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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 April 27, 2010 6 Comments

I previously posted about a recent report by the Office of Medicare Actuary which found that Obamacare would increase costs, and that the final health care bill made numerous unrealistic cost assumptions.I also made the follow observation as to why the report came out so...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 27, 2010 21 Comments

It is over-the-top and out-of-control when it comes to the Arizona immigration bill recently signed. Not the law itself, but the reaction.Linda Greenhouse's opinion piece in The NY Times epitomizes the absurd rhetoric (emphasis mine):I’m glad I’ve already seen the Grand Canyon.Because I’m not going...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 27, 2010 1 Comment

Politico has figured out that "Obama the uniter" never existed.Obama created momentum by identifying enemies against whom to campaign, and has continued that practice in office. The only change is that in an earlier incarnation, the enemies were groups, whereas now the enemies are individuals.As...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 27, 2010 14 Comments

There are many voices of hate, but the voices most ignored by the mainstream media come not from Tea Parties or maligned conservative groups, but from the intolerant left. After someone who did commercial voice-overs for Geico was fired for leaving threatening messages at FreedomWorks (which...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 26, 2010 5 Comments

Your stimulus dollars in action, buying high-efficiency refrigerators, low-flush toilets and a windmill for the Shalom Apartments (run by the Jewish Seniors Agency of Rhode Island) in Warwick, RI.As reported in The Providence Journal: Shaun Donovan, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is in...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 26, 2010 15 Comments

Retired General James Jones, who is a senior national security advisor to the Obama administration, told a joke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, regarding a Jew in the desert of Afghanistan who outwitted a member of the Taliban. The joke plays upon...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 26, 2010 1 Comment

President Obama's outreach to Russia constitutes a "strategic reset," according to Spencer Ackerman.The proof? The recent Joint Statement issued by the U.S. and Russia commemorating the meeting of U.S. and Soviet troops at the Elbe River during WWII (emphasis mine): Now this is something you...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 26, 2010 9 Comments

Nothing in the civil suit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that Goldman Sachs caused the housing bubble or burst it.The transaction at issue in that case was between highly sophisticated investment firms, and had no more to do with the housing market...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 25, 2010 4 Comments

Puerto Rico is approaching a plebiscite on statehood, pursuant to congressional legislation which is under consideration. Pat at And So It Goes In Shreveport has a good post summing up the current politics of statehood for Puerto Rico.One person to keep an eye on is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 25, 2010 6 Comments

Move along, nothing to see from the government's failure as to cancer treatment clinical trials.The clinical treatment system run by the National Cancer Institute has become so burdened with bureaucracy and paperwork that even the Editors of The New York Times are complaining (emphasis mine):The...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 24, 2010 25 Comments

"Marc Ambinder is the politics editor of The Atlantic. He has covered Washington for ABC News and the Hotline, and he is chief political consultant to CBS News."Given Ambinder's shoulder-deep mainstream media plumage, I was shocked to read that Ambinder thinks conservatives have gone mad.Much...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 23, 2010 8 Comments

Seems like someone is learning from the Obama campaign, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Sheldon Whitehouse and other American Democrats.From last night's debate among candidates in Britain (emphasis mine): [Liberal Democrat candidate Nick] Clegg, tried to tie [Conservative candidate David] Cameron to right-wing extremists, a standard...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 23, 2010 11 Comments

Welcome back, Blago. It's been a while. What took you so long to shed light on the intrigue among Obama, Rahm Emanuel and SEIU regarding the Senate appointment to replace Obama: Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's lawyers asked a federal judge Thursday to force President Obama to testify...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2010 10 Comments

The gloss is off the Obamacare rose, if it ever were there. The Office of the Actuary of Medicare has released a report which finds that Obamacare will increase, not decrease, health care costs, and ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2010 4 Comments

So reports The New York Times regarding a new conventional weapons system under development.In the recent arms control treaty signed with the Russians we agreed to count each of these new conventional weapons towards the nuclear weapons limits in the treaty, meaning that for each...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2010 2 Comments

Steve Malanga wrote an excellent article for City Journal about how public sector unions have controlled, and ruined, California, The Beholden State:How public employees became members of the elite class in a declining California offers a cautionary tale to the rest of the country, where...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2010 1 Comment

And of course, he is a Cornell Law School student, Class of 2010:http://www.youtube.com/get_player(original video here) --------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook...

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