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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 July 21, 2009 1 Comment

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 20, 2009 9 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 20, 2009 2 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 20, 2009 3 Comments

In some New York City public schools, parents can chip in together to hire teaching assistants to help out: For years, top Manhattan public schools have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from parents to independently hire assistants to help teachers with reading, writing, tying...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 19, 2009 3 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 18, 2009 6 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 17, 2009 4 Comments

Without any expansion of federal health benefits, the cost of Medicare and Medicaid is sinking the budget, according to this Congressional Budget Office release:Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 16, 2009 29 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 16, 2009 1 Comment

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 16, 2009 2 Comments

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...

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

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 15, 2009 4 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 14, 2009 16 Comments

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...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 13, 2009 8 Comments

I have blogged about the horrendous treatment of Trig Palin by many left-wing bloggers. While making fun of Trig's Down syndrome makes such attacks particularly disgusting, the point is ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 13, 2009 1 Comment

The title of today's NY Times article on Sarah Palin could have been titled "Palin Missed Briefing, Caused Swine Flu." But it wasn't. Instead The Times titled the article Palin’s Long March to a Short-Notice Resignation.Not much new in the article, except this:In mid-spring, as...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 13, 2009 1 Comment

The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are on the verge of a multi-fronted investigation of the Bush administration's handling of the war on al-Qaeda, including a secret CIA plan to capture or kill senior al-Qaeda leaders which never became operational, before being terminated by...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 12, 2009 9 Comments

Yes the nation was, to use a phrase popular with Democrats, "lied into" electing Barack Obama President. Or as this author puts it, Obama on the flying trapeze:We've seen him in action for a bit more than six months. What we can say with confidence,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 11, 2009 6 Comments

Frank Ricci was the lead plaintiff in Ricci v. DeStefano, the case in which the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Sonia Sotomayor on the issue of whether the City of New Haven discriminated against mostly white firefighters. The Supreme Court decision, as well as Sotomayor's handling...

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