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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.

China's nine-day traffic jam stretches 100km:Thousands of vehicles were bogged down Monday in a more than 100-kilometre (62-mile) traffic jam leading to Beijing that has lasted nine days and highlights China's growing road congestion woes.--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube...

I can't believe they actually polled this:It appears a majority of New Jersey residents agree with Gov. Chris Christie: The hit MTV reality show "Jersey Shore" is doing more harm than good to the Garden State.According to the new poll from Quinnipiac University, 54 percent...

From the Lebanese website Naharnet:"Israel once again penetrated Lebanon's mobile phone networks on Tuesday, sending text messages to citizens announcing a tangible reward for information about the fate of Israeli airman Ron Arad, NBN television reported." It is hard to believe that the Israelis actually...

TBogg to Tucker Carlson:"Go get a real job."You mean, like yours?--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube ...

On Friday, Barack Obama dropped a political bombshell with wide ranging implications for the U.S. war on terror and relations with the Muslim world.  Obama then disappeared from the domestic political scene, as a fury of recriminations reverberated throughout the political sphere and blogosphere.  Obama...

Strike 1 was the now infamous "when I served in Vietnam" (but I actually didn't) statement by Richard Blumenthal.Strike 2 (via HotAir) is Blumenthal's "I don't take PAC money" (but I actually do) statement by Blumenthal:Richard Blumenthal's words are haunting him again. Already forced to...

Ethan Bronner of The New York Times has a classic piece on the opening of a luxury mall in Gaza.How does one balance the endless propaganda that Gaza is a concentration camp and that Israelis are committing genocide, with the reality that Gaza exceeds most...

I haven't posted about Count Frankula in a while.  Frank Rich's latest column, How Fox Betrayed Petraeus, is stuffed full of Rich's usual "people who don't agree with me are crazy and dangerous" filling.Frank's point apparently is that opposition to the Cordoba mosque and Islamic...

Mission accomplished.  We're just like Europe, at least in terms of Gross Domestic Product per person (emphasis mine):For quite some time, the US and the leading EU countries have been fairly comparable in terms of output per hour worked. The US has had higher output per person...

Soon after the Nevada Republican Senate primary, in which Sharron Angle was a surprise winner, Harry Reid announced that he would not be available to debate Angle for several months because he was too busy.  Here is a report from a local news station from...

This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain:I will not use that word even to talk about the word.  I will not say the word even in condemning people who call other people the word.  I also will hesitate...

In a story today at Politico, Harry Reid's strategy: Winning ugly, Reid makes one of his favorite points in responding to Sharron Angle's assertions that Reid bears at least some responsibility for the economic decline in Nevada:Reid contends that if Angle attacks him on the...

I was on record, before the Cordoba mosque and Islamic Center became a national story after Obama weighed in, that the organizers should have picked a different location, because the location was bound to result in the center being a target of radical Islamists for...

The Democratic National Committee released an advertisement, posted on the DNC's "Rapid Response" YouTube Channel, mocking George W. Bush.  The ad was laughable, and much derided.Here is how it appeared in my post earlier today, Extremely Effective DNC Ad:Now the DNC has pulled the video...

The latest release by the Rapid Response team at the Democratic National Committee will persuade everyone who, since January 2009, has been living on Mars, in a diving bell at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, on a respirator while in a deep coma, or...

In mid-June, when Obama went on television to announce that he would "inform" BP how much it had to contribute to a compensation fund for the Gulf oil spill, I predicted that the fund -- despite the grandstanding -- would not put much money in...

...[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-wwlCnwMNM?fs=1](h/t @Allahpundit)-------------------------------------------- Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube ...

Amanda Terkel, one of the lead writers at Think Progress, is exasperated that the "right-wing" has convinced the "media" that Obama's religion is open to question (emphasis mine):While journalists and pundits on cable news today did acknowledge the “media” have had a role to play,...