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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.

Mission almost accomplished. Fail to the Chief: Even with tax hikes and spending cuts, Mr. Obama's budget foresees a record budget deficit of $1.6 trillion this fiscal year, sliding down to $706 billion in red ink by 2014, only to begin rising again as the...

Raising tax rates on high income earners is the key to the Obama way, both during the campaign and in his latest budget and tax proposals. Taxing the wealthy, or rather, taxing those making over $250k a year, is the gospel according to Obama.Obama is...

Today is the day to print Sitemeter histories, apparently.So here is mine, with a month of January likely never to be repeated. Unless Scott Brown runs for President, or something. I wish I were a better person, and could blog forward even if no one...

In early November 2008, when gay activists were mounting a fundraising boycott of the Democratic National Committee, Barney Frank announced that a provision repealing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy would be attached to the defense appropriations bill to be voted on in the spring...

Did you hear, Scott (we now all know who he is, no need for last names anymore) "refuses to rule out" running for President in 2012? And he's just been elected to the Senate, OMG, get headline ready:Brown: 'Humbled' by White House Talk, But Doesn’t...

The global warming hysteria is ending the way all hysteria ends, first with a trickle of contrary evidence then with a flood of admissions exposing the underlying fraud.Part of this phenomenon is the classic madness of crowds, epitomized by the Tulipomania in Holland in the...

Paul Krugman is completely clueless.I'm watching him now on Sunday Morning with Barbara Walters. Krugman bemoans the fact that in our democracy, unlike in western Europe, the House cap-and-trade and health care bills already would be law. Krugman blames it all on that messy thing...

This is the latest in the Saturday Night Card Game series on the use of the race card for political gain:Tonight's post proves that the use of the race card does not stop at our shores, and does not depend upon the race of the...

Please, Mr. Krugman, stop all the name calling directed at our President and those who work for him, Cossack Rahm Works For The Czar:But don’t blame Rahm Emanuel; this is about the president. After Massachusetts, Democrats were looking for leadership; they didn’t get it. Ten...

The conspiracy to undermine the Constitution has taken an interesting turn.A career prosecutor at the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has determined that John Yoo and Jay Bybee did not violate their professional obligations in analyzing whether certain enhanced interrogation techniques constituted unlawful...

When the Obama administration announced in November its intention to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and several other 9/11 plotters on trial in a civilian court in downtown Manhattan, the decision was met with derision on the right.There were two parts to that decision which were...

Do you even need to read this story to get the picture? Just look at the photo. The only thing missing is the cable spool table.Ladies, care to comment?--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook...

Why the sudden slew of attacks on the Supreme Court, specifically Justices Alito and Roberts, by leading Democrats?The decision in the Citizens United case, which struck down on First Amendment grounds some legislative restrictions on campaign speech by corporations, is the excuse but not the...

During the State of the Union address, Barack Obama singled out the Supreme Court for ridicule on its recent campaign finance ruling, which Obama asserted could open the door for foreign campaign contributions: With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme...

From The Gail Collins (yes, again): Looking out at the motley crew seated before him for the big speech, the president seemed at times to be pretending that he had never seen these people before in his life.--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook...

The stupid meme of the day is that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was "rude" to Obama during the State of the Union address because Alito grimaced and mouthed the words "not true" when Obama stoked the crowd with a lie about a recent Supreme...

State of the Union speeches regularly infuriate the opposing party, and to that extent Barack Obama met and exceeded expectations last night.One aspect of the speech deservedly is receiving most attention: The crude attempt to intimidate the Supreme Court in front of the Congress and...

I'll leave it to others to do the fact check. Here's my first impression of the State of the Union speech tonight:This was a small speech. A lot of petty pot shots, including at the Supreme Court. Very Nixonian, in that regard.The verbiage was anything...