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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.

The challenge to the Obamacare mandate, long dismissed by the legal establishment and media as frivolous and almost unworthy of serious consideration, is on the cusp of victory at the Supreme Court. Credit a few lone legal voices, including at Volokh Conspiracy, with keeping the intellectual...

Earlier this month Media Matters launched its most ferocious boycott effort ever to force Rush Limbaugh off the air by intimidating advertisers. It always was a charade, as documented here many times.  Media Matters coordinated with "independent" groups to make it appear that there was a...

It's easy to find unanimous votes in favor of various bills and resolutions in the House of Representatives, but unanimously against? Let me know if this is truly historic, or just profoundly embarrassing for Obama: President Obama's budget was defeated 414-0 in the House late Wednesday, in...

So proud!  Can't wait to tell all the summer friends on Martha's Vineyard how Amber confronted the fuzz at Zuccotti Park, just like we did at Columbia in '68. Thanks to reader Joe, who writes: Saw this bumper sticker this morning while cycling through Nyack NY, a community made...

Via The Times of Israel: Precisely 10 years ago Tuesday evening, a 25-year-old man walked up a short flight of stairs and crossed through the lobby of a modest hotel near the beach in Netanya, a city on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. It was the first night of...

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr., is under intense fire from the left for botching the mandate argument yesterday. Adam Serwer at Mother Jones is being quoted far and wide: Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. should be grateful to the Supreme Court for refusing to allow cameras in the...

Perhaps readers can help me with this.  There are two points which have been universally accepted as true in the media, but I have not been able to find evidence in the police and other records released by the City of Sanford. 1.  Skittles and Ice...

In response to my most recent post regarding the two year anniversary of the death of Marine Cpl. Jonathan Daniel Porto, I was contacted by reader Kate in Texas who suggested I alert other readers to Sand Soldiers of America: I read last night about the post you have...

From reader Tim, who writes: Was on pump in Wilmington NC earlier this week. Looks like No new oil from anwr, east coast, the gulf. No pipeline from Canada $4 gal Thanks Obama voters I can't imagine that signs like that aren't popping up all across America. Looks like Tim is  right,...

That's the Good News. The Bad News - It's a list of The 12 Worst Colleges For Free Speech In 2012 from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Widener joins such elite institutions of higher learning as Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Brandeis and Tufts. Here's the FIRE write-up of why Widener is...

Psalm 137 Global March on Jerusalem:  "In December, Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh announced the march, calling for the establishment of “the ‘Army of Jerusalem’… in order to take action to liberate Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.”" Hamas demolishes homes, beats residents in Rafah.  Oh, that Hamas. State Department still won't say...

This has been a really bad day for eliminationist narratives of a rising right-wing terror. First, it turns out that George Zimmerman, rather than being a product of Republican / Tea Party / right-wing talk radio, was a registered Democrat. Now, a federal judge has dismissed all...

Via The Crawdad Hole, a very interesting chart of FBI crime statistics for 2009. What it shows is that whites kill whites, and blacks kill blacks.  And interestingly, "other" kills "other." It's not the narrative heard much in the media, because it does not play into stereotypes...

Tom Goldstein at ScotusBlog has an interim report: Based on the questions posed to Paul Clement, the lead attorney for the state challengers to the individual mandate, it appears that the mandate is in trouble.  It is not clear whether it will be struck down, but...

It has been a bad week for Dick Lugar: But it just got worse. A critical part of Lugar's campaign narrative is the scare tactic that if Richard Mourdock is the nominee, the seat may be lost to Democrats.  I've addressed that argument before, pointing out that Democrat Joe...