Thursday, or almost definitely by next Monday. So it's fitting that Cathy sent this photo, taken in Sanford, Florida: There were also signs on the car identifying the owner as a pastor. The main sticker says "Lord, deliver...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 18, 2012 72 Comments

I wanted to fill you in on the next phase of Legal Insurrection. The next four and one-half months will be devoted to defeating Obama, taking back the Senate, holding the House, and hopefully doing all of that in a way which puts in place a Tea Party/conservative...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 18, 2012 30 Comments

Via Reuters: A jury in downtown Washington on Monday acquitted Major League Baseball pitching great Roger Clemens of all six criminal charges against him in a trial to decide whether he lied to Congressabout using performance-enhancing drugs. Jurors deliberated for a total of about 10 hours before...

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