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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.

I also think he should have to write "I am sorry for being a mean person" 200 times on the blackboard, then wash his mouth out with soap, then sit in the corner with a dunce cap on. I am open to other suggestions.Via Renee...

In advance of Barack Obama's presidential address tonight on the Gulf oil spill, it is reasonable to consider the following possibilities (vote only once, this isn't Chicago):(Poll closed, final pre-speech results below) Question 1: How many times will Obama mention that the Deepwater Horizon platform...

Helen Thomas' comments that Jews in Israel should go back to Poland and Germany perpetuated the falsehood that Israel is a European implant, which fits nicely into the narrative of the Islamist-Leftist anti-Israel coalition.In fact, as I documented before, there was an exchange of populations...

Public sector unions just won a huge victory in Rhode Island, with the signing into law of legislation denying municipalities the ability to file for state receivership as a means of renegotiating unsustainable union contracts.I previously highlighted the state receivership filing by the City of...

Requires no further comment, Obama Descecrates Right-Wing Christmas: Really, Mr. President, don't you know that right-wingers love 9/11, and hold it sacred? It's their favorite day of the year, their favorite day in living history; every year, 9/11 fills them with the unsurpassable bliss of...

The button.An artifact from a bygone era.When trills and tingles ran up legs.When the rise of the oceans began to slow.And our planet to heal.Now, even MoDo refuses to wear the button.Because now, cool is just annoying.Update: Daniel Hannon now refuses to wear the button.--------------------------------------------Related...

There is something profoundly bass ackwards in the way Obama is reacting to the disaster in the Gulf.Obama keeps focusing on legal liability:President Obama will use his first Oval Office speech Tuesday night to outline a plan to legally compel BP to create an escrow...

One of my daughters is graduating college today. And she has a job! So one less tuition to pay, and she's almost off my payroll. It feels like 5 O'clock, all day: -------------------------------------------- Related Posts: Sunday Morning Dance Party Early Sunday Morning In New York Follow me on Twitter and Facebook ...

This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain: I don't know whether to laugh or cry over this one. The NAACP is upset because a Hallmark talking graduation card uses the term "black ho" in it, as in...

Predictions sometimes do come true. Just not this time.Someone must be very disappointed. You know who you are. I bet you think this post is about you, don't you, don't you? Hispanic Voters' Preferences Unchanged Post-Arizona LawHispanic voters nationwide haven't shifted their congressional voting preferences...

While Bill Halter's failed attempt to unseat Blanche Lincoln understandably has received all the media attention, there is a congressional race in Massachusetts in which labor is trying to unseat a politically incorrect (i.e., not sufficiently liberal) Democratic incumbent.Steve Lynch is a Democrat in the...

I originally saw this video linked a while ago at Israellycool.Now that it has gone viral (over 750,000 YouTube views as of this writing), with further links by Jeffrey Goldberg and an explanation of what it all means at The NY Review of Books (slow...

"Elections have consequences.""Democracy is messy""Every vote counts, so count every vote.""If we ignore votes, we ignore democracy.""Yes we can."Any other cliches we can throw at the Democrats who want to negate the Historic nomination of Alvine Greene and disenfranchise voters, like they tried to do...

I hope this is not true, but nothing would surprise me when it comes to Obama and the Middle East, Sources: Obama Administration to Support Anti-Israel Resolution at UN Next Week:THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments...

I've found it. The 2010 race about which I can get motivated the way I was motivated by Scott Brown v. Martha Coakley.There are plenty of choices out there, and I'll likely add more to my focus, but I've found The Race.It's not the one...

I would like to pronounce the left-wing mockery of Sarah Palin's supposed breast enlargement surgery as the final nail in the coffin of liberal feminism.But there are no nails left.They all have been used in prior liberal misogyny directed at Sarah Palin.Sarah Palin killed and...

Greg Sargent of The Plum Line blog now blogs under the banner of The Washington Post, a recognition of his status as one of the premier, and normally more reasonable, left-wing bloggers.Yet it appears that Sargent, while far less vitriolic than many of his compatriots,...

In 2006 Richard Cohen of The Washington Post wrote a column arguing "[t]he greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake."The argument, that Israel should not have been created as a Jewish state because the Muslim...