Nicholas Mosser, our much esteemed law clerk, will be graduating from Washington University in St. Louis Law School on Friday, May 21, 2010.

We’ve all been there. The phone rings and the dreaded “unknown caller,” obscure area code, or “1-800-some annoying telemarketer” pops up on the caller ID. Frustrating? Yes. Borderline harassing? Sometimes.

In the next few weeks, the SEC and the heads of various stock exchanges will be telling you how to invest your money. “ The biggest U.S. equity markets will urge regulators to begin a program next month for temporarily halting individual stocks that swing more than 10 percent…” So who does he, she, or they want to protect?

Odds are you’ve been contacted by a debt collector at some point. Even if it wasn’t your debt, maybe they called you about your ne’er-do-well brother, cousin, or ex-boyfriend. You know that debt collector is just doing his or her job, but it’s really frustrating!

jurors, judges, opposing counsel, future employers, current employers, disgruntled romantic interests and everybody else all have one thing in common: access to the internet! And while it’s true that jurors and judges—in particular jurors— shouldn’t be indiscriminately Googling, blogging, tweeting, or texting about ongoing trials, the reality is that they do. A lot. Even if they are told not to. By the judge.