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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 December 31, 2009 2 Comments

Following up on my post about how Martha Coakley just handed out $1.5 million in grants to community organizations conveniently just a month before the special election, here is another fact showing that Martha Coakley is just more of the same for the Senate.Coakley set...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 31, 2009 0 Comments

Keith Burgess-Jackson has posted his 10 resolutions for 2010.No. 1 is "Solve the problem of evil."No. 10 is "Marry K. W."Words of bloggerly advice: Change the order. Or at least don't post it. Do what Andrew Sullivan did, and make it all go away.--------------------------------------------Follow...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 30, 2009 5 Comments

There is Scott Brown the Senate candidate in Massachusetts, and there is Scott Brown, the musician in New Zealand. They each have Twitter accounts, but the Scott Brown from Down Under laid claim to @ScottBrown first, and the Senate candidate had to resort to @ScottBrownMA.As...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 30, 2009 0 Comments

I do not underestimate the ability of the Democratic majority in Congress, under intense pressure from the White House, to pass some form of health care bill. What will pass, if it does, will be very, very close to the Senate bill passed on Christmas...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 30, 2009 8 Comments

Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) commented soon after the attempted bombing of an airplane over Detroit that the Obama administration needed to do a better job at connecting the dots regarding terror threats from Yemen:“People have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 30, 2009 1 Comment

Martha Coakley, Democratic candidate for Senate in Massachusetts, will fit right into the Senate culture in Washington, D.C., as witnessed by her recent award of $1.5 million to community groups in Massachusetts: Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office has awarded nearly $1.5 million in grants aimed...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 29, 2009 12 Comments

There is a fiction about health insurance which simply will not die. It's the fiction which inspired Alan Grayson to proclaim that Republicans want patients to die, and which surfaces in almost every pro-Obamacare talking point.The fiction is that 45,000 people (or thereabouts) die each...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 29, 2009 9 Comments

Reports indicate that two of the planners of the attempted airplane bombing over Detroit were released Gitmo detainees, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi and Said Ali Shari. Each of these detainees went through a military hearing system and were released in 2007.At that time, the U.S. detention...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 29, 2009 12 Comments

As reported by Jules Crittenden, the national GOP has all but abandoned Scott Brown in his bid for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in the January 19 special election.Brown's opponent, Martha Coakley, is a down-the-line liberal who is vulnerable because she will be a puppet for...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 29, 2009 3 Comments

Bob Herbert, in the NY Times, finally is waking up to the fact that the Senate health bill passed on Christmas Eve is all smoke and mirrors.Herbert, who backed Jimmy Carter in excoriating opponents of Obamacare as racists, now admits that the supporters of the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2009 11 Comments

TMZ fell for a hoax regarding a supposed photo of JFK on a boat with lots of naked women.Before the hoax was revealed, Andrew Sullivan authored a post on the subject, which has been pulled completely. Here is what remains on Sullivan's blog:The link to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2009 3 Comments

TMZ has a flock-full of egg on its face today, as its monster break-through of the year -- the infamous JFK Photo that could have changed the world -- turned out to be a hoax.The photo (right), purportedly from the 1950s showing JFK on a...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2009 1 Comment

In a prior post in late October, I sought the input of readers into whether and how I should change the appearance and format of this blog.The overwhelming response, in comments and e-mails, was that it doesn't appear to be broken in a major way,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2009 5 Comments

Yet more utter nonsense spread in the left-wing blogosphere, this time about how Joe Lieberman wants the U.S. to "invade" Yemen.In fact, Lieberman said that we needed to act "preemptively" against al-Qaeda in Yemen to avoid Yemen becoming the next war, and said nothing advocating...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 28, 2009 1 Comment

"You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie Janet Reno Napolitano"[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dudHzY5Qigw]--------------------------------------------Related Posts:About That "Firecracker"Not So Scary Terror?Terrorist Attacks Plane, Think Progress Attacks Pete HoekstraFollow me on Twitter and Facebook...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 27, 2009 10 Comments

During the June 2009 protests that rocked Iran over election fraud, the Obama administration was silent for days, then came out and embraced improved relations with the regime in the hope of improving the chances for a negotiated end to Iran's nuclear weapons program.The "grand...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 27, 2009 4 Comments

There has been a deliberate attempt to downplay the seriousness of the attempted bombing of an airplane over Detroit. The attempted detonation of an explosive in the airplane has been described by leading bloggers as "unserious" and evidence that al-Qaeda is "a joke."Below is the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 26, 2009 4 Comments

This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) took to the floor of the Senate earlier this week and delivered a speech which would have made Alan Grayson and Keith Olbermann blush. Following...

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