Attorney Corey Silverstein said he saw the industry lacked the ability to consult with a lawyer before signing an agreement and wanted to give industry members a website they could visit to find a lawyer who can answer their questions without drowning in a sea of information.
“I grew tired of looking at websites belonging to self-proclaimed specialists in 2257 and 1st Amendment [law] providing information with nothing but self-published articles that in essence do nothing but terrify people into thinking that if they don’t use that individual then the world is going to end,” Silverstein told XBIZ.
Silverstein said he has been managing his law office in the Midwest for about three years, after having spent three previous years studying law by day and running an adult affiliate program and a collection of paysites by night. His experiences in adult inspired him to focus his law practice on the industry.
During law school, he said, he met an individual who sold him a dormant affiliate program and five adult sites that he later found to be worthless. Silverstein said thankfully he had a bulletproof contract and was able to prove fraud and sue the individual.
“I believe I can offer industry members an insight that no other lawyer can,” Silverstein said. “I have the personal experience to understand exactly the emotions and frustrations that anyone in the industry deals with on a daily basis. When you tie those experiences to a license to practice law, I can give industry members both the legal and emotional support that they need.”
Silverstein said he was introduced to MojoHost CEO Brad Mitchell during that learning process. Mitchell taught him the ropes of adult and inspired him to devote much of his practice to the industry, he said.
“The lessons that I learned in the adult industry are invaluable, and I want to use them together with the law to help people just like Brad Mitchell reached out to help me when I needed it,” Silverstein said.
Silverstein said he does not proclaim to be a specialist in one area of adult — his practice puts emphasis on corporate and contractual law, civil litigation, criminal defense, 2257, DMCA issues and other areas of interest to adult.
“I can certainly say that a great deal of my day is spent drafting, reviewing and litigating contracts,” Silverstein said. “My mainstream clients vary from people and businesses related to in the Internet, and some who have never turned on a computer. Ideally in the next few years my practice will shift to where my associates will be handling my mainstream local practice while I will focus on my adult client base.”
Silverstein said his adult client lineup includes hosting companies, affiliate programs and operators, billers, processors, website designers, content producers, talent, website owners and bandwidth resellers. They range from multimillion complex corporations to individuals running just one or two websites.
“No matter the size of the client, each of my clients gets the same time, attention and work product,” Silverstein said. “The site makes it easy for anyone in the adult industry to get in touch with me — at absolutely no charge — to determine whether he or she needs legal assistance. I have never and will never charge for an initial consultation and my clients know that I will never bill for a reasonable call.”
