Sokolove Law Uses Social Video Contest to Ban a Killer
A few weeks ago, I observed that part of a lawyers work involves dealing with misery: explosions, poisonings, fraud, catastrophic medical errors, and — toughest of all — kids whose lives will be framed by the careless act of another.
Those are the issues clients bring to us, and any lawyer who has done it for long enough gets to know the failings of systems that should protect us.
So I’m proud that my firm, Sokolove Law, is helping prevent some of those injuries before they ruin lives. We’re the first firm I know of to sponsor a viral video contest. It gets people to make video about the need to ban asbestos, which is still legal and causing cancer deaths that strike close to home. That’s right: the effort will prevent people from needing to become litigants. And I’m glad about that.
Just last week I was at a friend’s house for a party, and one of the guests recounted an asbestos threat from construction work in his office building in Boston. Everyone was told that if they found dust on their desks they should call special contractors on site who would show up with safety gear to take it away.
“Everyone knew it was asbestos,” he told me. You can imagine his family’s relief when he moved to a new office.
Obviously, the right time to fix this problem is before cancer-causing agents are built into homes and workplaces. And certainly before victims or their families have to resort to lawyers. Law firms that focus on representing victims see this. So working to prevent injuries just seems like the ethically right direction to take, given the knowledge that unfortunately comes our way as we help litigants.
I hope you’ll visit the Ban Asbestos website — both to advocate against this poison, and also to give a hat tip to Sokolove Law, which is trying to do a good thing in an innovative way. And while you’re there, clicking on “send a letter to Congress” would add your voice to this effort.
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