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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 February 04, 2010 6 Comments

Gallup has come out with another of its surveys showing how different groups self-identify in terms of liberal-conservative-moderate.The headline of the Gallup release focused on the liberal leanings of Asian-Americans, but the survey also showed that "non-Hispanic blacks" self-identified slightly more conservative (29%) than liberal...

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

Barack Obama held a question-and-answer meeting with Democratic Senators yesterday to field questions about where the administration is heading on various initiatives. I posted yesterday about Obama's clueless answer to Blanche Lincoln's comment that her constituents feel like no one in the administration understands what...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 03, 2010 7 Comments

This exchange between Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) and Barack Obama reflects just how clueless Obama is about the mood in this country and the damage his ideological intransigence is doing to his own party. As reported by The Hill:She also took a swipe at Obama's White...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 03, 2010 9 Comments

Almost as if on cue, DailyKos, Steve Benen, Andrew Sullivan, Sam Stein and others are pushing hard on the meme that Republicans are "crazy" and Taliban-like in their ways.The "crazy" findings are based on a poll commissioned by DailyKos using the same pollster which found,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 03, 2010 9 Comments

Mike Allen at Politico created news yesterday, by reporting that Shoe-bomber Richard Reid was read Miranda rights in December 2001. The argument goes that since the Shoe-bomber was given Miranda rights while George Bush was President in December 2001, Obama is insulated from criticism...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 02, 2010 13 Comments

An early draft of the Constitution has been found in Philadelphia. Although the handwriting is not perfectly clear, my sources tell me that this is how the Preamble read in this early draft:We the people of the United States, in order to form a more...

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

Understandably, the raw numbers in Obama's budget -- both deficits and taxes -- are receiving huge attention.There is another aspect which makes the raw numbers even more pernicious. Many of the new tax increases are a function of the taxpayer's overall income, such as caps...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 02, 2010 7 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 01, 2010 29 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 01, 2010 5 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 01, 2010 5 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2010 7 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2010 18 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2010 8 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 30, 2010 1 Comment

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...

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

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 30, 2010 7 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 30, 2010 8 Comments

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...

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