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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 March 28, 2009 4 Comments

The JournoList has evoked much commentary. But a bigger question is being missed. What lurks beneath the outward gentility and civility of the most enlightened liberal bloggers and columnists?Apparently it is not pretty. Some people expressed surprise at the ugly tone of the thread released...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 28, 2009 0 Comments

Has Obamamania reached its limit, asks this Yahoo blog entry:This week alone, the president was on "60 Minutes," held a prime-time press conference (networks reluctantly bumped "American Idol" and "The Biggest Loser" to make room for it), and answered viewer questions at his first-ever...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 27, 2009 1 Comment

The JournoList started by Ezra Klein as a place where liberal media elites could share ideas (i.e., make sure they had their stories straight) has been exposed as a repository of liberal elite media trash talk. But it gets worse. Klein took credit for designating...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 27, 2009 0 Comments

David Brooks is back on the Obama ranch, having been lassoed by White House officials when he briefly strayed. Brook's latest puff piece is The Winnable War. You don't need to read it. I'll give you the punch line, which is a shocka:BUSH BAD, OBAMA...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 26, 2009 1 Comment

The JournoList was revealed by Politico. The founder of the JournoList, Ezra Klein, explained the purpose as follows (emphasis mine): Journolist is meant to serve a very specific purpose that's actually related to my experience building this blog. The work of this site has always been...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 26, 2009 6 Comments

Here is my first Tweet, based on the disclosure at Slate (via Instapundit) of the liberal JournoList's vicious and repeated attacks on the Jew Marty Peretz, which means (using the logic of the Ezra Klein in his vicious smear of Ann Althouse):Follow me on Twitter----------------------------------------------------UPDATE:...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 26, 2009 1 Comment

Obama's teleprompter has instigated a fight between Mr. Nasty and President O'Nasty. It started with a scripted dig by Obama at Simon Cowell on the Jay Leno show, to which Cowell responded in kind:When the historians of tomorrow take out their quill pens and attempt...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 25, 2009 2 Comments

It is amazing how this administration creates controversies because it expresses opinions without reading the documents on which the opinions are based. First, there was the AIG bonus controversy. The bonuses were authorized by the stimulus plan, which neither the administration nor Congress actually read...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 25, 2009 0 Comments

Michele Bachmann, the conservative Republican Congressman from Minnesota, has gotten into the heads of the left-wing blogosphere. Yesterday was the completely phony attack on Bachmann's "armed and dangerous" comment, in which her metaphor for outrage was twisted into a supposed call to arms.Today brings another...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 25, 2009 4 Comments

I have been waiting for this day, when one of the demonized executives at a bank or insurance company would tell Congress to "take this job and shove it." The person singing this song today is Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 25, 2009 2 Comments

The internet and media are abuzz with the prospect of changes in the law which would permit newspapers to operate as non-profits. Michelle Malkin comments that And so, it has come to pass… after the well documented decline of newspaper revenues and profits.If you were...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 24, 2009 0 Comments

Conservative Republican Congressman Michele Bachmann has come under fire for stating that voters should be "armed and dangerous" over the administration's engery tax plans. While the leftwing media tried to twist this statement into a literal call to arms, in fact Bachmann was using a...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 24, 2009 0 Comments

Tristan Anderson was seriously injured earlier this month while participating in violent protests against the security barrier built by Israel in response to a wave of suicide bombers from the West Bank:Every Friday for the past seven months, the villagers of Nilin, bolstered by foreign...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 22, 2009 7 Comments

My thoughts as the interview progresses:He says: Investment banking not like it was 20 years ago, when investment bankers only made 20 times what teachers made, not 200 times.I say: Are you kidding me? Remember Drexel and Michael Milkin? Remember the people who inspired the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 22, 2009 1 Comment

While liberal bloggers like Ezra Klein are busy attacking good people like Ann Althouse, and liberal reporters run a secret JournoList to make sure they have their stories straight, an American reporter is rotting in an Iranian jail.The full story is at And So It...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 21, 2009 2 Comments

The financial crisis seems hard to understand. How did we go from a robust economy to "the worst economy since the Great Depression"? (h/t Barry O)There are 27 visualizations which make things easier to understand. I like this one in particular (click on picture to...

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