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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.

Remember when Tea Parties and health care protests were derided as AstroTurf because some conservative groups gave logistical support? So what do you call it when the Democratic National Committee "organizes" and "plans" 500 protests, including the use of "professionally staffed" protests? From Politico: Faced...

Widespread abuse has been alleged, including one incident when they threatened a detainee "with a chainsaw as his autistic daughter looked on," another where they used cattle prods on detainees' genitals, another where they put a gun against a detainee's head, another where they slammed...

I can't keep up with all the ways in which this administration is failing. From the health care restructuring proposals gone sour, to the slippage in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the appeasement of Hugo Chavez and Iran and the bullying of Honduras, to the end...

A good example of how far off course Democrats in Congress have strayed on the issue of health care reform, are provisions in the Senate HELP Committee draft bill creating rules and regulations governing food disclosures at fast food restaurants and in vending machines.Titled the...

The House and Senate draft bills for health care restructuring are so odious that they are beyond repair.It's nice that Max Baucus and some others are trying to squeeze some of the disastrous provisions out of the bills, but it is a waste of time....

Scrolling through Doug Ross' blog, Director Blue, reminded me of a name from the past who seems to have escaped mainstream media scrutiny, much less responsibility, for two of the largest fiascos in our recent history, the intelligence failures which led to 9/11 and the...

Why hadn't I seen this before?[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9GMKK_fWKg](h/t Tysk)--------------------------------------------Related Posts:Bureaucracy Expansion Act of 2009IRS The New Health Care EnforcerFollow me on Twitter and Facebook...

As much attention as the draft health care restructuring bills have received, so much has been missed in the thousands of pages of proposed legislation. It is not an exaggeration to say that these proposals create numerous and layered levels of new bureaucracies, on top...

Tom Ridge's bombshell -- the allegation that he felt political pressure to raise the threat level in the run-up to the 2004 election -- is not the real bombshell. The real story here is that Tom Ridge has joined Meghan McCain in the freakish side-show...

You would be hard-pressed to find a better example of how uncompromising the left-wing of the Democratic Party has become than the attempts to make sure the Obama administration and moderate Democrats do not compromise on the public option.Jane Hamsher, one of the most prominent...

To resolve the Mexican Standoff in which the Democrats find themselves over the health care restructuring bill, Harry Reid apparently has come up with the idea of splitting the bill. The popular insurance reform provisions would go to a full Senate vote subject to a...

Liberal Democrats say they will not vote for a health care restructuring bill without a public option. Less liberal Democrats say they will not vote for a health care restructuring bill with a public option.Democrats need both groups to vote in favor of any bill...

So predicts Gerald Warner in The Telegraph newspaper, in a column with the lengthy and highly descriptive title President Pantywaist in retreat: Barack Obama hoists the white flag over Stalinist health care proposals. [h/t Tim Blair] After reading the title, I'm not sure you...

Ed Morrissey at HotAir has the rundown on the faltering boycott of Glenn Beck's Fox News show. As predicted here, the failure of the boycott has numerous benefits.What's more, the people pushing this boycott have stepped in it this time. There is no indication that...

Think Progress, the Democratic policy and media-watch organization, broke the story that someone in the audience at a health care town hall in Las Vegas shouted "Heil Hitler" at an Israeli giving a talk about the Israeli system. Needless to say, the video is being...

The pressure put on advertisers to pull ads from the Glenn Beck show on Fox News has caused about a dozen major corporations to instruct their ad agencies to make sure their ads did not run on the show.These advertisers never directed their advertising to...

As set forth in my prior post, IRS The New Health Care Enforcer, the new tax provisions in the Senate and House draft health care bills tax people for failing to obtain acceptable health coverage. These taxes are crucial to implementing a health care mandate...