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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.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu1q17rUkVU]--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter and Facebook...

"The time for talk is over." That sentence should be the new slogan of the Obama administration. Forget "Change We Can Believe In" or "Yes We Can." Those were yesterday's slogans, when Obama wanted but did not yet have power.The time for talk was over...

On the controversy regarding the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Martha St. Jean at Huffington Post writes:I believe Gates did what anyone would do, he yelled at the officer, probably called him a few names and maybe told him he was not...

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Every now and then, David Brooks makes sense. Today is one of those days, in his column at the NY Times, Liberal Suicide Watch:It’s not that interesting to watch the Democrats lose touch with America. That’s because the plotline is exactly the same. The party...

If you want a good measure of how desperate Barack Obama has become to force through his health care agenda before the August recess, there is no better evidence than Obama's conference call yesterday with far left bloggers such as Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo, and...

Harvard Scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested for disorderly conduct. According to news reports, police responded to a call from a neighbor that someone was trying to break into Gates' house by forcing open the door. It turns out the person trying to break...

Do we really need a Latke Czar, as suggested by Bruce Bialosky (h/t Israel Matzav):This may not affect the average American, but to Jewish Americans this is of utmost importance. Since the President has done everything possible to antagonize Jews over Israel, I thought he...

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As if all the problems with the Democratic health care proposals, such as increasing the federal budget deficit even assuming large new tax revenues, were not enough, now add this: The proposals will break the budget of the states as well. From the NY Times:The...

With all that is happening in the world and at home, it would be easy to forget about the drama unfolding in Honduras this weekend. Manuel Zelaya is threatening another attempt at a return to Honduras this Sunday, is taking steps to set up an...

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Yes, the Senate should vote Yes on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to be the next Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The main reason I reach this conclusion is that there is no compelling reason to vote no.I watched about half of Sotomayor's...

This video has been active on the internet because the head of the National Black Chamber of Commerce took offense to Barbara Boxer's condescending attitudeBut at least Boxer held her temper, even though the witness repeatedly called her "ma'am," in contrast to when Boxer chewed...

The Drudge Report links today to a Craigslist-San Francisco ad (right) by the Fund for the Public Interest, Inc. (formerly known as the Fund for Public Interest Research, Inc., referred to as The Fund), seeking people willing to help the "CAMPAIGN TO FIX THE HIGH...

The headline you will never see, even in response to a post such as Palin: All Tail, No Head. The post title that has nothing to do with the post (which was about fundraising). But using sexual innuendo when writing about Sarah Palin has become...

At Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, Sotomayor was asked by Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to explain her comment that "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who...

From a journalism student at the University of Oregon (via Instapundit):When I began examining the political affiliation of faculty at the University of Oregon, the lone conservative professor I spoke with cautioned that I would "make a lot of people unhappy." Though I mostly brushed...