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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.

This is the seventh* and last of a series of posts analyzing randomly selected provisions in HR3200, the House Democratic health care restructuring bill. The hope is that through random selection of pages from the House Bill, using the dartboard method, some light will be...

The lesson being learned by the left-wing blogosphere from the sputtering Glenn Beck boycott and the Van Jones Affair is not that political arguments should be won on the merits, and in the hearts and minds of the public.No, the lesson being learned is that...

At his Liberaland blog, Alan Colmes of the hated Fox Network asks: Van Jones Resigns; Who Will They Go After Next?Good question, but it depends on what the meaning of "they" is. According to Keith Olbermann and Gene Robinson, the next White House official to...

I made the classic blogger's mistake of getting a full night's sleep last night, rather than checking the internet every hour.When I awoke, every single blog I know had a post about how Van Jones had resigned sometime just before or after the stroke of...

A lot of people are asking "who vetted Van Jones?" or wondering how the Obama administration could have missed the problems. These are valid questions, but they miss the point.Van Jones is a mainstream member of the left-wing of the Democratic Party. Like over half...

MSNBC just cannot stop covering and cheering for the Obama administration. Either they don't understand their own news biases, or they don't care, or both. This blog post by several of MSNBC's news staff, including reporter Chuck Todd, says it all:*** Remind us again how...

The "I'm not a doctor, I just play one on TV" analogy moved into the political sphere long ago, most recently when a faux doctor appeared at a town hall run by Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.Now we have something of a reverse analogy, someone...

This is the sixth in a series of posts analyzing randomly selected provisions in HR3200, the House Democratic health care restructuring bill. The hope is that through random selection of pages from the House Bill, using the dartboard method, some light will be shed on...

The Obama administration is taking its bad August out on Honduras, announcing today the imposition of economic sanctions: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, responding to calls to increase pressure on the de facto Honduras government, announced the termination on Thursday of about $22 million...

The internet is abuzz today with news that Glenn Beck foe and Obama administration Green Czar Van Jones is a 9/11 Truther, meaning he thinks the Bush administration either planned or at least knew of the 9/11 attacks in advance.Jones will end up resigning, and...

Life in the blogosphere is not fair. For weeks I have been beating the drum about the IRS being involved in our health care under Democratic proposals: IRS The New Health Care Enforcer (August 14, 2009).I greatly appreciated the links from InstaPundit, American Thinker, and...

The hot topic at this precise moment in time is the concept of a public option "trigger" being proposed by Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.Snowe was one of only three Republicans to vote for the February 2009 stimulus plan; without those three Republicans (one of...

This is the fifth in a series of posts analyzing randomly selected provisions in HR3200, the House Democratic health care restructuring bill. The hope is that through random selection of pages from the House Bill, using the dartboard method, some light will be shed on...

The British papers have been on a tear recently exposing the fundamental flaws in their socialized health care system.Today The Times of London exposes the out-of-control cost of the British system. Rather than controlling costs, as is promised by American supporters of a "one-plan, one...

I told you this was coming. Two weeks ago I predicted that when Glenn Beck returned from vacation, he would go on the offensive against Van Jones and the others behind the boycott of Beck's Fox News show.This was the only available strategy, since the...

This is the fourth in a series of posts analyzing randomly selected provisions in HR3200, the House Democratic health care restructuring bill. The hope is that through random selection of pages from the House Bill, using the dartboard method, some light will be shed on...

Greg Sargent at The Plum Line blog notes that the Obama campaign apparatus, Organizing for America, has upped its attacks on the media:This has to be the Obama camp’s most direct and premeditated shot at the media yet: His outside political operation just blasted an...