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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 February 15, 2009 1 Comment

The Stimulus Plan already has created jobs -- for people hawking get rich quick schemes, sorry I mean, providing shady advice for a fee on how to grab your piece of the stimulus pig-fest crap sandwich, sorry again, I mean providing professional advice on how...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 15, 2009 2 Comments

Barney Frank has been on a rant over bonuses paid to bank executives. Frank asked one executive: "What is it you'd do differently if you didn't get a bonus?"Bank executives are easy targets given the current economic climate. But don't think Frank and others like...

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

The New York Times is running a profile story on Eric Cantor, Republican congressman from Virginia, and House Minority Whip. By NY Times standards, this is a fairly soft piece; certainly not the hit job the Times has run on other Republicans. Nonetheless, the story...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 14, 2009 3 Comments

The day before the presidential election, when Barack Obama's victory seemed all but certain, I predicted that I would be able to say "I told you so" about what lay ahead:When this bubble bursts, I will be able to say "I told you so." Unfortunately,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 13, 2009 2 Comments

Democratic Senator Predicts None of His Colleagues 'Will Have the Chance' to Read Final Stimulus Bill Before VoteEt tu, Senators Collins, Snowe and Specter?...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 13, 2009 2 Comments

Good news. Israel opens the border crossing with Gaza -- in between missile attacks from Hamas -- to allow the export of tens of thousands of carnations. Wait a second, I thought Gaza was a wasteland on the verge of humanitarian catastrophe (along with the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 13, 2009 0 Comments

Not that McCain, The Other McCain, as witnessed by this post:[Andrew Sargus] Klein gives us a splendid insight into the central conceit of the liberal mind: Nothing exists -- or has existed, or ever will exist -- unless it's funded with federal taxpayer dollars. Therefore,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 13, 2009 3 Comments

The withdrawal of Judd Gregg as nominee for Commerce Secretary has revealed, once again, the nasty side of Barack Obama.At his news conference, Gregg went out of his way not to criticize Obama, simply explaining that he could not give "110%" in service to Obama,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 12, 2009 0 Comments

Hardly anyone reads Time magazine anymore. I say "anymore" for those people under the age of 40, who are too young to remember a day when Time represented the gold-standard of weekly news publications. If it weren't for an occasional visit to a doctor's waiting...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 11, 2009 1 Comment

Now I know for sure what Congress and the Obama administration think of us. Reports indicate that the "compromise" stimulus bill will be $789,000,000,000. Why that number? Because it's not $800,000,000,000. Whew, that makes me feel better. It's not $800 billion. I'll buy it.Think I'm...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 11, 2009 1 Comment

We are witnessing the disrobing of the Obama aura in a spending-drenched feeding frenzy befitting hungry pigs at a wet, putrid trough. The fierce urgency of now has become the fierce urgency of sow.Camille Paglia sums up these first three weeks of the Obama era:Money...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 10, 2009 0 Comments

The Democratic "stimulus" plan is packed full of all sorts of goodies. Just today, everyone is finding out that someone slipped in a provision to anoint a national health czar. Senator Arlen Specter, one of just three Republicans to support the bill, expressed surprise upon...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 10, 2009 2 Comments

At his press conference last night, Barack Obama singled out Elkhart, Indiana, as a place of special gloom and doom:I took a trip to Elkhart, Indiana, today. Elkhart is a place that has lost jobs faster than anywhere else in America. In one year, the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 09, 2009 8 Comments

Barack Obama held his first press conference as President tonight. With the "stimulus" plans on the table at the House and Senate, the press had an opportunity to show that it no longer was slobbering over Obama. The press failed. Not a single reporter challenged...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 09, 2009 2 Comments

As an early teen, I was fascinated with Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book." The book, by the 60's radical Yippie, was a guide to using the capitalist system to destroy the capitalist system. Hoffman gave advice on how to cheat various institutions, such as the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 09, 2009 2 Comments

I tried sending an e-mail to Senator Susan Collins, but her e-mail box is overflowing. I received the following error message:Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists:[email protected] The recipient's mailbox is full and can't accept messages now. Microsoft Exchange will not try to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 08, 2009 0 Comments

Hilda Solis, a Congresswoman from California, is Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Labor. Solis is under fire for her husband's failure to pay business taxes, and her own failure to disclose that she was involved with a union lobbying organization for which she sought...

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