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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.

Well, why would they, he was no Jack Kennedy or Ronald Reagan:Miss him yet?--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTubeVisit the Legal Insurrection Shop on CafePress!...

A reading of We Just Witnessed The Media’s Test Run To Re-Elect Barack Obama, by Rush Limbaugh today. It sounds so much better when read out loud (video via The Right Scoop)(transcript here): And thanks also to Mark Levin for the kind words about the post: -------------------------------------------- Related Posts: John Hinderaker's...

... An amazing address (emphasis mine):In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite...

I wrote yesterday about John Hinderaker's post at Powerline, Sarah Palin for President, Forget About It.While Hinderaker does not respond to my post, he does respond today to a reader letter which made many of the points I made.  Hinderaker's response is a call for realism,...

From an article about Sarah Palin's aides putting out feelers in Iowa (emphasis mine):A top official in the Iowa Tea Party who insisted on anonymity to avoid betraying Palin's trust told RealClearPolitics that a friend of SarahPAC met with him in person in Des Moines...

In a fundraising e-mail supporting Martha Coakley in the special election to fill the seat vacated by Ted Kennedy, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) referred to then-candidate, now-Senator Scott Brown, as a "far-right tea-bagger."At the time Schumer made the comment, everyone knew what "teabagger" meant in...

Obamacare was "historic."  Do a Google News search, and there are hundreds if not thousands of references to the "historic" nature of the legislation.But do a similar search for the House vote repealing this historic legislation, and the term "historic" is used only to describe the legislation,...

To read some of the reviews telling Sarah Palin it's over as to any hope of winning a general election, you would think she would be down in the polls versus Obama by an enormous margin, particularly if a poll were taken in the days...

On January 5, 2011, three days before the Tucson shooting, I warned that the mainstream media would mount Operation Demoralize:The mainstream media will undertake, and already has undertaken, a concerted effort to blame the Republican House for everything that goes wrong, for not living up...

Via The Blaze (h/t), an anti-Walmart group is distributing these flyers for an upcoming protest:Update:  Before banning 'crosshairs,' CNN used it to refer to Palin, Bachmann--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTubeVisit the Legal Insurrection Shop on CafePress!...

If Republicans want to know exactly what not to do to win in 2012, then follow advice similar to that offered by David Frum as to why Sarah Palin should "stop talking now" about the false accusations that she was responsible for the Tucson shooting:"There is no one left in...

Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York City, has come to the defense of Sarah Palin regarding her use of the term "blood libel" to describe the malicious and false accusations that Palin's electoral target map contributed to the Tucson shootings (emphasis mine):Today the phrase "blood libel"...

Dick Cheney is having more heart trouble, and may need a heart transplant at some point.We know how his critics reacted last summer when he was hospitalized.  Via Radio Equalizer:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cENE739JPyI?fs=1]Transcription via Newsbusters:MIKE MALLOY: Cheney has had five heart attacks, and history of heart trouble. Well, I...

I didn't get to see the Sarah Palin interview on Sean Hannity's show last night, so I had the misfortune of reading the reviews before seeing the actual interview.You will be shocked to learn that the reviews by the left-wing and supposedly moderate blogs bear little relationship to...

West Virginia sent Democrat Joe Manchin to Washington, D.C. to join Democrat Jay Rockefeller in the Senate, helping preserve the Democratic majority in the Senate.Joe Manchin talked tough to get elected and promised to shoot down Obama's cap-and-trade legislative plans:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIJORBRpOPM?fs=1]But Obama -- who knows a...

Charles C. Johnson (no, not that that CJ) has a post at Big Government, In Praise of Alan Dershowitz.  It's worth the read, but hardly does justice to someone who for generations has fought for civil rights and the survival of western democracy even when...

CNN/Opinion Research has released a poll (pdf.) taken January 14-16, 2011, which has some rational findings about the Tucson shooting, and some perverse findings.The rational finding is that an overwhelming majority of people (66%) recognize that such shootings will still take place regardless of what government...

Jennifer Rubin, formerly of Commentary and now blogging at The Washington Post, has discovered that Think Progress played the race card against the Koch brothers, who back libertarian and conservative causes, by claiming that the Koch brothers "are simply fulfilling their father's legacy" in opposing integration.Rubin...