There’s a good number of experienced, prominent and high-quality attorneys who have served the adult entertainment industry well over the last several decades. But to my knowledge, only one of them has also operated adult websites of his own, giving him an added degree of insight into the risks, challenges and anxieties faced by his clients in the industry’s online sector.
That man is Corey Silverstein of Silverstein Legal – and creator of the innovative new subscription service Adult.law. If you’ve attended adult trade shows and conferences in the last 14+ years, or tuned in for the recent virtual YNOT Summit, then you’ve likely seen Silverstein in action as a speaker or as a participant on a legal panel.
“I’ve been a computer dork for as long as I can remember and have done everything from being an affiliate, to being a webmaster, to being a website owner,” Silverstein told YNOT. “As far as I know, I am the only attorney in our industry that actually has been an industry website operator.”
Silverstein’s background as an adult webmaster provides him with a perspective from which many of his clients’ questions are ones he has grappled with personally, first as an operator of adult sites and then for the last 14 years as legal counsel to a wide variety of adult businesses and entrepreneurs. Among other things, his experience as an adult webmaster and affiliate make it easy for him to relate to his clients’ day to day concerns as they run their businesses.
“Prior to being a lawyer, I found the myriad of fears and concerns to be daunting and at times damn well overwhelming,” Silverstein explained. “The balance between legal compliance and being able to run a profitable business is always at the top of every industry entrepreneur’s mind. Having lived through this experience allows me to actually understand the fears, anxieties and other obstacles that my clients are experiencing on a daily basis.”
Doubtlessly, Silverstein’s background also informed the development of the Adult.law subscription service and the novel approach to providing legal advice to the adult industry that the new service represents. The structure of the platform and the array of services it offers also reflects his understanding that cost is a major consideration for his industry clients.
“Adult.law was built as a subscription-based platform and provides a slew of services that includes a library of educational videos that grows on a weekly basis, individual legal assistance, articles and more,” Silverstein said. “The platform was built for performers, models and small business operators that historically have been reluctant to hire a lawyer due to cost constraints. The platform was built from the ground-up entirely from the feedback of adult industry entrepreneurs who were looking for this service.”
One major advantage to Silverstein’s approach to Adult.law from the client’s perspective is the tiered subscription structure, which enables clients to adjust their subscription to fit their needs – and their budget.
“There are a lot of people out there who want to have a lawyer available although their legal needs may be less than larger entrepreneurs and businesses,” Silverstein observed. “Typically, the attorney client relationship starts with the lawyer requiring a security deposit/retainer; Adult.law requires no retainer or security deposit and our subscribers have the ability to change their subscription level at any time based upon their evolving legal needs. We actually encourage our subscribers to change their subscription basis as their legal needs increase or decrease.”
It’s a fitting structure for a market filled with clients of wildly varying capitalization and needs, from individual adult performers, influencers and webmasters to major cam networks, hosting providers and content production studios.
“Some of my subscribers are only looking for access to our growing library of legal videos, articles and more, while others want the ability to have one-on-one time with me directly to assist with their legal needs,” Silverstein continued. “Our Gold, Diamond and Platinum packages come with access to the extensive resource library and additionally individual legal time. As an added bonus, Adult.law subscribers are eligible for deep discounts on my office’s hourly rates if they want to purchase more individualized legal consulting time. The sky is the limit in terms of the flexibility of our subscription packages.”
Launching a service like Adult.law is a major endeavor, regardless of when it is undertaken, but launching and growing it during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is, one hopes, a once-in-a-century challenge. On the other hand, a pandemic that suddenly forces much of the world’s population into ‘lockdown’ mode also has a way of rapidly clarifying certain urgent market needs – and inspiring novel solutions.
“Adult.law was in the works prior to COVID-19 but COVID-19 made me realize how urgently a substantial portion of the industry was looking for an affordable legal product from someone actually in the industry,” Silverstein said. “There is a major lacking discussion about the psychological toll of COVID-19 on people that have tested positive for the illness and also for everyone who’s lives have been completely turned upside down. COVID-19 brought the production side of the industry to a grinding halt but that didn’t stop people from having to pay bills and so there was a monumental shift from conventional content production to performers going into business for themselves.”
As part of that monumental shift, Silverstein has witnessed firsthand the widely reported phenomenon of a rush of new models, cam broadcasters, content creators and influencers turning to adult industry platforms to generate income during the ongoing pandemic.
“There is no doubt that the COVID 19 pandemic has led to a substantial influx of new performers into the industry,” Silverstein said, adding that he has received “daily” inquiries from models and performers who are brand new to the industry. Rather than being a steady stream of newcomers though, there has been something an ebb and flow – a tide-like shift that matches up with the different “waves” of COVID-19 and its knock-on effects on the economy, it seems.
“I would say that I saw the largest jump in the first 6 months or so of COVID,” Silverstein said. “Now, it seems to be happening again as it seems to correlate with the expiration unemployment and other work loss benefits.”
Through it all, the core of Silverstein’s advice – not just to his clients, but to anyone seeking legal advice and reliable information – has not changed, even as he has added Adult.law as a new vehicle for delivering that advice.
“There is no such thing as a stupid question,” Silverstein emphasized. “Stupidity happens when someone doesn’t seek advice or doesn’t ask the question to begin with and relies on their own assumptions or guesses. This industry is filled with amazing people with tremendous skill sets and experience that are very willing to help you succeed.”
