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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 01, 2009 0 Comments

The Weekly Standard has reprinted a portion of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, written in 1835 and 1840. The words are eery in light of what is happening in this country under this new administration:I want to imagine with what new features despotism could...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 01, 2009 23 Comments

What is it with this President? Obama has an obsessive need to find enemies against whom to campaign. When Obama's presidency is over, hopefully in four years (but likely eight years) there will be two sets of psychologists: Those who provide therapy to the American...

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

The New York Times has run a story on the travails of my home state, Rhode Island. The Times pays homage to the good things about Rhode Island, which is a quirky state with beautiful landscapes and beaches, in which everyone seems to know everyone...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 28, 2009 2 Comments

Another conservative secretly takes to the internet. The Commissioner: Where sports and politics collide. Ouch. But one thing, another new blog in the Ithaca area without name, rank and serial number. How can people attack you if you don't identify yourself? Maybe that's the point....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 28, 2009 3 Comments

A delegation of Hollywood stars, headed by Annette Bening, is traveling to Iran to open a dialogue on behalf of the Obama administration: Thirty-eight years ago, a ping pong team sent by US president Richard Nixon to Beijing opened the door to Communist China. February...

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

The internet is abuzz with photos of Pork Brains In Milk Gravy, allegedly the "worst food product ever." I beg to differ with these pundits, who obviously have not heard of The Testicle Cookbook: Cooking With Balls, by Serbian chef Ljubomir R. Erovic, who dedicates...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 27, 2009 4 Comments

Will it never stop? The deification of Obama, is what I'm talking about. Now it's Obama's marriage that is historic and a teaching lesson for the rest of us dim-witted wife-beaters. This, from a column in the Ithaca Journal written by Elizabeth Einstein (what else!):Never...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 26, 2009 2 Comments

Add Joe Biden to the list of people giving stimulus:...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 26, 2009 0 Comments

An article at American Thinker lays out a chart showing how Obama won the election by overwhelming Republicans. The author compares Republicans to Ethiopian spear-carriers who, under an onslaught by Italian mechanized troops, didn't know what hit them. I like the analogy, but I don't...

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

An Obama spokesman has just announced that the likely "downpayment" on Obama's plan to expand health insurance coverage over the next decade will exceed $1 trillion. That's above and beyond what presently is paid through medicare and medicaid.The question is, what percentage of the total...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 25, 2009 1 Comment

Will AP's cheerleading never stop? AP cheers the "audacity" of Obama's speech to Congress last night, while Marketwatch reports on the reality of Obama's massive plans for spending. ---------------------------------------------------UPDATE: Drudge Report gets it right:...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 24, 2009 1 Comment

Back by popular demand, Bobby Jindal and his family...

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

Nothing has changed. The mainstream media still is campaigning for Obama. On Obama's announcement of troop withdrawals from Iraq, the AP headline screams "US troops to exit Iraq by August 2010." Read several paragraphs into the story, and you will see that the headline and...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 24, 2009 2 Comments

Second time this week, I'm in agreement with a NY Times columnist, at least on the language I quote if not the overarching Obama-maniacal subtext. First, it was Maureen Dowd writing on the cowardice of Eric Holder. Now David Brooks, warning that the administration's economic...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 24, 2009 2 Comments

Another fed-up, closet conservative has started a blog, Bread Upon The Waters. Check it out. Here's part of the first post, which expresses the frustration -- and fear of discovery -- so many of us felt before we liberated ourselves and came out of the...

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

I wish this were a joke, but it's not. The town of Dryden, NY, near Ithaca, has plans to build a bridge in an area so remote that the town does not want to spend its own money on it, so it is seeking federal...

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