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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 October 04, 2010 1 Comment

The media trolls are out in full force trying to demoralize the opposition by floating stories about how the Democrats have regained their footing, are coming back across the country, and the Republican insurgency peaked early.  See Erick Erickson's column for a round up...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 04, 2010 4 Comments

Was traveling all day, and of course, stuff happened:Sneaky little Scott Ashjian, or whatever his name is, proved that he is a sneak by secretly taping a conversation with Sharron Angle, and then leaking it to the Man.  The real shocker is that Angle, who...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 04, 2010 8 Comments

Spotted by a reader in Chapel Hill, NC (the Ithaca of the South), a now rare and suprisingly well-preserved Haughty-Naughty (Kerry-Edwards) bumper sticker, with a touch of Ohio Moonbat thrown in:--------------------------------------------Related Posts:Bumper Stickers - The SeriesFollow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2010 27 Comments

I clicked through on a Dan Riehl tweet to his post about a column by Conor Friedersdorf at Forbes, about something or other.I don't know who Conor Friedersdorf is, but Riehl doesn't seem to like him, which is really surprising because Riehl likes just about...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2010 11 Comments

The Stuxnet malware apparently was designed to damage or destroy industrial system controllers of the type used in Iran's nuclear program.It is too early to assess what, if any, damage has taken place in Iran because of the secrecy of the Iranian regime.  Based on...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2010 10 Comments

Ben Jealous, President of the NAACP, has launched a high-profile media and web campaign to demand that people in the Tea Party movement renounce racist "elements" in the movement.  As I have posted before, Mr. Jealous took islolated, and in some cases planted, signs at...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 02, 2010 16 Comments

Not just any photos.Photos of communist and socialist participants.But not just any photos of communists and socialist participants, because that would be too easy.No, the photos I want are of communists and socialist participants which appear in the mainstream media.I want examples of the mainstream...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 02, 2010 11 Comments

This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain:Gloria Allred earns a special place at the Saturday Night Card Game table for her performance this week in jumping the race card shark with a late-September Surprise on Meg Whitman,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 02, 2010 6 Comments

Last Sunday I highlighted the famed "Coexist" bumper sticker, which seems to be everywhere (at least in Ithaca, Berkeley and Cambridge).But there are liberal non-conformists out there, who refuse to wear the "Coexist" sticker on their cars just because all their friends are doing it.Melissa...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 01, 2010 4 Comments

Is this NY Times profile of Christine O'Donnell not too bad, or am I just so used to complete, all-out hack jobs when it comes to O'Donnell that anything short of an all-out hack job seems okay?An Overnight Political Sensation Re-Emerges Into the Media Glare--------------------------------------------...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 01, 2010 3 Comments

Greg Sargent who blogs at The Washington Post has been the single greatest blogospheric force in going after Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell, nitpicking their every word, and ascribing the worst motivations to ambiguous or out of context statements to portray them as dangerous extremists, liars, and worse.  Sargent...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 01, 2010 10 Comments

NPR Will Be the Dominant News Force By 2020:NPR will be one of the dominant forces in media in ten years because their membership-based funding model is finely tuned to the habits of millennial news consumers. That's the prophecy of Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 30, 2010 16 Comments

The New York Times reported on a possible reference to the Book of Esther in the Stuxnet code.  Queen Esther, of course, saved the Jews of Persia from the evil Haman, as celebrated in the Jewish holiday Purim.Now, a Symantec researcher has found a reference in the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 30, 2010 32 Comments

Gloria Allred is doing more to drive illegal immigrants underground and to target Latinos for racial profiling than anything the State of Arizona has even thought of doing.Allred dropped a late-September surprise on Meg Whitman based on the allegation that Whitman did not do enough...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 30, 2010 2 Comments

A post at Israel Matzav about a failed attempt at a university in South Africa to boycott Israel's Ben Gurion University reminded me that there has been a vicious war underway, albeit one fought mostly under the media radar.The Islamist-Leftist Anti-Israel Coalition, which brought you such...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 30, 2010 20 Comments

The federal government is forcing states and municipalities to change the lettering on street signs from all CAPS to initial Caps because it supposedly is easier for motorists to read, and therefore will save milliseconds of driver attention which might, I repeat, MIGHT, save lives.I...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 30, 2010 5 Comments

Because until it hits one of my computers, it's still cool.The New York Times says there is a hidden reference to Book of Esther in the code.  Flag, or false flag?It's all over China.  Flag, or false flag?Iran has delayed the opening of its nuclear reactor,...

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