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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 December 09, 2008 5 Comments

Illinois Governor Rudy Blagojevich has been indicted [correction 12/14/2008 - charged in a criminal complaint] for many offenses. While the press has focused on the attempt to sell Barack Obama's open Senate seat, there is a more important aspect of the indictment as relates to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 08, 2008 1 Comment

The stimulus plan proposed by Barack Obama focuses on public infrastructure projects, which have a long history of cost overruns, corruption, and construction incompetence. Public infrastructure construction and maintenance is important, it's just not an efficient use of funds if a quick economic stimulus is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 06, 2008 3 Comments

In his weekly radio address today, Barack Obama repeated his intention to stimulate the economy and "create" jobs through a massive public infrastructure program. As we have noted before, "[o]f all the concepts to help build the economy, Barack Obama has seized on the one...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 05, 2008 1 Comment

I have argued that the "Mormon boycott" resulting from the passage of California Proposition 8 is both unjustifiable and harmful to the cause of gay marriage. (See my article at American Thinker and post immediately below). In an article titled Boycotts That Backfire, Jennifer Vanasco...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 04, 2008 1 Comment

See my article, It's Time To Speak Out Against The "Mormon Boycott", at American Thinker. Read the article, and the documentation of the growing movement to boycott Mormon stores, businesses, and to subject individual Mormons to harassment.Whether there is a constitutional right to change the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 02, 2008 0 Comments

If there is any doubt in your mind who is No. 2 in the Obama administration, watch the body language of Obama's December 1, 2008 press conference announcing the national security team. While Joe Biden finally was allowed to appear in public, the body language...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 30, 2008 0 Comments

"Day Without A Gay." If you only read the title, you would think this was a holiday invented by homophobes. But no, December 10, 2008, has been declared "Day Without A Gay" by ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 29, 2008 0 Comments

I want to live: Captured terrorist Azam...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 29, 2008 0 Comments

The "alleged terrorist" attacks in Mumbai raise the issue of how to interrogate terrorists captured in the middle of an operation, when information may save innocent lives. In the longer term, the rules governing terrorist interrogation and detention may decide whether the terrorists live or...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 29, 2008 0 Comments

Here is an example of the type of people Indian authorities were dealing with:"Indian investigators are examining a satellite phone and GPS map recovered from a trawler, the Kubar, floating in the Arabian Sea. The crew was missing from the vessel except for its master...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 28, 2008 0 Comments

Reports from Mumbai, India, indicate that authorities have captured one or more of the terrorists responsible for attacks on hotels and other civilian locations. Although the attacks have been going on for over two days, as of this moment the situation is not completely under...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 28, 2008 11 Comments

The mainstream media, which swooned over Barack Obama, is going through a mild period of self-examination. Howard Kurtz' piece, A Giddy Sense of Boosterism, has sparked media self-examination over how the media debased itself through pro-Obama boosterism. Yet even in this self-examination, the pro-Obama bias...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 25, 2008 1 Comment

I am getting a little uncomfortable with the increasing tendency of the punditry to believe that Obama the President will be a centrist, unlike Obama the Candidate. The speculation among otherwise rational conservative commentators over how the left wingnuts must be going crazy is overdone....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 24, 2008 0 Comments

The Obama administration-in-waiting has devised a plan, still in its infancy in details but well developed in magnitude, to create millions of jobs through public infrastructure projects. Various Democratic leaders talk about a plan ranging from hundreds of billions of dollars to over a trillion.Creating...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 22, 2008 0 Comments

In a November 21, 2008 column, NY Times columnist David Brooks made the following statement:"Obama seems to have dispensed with the romantic and failed notion that you need inexperienced “fresh faces” to change things. After all, it was L.B.J. who passed the Civil Rights Act....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 22, 2008 0 Comments

"A Sarah Palin Thanksgiving"I thought this story was a joke, when I saw it posted on the Internet, but it is true. The NY Times Editorial Board has posted a blog entry criticising Sarah Palin for conducting a videotaped television interview against the backdrop of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2008 0 Comments

Pre-Election prediction by one of our nation's most insightful commentators foresaw the devastating effects of an Obama victory, but no one listened:"The stock market will not rebound unless and until it is clear that we have a president-elect who believes in the markets. Someone who...

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