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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 August 20, 2009 1 Comment

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 19, 2009 5 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 19, 2009 12 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 18, 2009 43 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 18, 2009 4 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 17, 2009 6 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 17, 2009 5 Comments

The White House appears to have taken down the [email protected] e-mail address used to have people report fishy comments by other people about health care. But, the bounce-back when you send an e-mail provides an alternative address, to the White House "reality check" web page:At...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 17, 2009 6 Comments

A fraud not only is stating something that is untrue, but also failing to state something that is necessary to avoid making a true statement misleading. A material omission as amounting to a fraud is a basic legal concept certainly familiar to this administration.So it...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 16, 2009 7 Comments

NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd criticized Sarah Palin for using Facebook to write about Obama's health care plans:She took a forum, Facebook, more commonly used by kids hooking up and cyberstalking, and with one catchy phrase, several footnotes and a zesty disregard for facts, managed...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 16, 2009 15 Comments

Barack Obama has invoked his experience with his grandmother's death in support of his health care restructuring plans.Does this mean Obama used his grandmother as a "prop," and that this would justify mocking his grandmother? No.We each have personal experiences with the health care system,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 15, 2009 0 Comments

And makes it look easy. Rick Perlstein's pathetic, almost psychotic, rant in The Washington Post, In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition, was was greeted by the nutroots as the best thing since Keith Olbermann's "you are a fascist""you are a fraud""how dare you" rants....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 15, 2009 0 Comments

I mean, for the Everett, Washington, School Board Committee: Enough Already! Let's bring about the return of common sense, transparency and personal accountability to the Everett School Board.I think we need some of that in Washington, D.C., as well. Also, isn't this how Sarah Palin...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 15, 2009 6 Comments

The NY Times has discovered that the Health Debate Fails to Ignite Obama’s Grass Roots:But even among those who turned out for the meetings, many of whom had Obama buttons affixed to their shirts and spoke glowingly of the president, there was a sense of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 15, 2009 36 Comments

A group called Color of Change is putting pressure on advertisers to stop running ads on the Glenn Beck show on Fox News because Glenn Beck said mean things about Barack Obama. Apparently several advertisers, including Geico, Sargento Cheese, and others, have succumbed to the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 14, 2009 4 Comments

The Independent newspaper in Britain ran an article titled The Brutal Truth About America's healthcare, focusing on lack of health services in a poor section of Los Angeles. But at the same time, The Independent also ran a column by Christina Patterson in which Ms....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 14, 2009 2 Comments

This is great. My home State of Rhode Island says it did not receive promised stimulus money for energy projects. The federal government says it sent the money weeks ago: The U.S. Department of Energy says it sent about $22 million in federal stimulus funds...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 14, 2009 30 Comments

People often joke that government-run health care will have the efficiency of the motor vehicle department, and the compassion of the Internal Revenue Service. This joke will become reality if present Democratic health restructuring proposals are enacted.Under both the House and Senate Health, Education, Labor...

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