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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 June 17, 2009 10 Comments

You knew this was inevitable. Regardless of what Barack Obama said or did, the Iranian regime would accuse the U.S. of meddling in Iran's internal affairs:Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of "intolerable" meddling in its internal affairs, alleging for the first time that...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 17, 2009 9 Comments

Barack Obama has come under criticism not only for his silence for several days, but also his failure to issue more forceful words of support for the protest movement in Iran.Others counter that more forceful words of support would be counter productive, that there is...

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

There has been much dialogue, including on this blog, about the proper posture for the Obama administration to take with regard to the reform movement and protests in Iran. Many commenters argue that only Iranians can decide what is right for Iranians, and point...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 16, 2009 8 Comments

David Brooks has a piece in today's NY Times in which he explains how Barack Obama will pass health care reform. The solution can be summed up in two words: Deception and Tyranny.After allowing the political process (and all those messy bad interest groups) to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 16, 2009 0 Comments

The Congressional Budget Office has released its preliminary assessment of draft legislation to reform health insurance, and the picture is ugly. (h/t/ HotAir)Contrary to the claims by the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats that the reform will provide coverage for all Americans without busting the...

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

In the weeks prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Johns Hopkins Professor and noted Middle East scholar Fouad Ajami wrote that a free Iraq might have a profound impact on neighboring Iran:It is in the nature of things today, in an Iranian...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 15, 2009 13 Comments

Barack Obama's proclivity to talk endlessly, particularly on television, has earned the mockery of supporters such as Bill Maher. But on what may be the most important evolving events in a generation, Obama is silent.As hundreds of thousands of Iranians protest fraudulent elections, and demand...

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

A study reported in today's New York Times suggests that the practice of sex-selection, commonplace in Asia, continues in subsequent generations of immigrants to the United States: The trend is buried deep in United States census data: seemingly minute deviations in the proportion of boys...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 15, 2009 3 Comments

The Washington Post reports that the Iranian election outcome is consistent with its polling in Iran prior to the election. Not everyone is convinced by the Post numbers. Nonetheless, while noting the difficulty of polling in Iran, the Post article raises a interesting question.If...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2009 1 Comment

Jake Tapper reports:The White House has not issued a statement expressing support for the protestors declaring the election illegitimate. But neither has anyone in the Obama administration said a public word accepting the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection. "We're reacting to concrete facts," a...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2009 0 Comments

Via Michael J. Totten (h/t Instapundit). Read Totten's entire post. It is heartbreaking, particularly the reports that the Iranian people are waiting for encouragement, at least spoken, from the U.S. Will Obama support the Iranian people, or the Regime? It could make all the difference in...

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

The Blog of Legal Times (BLT) is reporting that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated recently that she expected Sonia Sotomayor to be confirmed, and that Sotomayor would be a welcomed and qualified addition to the Court. BLT noted that such commentary by...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2009 0 Comments

I have to say, the left-wing blogosphere has been pretty responsible as relates to the Iranian election fraud.I've followed the posting via Memeorandum by Andrew Sullivan, Matthew Yglesias, Spencer Ackerman, Digby, Hilzoy, and others with whom I normally disagree. While I might not have their...

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

When Barack Obama warmly greeted Hugo Chavez last April, Obama sent a message of despair to Venezuelans who sought freedom from Chavez's cult of personality. Any hope the Venezuelan opposition had of a near-term reversal of newspaper closings, political imprisonments, street intimidation, and nationalizations, died...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 13, 2009 4 Comments

Although most commentators predicted a close election in Iran, the official results show Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a sweeping victory. There are many allegations of election fraud mostly as a result of the failure to require photo IDs and other voter identification, which permitted multiple voting:By...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 13, 2009 9 Comments

In the aftermath of the passage of California Proposition 8, which enshrined the traditional definition of marriage into the California Constitution, some gay marriage advocates engaged in anti-Mormon agitation, as I documented repeatedly. There were ugly scenes of protesters carrying signs urging a boycott of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 12, 2009 2 Comments

Although the Democratic health care reform proposal currently in Congress is not final, two key elements are emerging as to how the government will pay for the trillion dollar plus price tag: Taxing private insurance benefits, and cutting hundreds of billions in Medicare and Medicaid...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 12, 2009 6 Comments

From Tim Blair down under:According to a source on the scene, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin – in Sydney after being released from quarantine – tonight told guests at a United States Studies Centre dinner that he feared he would be assassinated by the Secret...

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