The Practice

The Video Venue

WOW! Lisa Solomon is at it again. I am waiting for her to write a book on how to practice law AND run a side business or three. Here is Lisa's latest: The Video Venue!

The Video Venue, a new niche video website featuring humorous law-related videos, is hosting a contest to name the funniest legal video on the web. The Billable Hour Company, which sells humorous gifts and greeting cards for lawyers and legal professionals, operates The Video Venue and is sponsoring the contest.

The Video Venue, at www.video.thebillablehour.com, aggregates funny law-related videos from various web video sites (including YouTube, Revver and Google Video, among others). Videos are grouped into playlists organized by topic (such as law school, jury duty, court reporters and paralegals), practice area (such as contracts, torts and criminal law) and type of video (such as music, movie clips and commercials). Site visitors can also create their own playlists to personalize their viewing experience.

"So many of the law-related videos on sites like YouTube just bash lawyers," observes Billable Hour Company partner Mark Solomon. "But The Billable Hour Company’s success has proved that lawyers and legal professionals appreciate content—like the articles and poems featured in The Timesheet (our monthly e-newsletter)—and products—like our greeting cards and our CDs by groups with names like the Bar & Grill Singers and Bob Noone & the Well Hung Jury—that find humor in the law without attacking lawyers. That’s what TVV is all about." Solomon and his partner, Lisa Solomon, are both practicing lawyers as well as entrepreneurs.

Visitors can contribute to the site by suggesting videos that are already posted on the web, uploading videos, or even recording webcam videos. The Solomons review all submitted videos for content and quality before the videos are posted to TVV.

The widget can even be configured to display videos from a specified playlist. Tech-savvy lawyers can follow the site in their feed readers by subscribing to its main feed (for all recently added videos), or to feeds for individual playlists.

To encourage visitors to The Video Venue to actively participate in making TVV the best site for law-related videos on the web, the site is running a contest to name the funniest legal video on the web. The winner will receive a $50 Billable Hour Company gift certificate.

Site visitors can enter the TVV Funniest Legal Video on the Web contest by posting a video, or reviewing, commenting or tagging any video already on the site. One participating TVV community member will be chosen at random to win a $50 Billable Hour Company gift certificate. The highest rated video will be featured in the Timesheet as February's Video of the Month.

The contest runs through January 31. The winner will be announced in the February issue of The Timesheet.

A fun end to the year

Okay, for those of you who know me well, this is par for the course. For the rest of you, just go with it.

December 8, 2007 I will be having a little wager for charity. I bet I can eat a 12 egg cheese and olive omelet. How sure am I that I can do it? It will be videotaped. Want to see it? The cost of the videotape is a donation to the charity of my choice. If I don’t, I pay whatever you have put up to the charity. So far, I am over $300. I want to hit $500.

The Charity: Guiding

Hands

School

, a non-public school for special needs children in the

Sacramento

area. You can read more here.

Any takers? Email me and let me know.

If you are in Sacramento........

or Northern California anywhere, stop by the 2nd Annual Regional ATA Tae Kwon Do Tournament at Cosumnes River College. The tournament is run by Kevin Durant at KJ's ATA Black Belt Academy and is being sponsored in part by the Law Offices of Jonathan G. Stein. If you are around, stop by and say hi.

Great new blog

I like outside the box thinking. Outside the box marketing works. Outside the box soccer. Outside the box anything.

Well, here is an outside the box blog from an attorney. New York attorney Richard Jaffe has a new blog. It is a very good read. I highly recommend you take a look.

San Diego and Los Angeles Wildfires

I just posted on my PI blog about the San Diego and LA fires. You can read my post here.

Short and simple: If you can help out, please let me know. We should help these people when we can and we can this time.

Buy Party of the First Part

I just found out that my friend Lisa Solomon over at The Billable Hour now has Party of the First Part for sale! (You do remember my prior post, right?)

Now, if you don't subscribe to Lisa's newsletter, this is a good time to do so. The Billable Hour has a lot of great information, resources, and humorous lawyer gifts.

Of course, don't forget to visit Lisa's practice website for all of your legal research and writing needs. And trust me, she writes in such a way that even Mr. Freedman, author of "Party of the First Part" would appreciate. Clear, concise and in plain English!

Great New Book: The Party of the First Part

I just finished reading this new book from Adam Freedman. He is the "Legal Lingo" columnist for the New York Law Journal Magazine and author of the website by the same name as the book.

This is a great, quick read. The book provides a history of legal terms that you use everyday in your law practice. He then provides a plain English meaning of these words. What a relief! I wish I had this when I was in law school.

Interestingly, I think the book will also help you be a better writer. I know I try to avoid legalese at all costs in my writing. But, I know some gets left in. After reading this book, I am going to redouble my efforts to get all of that nonsense out of there whenever possible.

Go out there and give the book a read. And post a review here.

Nominate bad legal writing!

We have all seen it - bad legal writing. Some of it is worse than others. "By all men these presents known" is how an old insurance release started. What? Huh?

Well, now you can nominate it for the Party of the First Part hall of shame. Now, I don't know if I would nominate opposing counsel for writing a letter where, say, he claims how smart he is, how busy he is and how great he is. (Yes, it comes from a real letter.) I would, however, send it in while taking off one's name from it. (No, I haven't done that yet. It reads better as an exhibit to a motion.)

By the way, from the fine folks who bring you the website:

The debate over Plain vs. Precision English rages on in courtrooms, boardrooms, and, yes, even bedrooms. In The Party of the First Part, Adam Freedman explores the origins of legalese, interprets archaic phrasing (witnesseth!), explains obscure and oddly named laws, and disputes the notion that lawyers are any smarter than the rest of us when judged solely on their briefs. (A brief, by the way, is never so.)

Enjoy!

Law Firm Funding

Face it - sometimes it is expensive to run a law firm. It costs money, especially if you are going to take on plaintiff's cases. And traditional banks don't want to lend us money. But there are other people out there who will help.

I just met Beth Robbins. She has money she is looking to lend to law firms - and a lot of money. Here is her information. If you call her, tell her Jonathan Stein said hi.

Beth Robbins

Nationwide Litigation Funding

578 Washington Blvd Ste 249

Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
Tel: (310) 306-1001
Fax: (310) 388-0576
Email: Beth@nlfunding.com
Website: http://www.litfundingusa.com

Use a name

No, not your own name. Use the other person's name. If you are calling me, say "Hi Jonathan." When we are done, if I have helped you, say "Thanks, Jonathan."

Two caveats:

1. Do not shorten someone's name unless they do it. Jonathan does not become Jon. Judith does not become Judy. Michael does not become Mike. I usually go by Jonathan. It is annoying when people call me Jon.

2. Do not screw up the name. If you are unsure about how to pronounce it, just ask.

Why do you do this? Because you show the person you are talking to that you are paying attention. It helps to make the other person feel a bit more important.