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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.

From an op-ed by Sen. Jeff Session (R-Ala.), on how Harry Reid was one of the architects, during the Bush administration, of the judicial filibuster. Now that Reid is Majority Leader, Reid is against the use of the filibuster for judicial nominees, and indignantly so:This...

Scott Eric Kaufman, at the Lawyers, Guns and Money blog, thought counting non-white people at Sarah Palin book signings was a cool way to prove that Palin and her supporters were racist because there were so few non-whites pictured in available photos.In fact, all Kaufman...

Before I head into a turkey-induced stupor, I'll leave you with these two wonderful clips of the great Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. The first clip is the first time they danced together shortly after Nureyev defected. The second clip will leave your...

Ithaca, NY, where I work, is in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Ithacans hate global warming because it is so corporate and capitalist.So at what point in time should global warming have stopped?"The 'Ice age' was really a series of many advances...

Sarah Palin's visit to a turkey farm last year made news when the camera caught a shot of the owner slaughtering a turkey. The NY Times Editorial Board was all over the controversy.Turns out the farmer in question has had a tough year, for a...

Another post by Matthew Yglesias engaging in gross generalizations and stereotypes of the politically acceptable kind, Stuff White People Like: Disapproving of Barack Obama:The diversity issues that you see at the elite level of most of American life are, in my opinion, particularly egregious in...

I really hope this is a bad Photoshop, not the real thing. From DrudgeReport: "Obama leaves WH clutching GQ mag -- featuring himself...

Obama's new Afghanistan strategy, to be announced formally next week, centers around the phrase "finish the job."That is an interesting concept. Seems simlar to "peace with honor," a very Nixonian phrase signaling that we will claim one thing (the dreaded "V" word) while accepting something...

Does playing the race card never grow old? Apparently not when Palin Derangement Syndrome is at work.At Lawyers, Guns and Money blog, Scott Eric Kaufman is counting non-white people at Sarah Palin book signings, with smoking gun photos such as the photo (right) of white...

Allison Kilkenny at HuffPo (September 24, 2009 11:34 AM) on the right-wing inspired killing of Bill Sparkman: By utilizing the branding "Fed," the killers were clearly trying to make a political statement, namely "Obama: Stay Out."Worst call since the criticism of John Bolton for warning...

The Kentucky state police announced that the death of Bill Sparkman was an elaborate suicide made to look like a murder so that Sparkman's son could collect on his insurance policy. Robert Stacy McCain has all the details and updates.I'll let others delve into all...

When the story of the e-mails "hacked" (or leaked) from a British climate institute first exploded, I was very cautious. I'm turning from a "hacked e-mails skeptic" to a "hacked e-mails believer" for two reasons.First, numerous bloggers have done a good job exploring and explaining...

Last January, I warned of a dangerous slide by Turkey into the Islamist orbit, Turkey Looking Like The Next Iran. About a month ago, I further noted Caroline Glick's excellent article about Turkey's coziness with Iran and anti-democratic Islamism, Turkey is Lost to Islamists.In response...

Mary Landrieu's deal for an extra $300 million in Medicaid funds for poor Louisiana residents has been hailed by Landrieu as a great victory for the people of Louisiana, and by just about everyone else as a shakedown of Harry Reid and the American people.But...

The Nation magazine has an extensive article detailing a classified operation in Pakistan by Blackwater, acting expressly under U.S. authority and coordination, to fight al-Qaeda:At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of...

Today is just filled with wonderment at the unexpected nature of being. From the "I didn't see this coming" department:Lawyer: 9/11 defendants want platform for views Obama's Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World StageWave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government Schumer: Dems...

Great post by Michelle Malkin pointing out that MSNBC, whose commentators routinely lash out at conservatives and Republicans as being all-white, is in fact all white:--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook...