Ambassador Jacobson was sworn in at the State Department in Washington, D.C. as U.S. Ambassador on September 25, 2009 and presented his credentials to the Governor General of Canada on October 2, 2009. Most recently he served as Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. Before serving in the White House, Ambassador Jacobson spent 30 years gaining expertise in the areas of complex commercial, class action, securities, insurance and business litigation as a partner at the law firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal LLP. While working as a partner at Sonnenschein, Ambassador Jacobson also founded AtomWorks, an organization to bring together corporate, civic and academic leaders in order to foster nanotechnology in the Midwest. He also served as a member of CEOs for Cities, a national bipartisan alliance of 75 mayors, corporate executives, university presidents and nonprofit leaders organized to advance the economic competitiveness of cities. Ambassador Jacobson received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and was the Administrative Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.