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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.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), commonly called the Stimulus Plan, is widely discredited as having done little to stimulate private sector job growth.But one thing the Stimulus Plan has created is long-term deficits. The Congressional Budget Office just released a budget...

Look who is asking, Who Is Barack Obama?Americans are still looking for the answer, and if they don’t get it soon — or if they don’t like the answer — the president’s current political problems will look like a walk in the park...

We can agree on the one-term thing; the "really good" part we'll have to talk about.------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook ...

I've been preoccupied the past few weeks, so I have not followed closely enough the end of the saga in Honduras.Manuel Zelaya, the one-term President of Honduras who wanted to be the forever-term President, will be leaving the country very soon:Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya...

The transparency President is now the President who feels your pain.According to the NY Times, in the State of the Union address Obama will unveil some highly targeted tax credits aimed at families, and some caps on student loan repayments: By focusing on what one...

What would one call a political strategy which depended upon portraying the majority of Americans as crazy extremists? The answer is: The current Democratic Party strategy which ignores the meaning of the Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts races, and focuses on smearing opponents as extremists...

Via Jammie Wearing Fool, Obama Needs TelePrompter to Talk to Schoolkids:No matter what I have said in the past, I want this to be a bad PhotoShop. Honestly. Update 1-26-1020: It's kinda so, but not completely. Read the comments.--------------------------------------------Related Posts:Please Tell Me This Is Not...

I really have very little patience for the "oh, I didn't realize what I was getting with Obama, he seemed so cool, and I was caught up in the hype, and now I realize that he talked a good game but doesn't know what he's...

My new favorite source of screen shots has outdone itself, with this post and headline The first senator of the reality show era:The text of the Politico post has nothing to do with reality:Brown’s arrival reflects a fundamental change in American politics, the most complete...

In order to justify China's crackdown on free speech on the internet, including banning YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, a Chinese communist newspaper posed this question:The People's Daily editorial asked rhetorically if obscene information or activities promoting terrorism would be allowed on the internet in the...

A lot of people have been playing Waterloo in the wake of the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts. That's history.Here's the future. An exclusive preview of Obama's upcoming State of the Union address this Wednesday (btw, we'll be "live" again): Where are those happy days,...

This is the latest in the Saturday Night Card Game series on the use of the race card for political gain:A follow up to the "technology is racist" twist explored in the last of the series, HP Face Tracking Software Racist? Now, it's Nikon's photo...

Talk about dominance of the Internet.Patrick Ruffini has an article in The Washington Post, which relates how Republicans won the internet in the Scott Brown election.I'm shocked.Putting my shock aside, for the moment, there is something else worth noting.As of noon today, the article...

From Charles Blow [sic] in the NY Times: Welcome to the mob: an angry, wounded electorate, riled by recession, careening across the political spectrum, still craving change, nursing a bloodlust...

The election of Scott Brown to the Senate left for dead the abomination known as the Senate health care bill.But it may not have been enough to get the message through to the Democrats who just seem to be begging to be thrown out of...

Nothing to worry about in Yemen: Because al-Qaeda is just a joke: Apparently, al-Qaeda doesn't have a Twitter account, so it never got the message.--------------------------------------------Related Posts:About That "Firecracker"Not So Scary Terror?Terrorist Attacks Plane, Think Progress Attacks Pete HoekstraFollow me on Twitter and Facebook...

Sometimes a Memeorandum thread almost speaks for itself.In this case, the push launched by Balloon-Juice, Sadly No, Daily Kos and others to demand that the House pass the lousy and unpopular Senate bill as is.With backers like these, Democrats have nothing to worry about.Democrats, particularly...

Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu sold their reputations for hometown deals as part of the Senate health care bill. Now that the Senate bill is dead, they have nothing to show for the sale.Raymond J. Donovan was Secretary of Labor under Ronald Reagan. Donovan was...