We recently connected with Jon Matthews and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

I practiced law for seven years. I was legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut. I loved public interest work. But it wasn’t my passion. Art was my passion–filmmaking in particular. So I turned 30 and decided to make a change. I applied to one film school, my dream school, NYU. And I was lucky enough to get in. Then, I thought how am I going to pay for this? I already had debt from law school. The next day I got a letter in the mail saying I had a full tuition scholarship. So, I guess it was meant to be.

Jon, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I decided to apply to NYU because Spike Lee was my hero. Spike is the Creative Director at NYU. I ended up working for him, while I was in the graduate film program there. Spike awarded me a grant to make my first film, Surviving Cliffside, a documentary about my cousin’s struggle with opioid addiction in West Virginia. That film went on to screen at SXSW and launched my career as a filmmaker.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

After film school, I thought my legal career was over. But it’s come back into play, in a really interesting way. In addition to film and TV work, I also make settlement videos for high-end litigation. I basically help lawyers tell the story of their cases. I make documentaries about their clients and the issues that lead to the lawsuit, work place injury, plane crashes, wildfires, for example. And those documentaries help them settle their cases, get the compensation they deserve, and move on with their lives. So even though I don’t practice law, I’m still using my law degree and combining it with film to help people.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

My first settlement video client was the West Virginia Attorney General. I was a former Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division. And one of my former colleagues there approached me about doing a settlement video for a new case. The case was groundbreaking. It was a lawsuit against the prescription drug distributors who fueled the opioid crisis in West Virginia. My colleague saw my documentary about opioid abuse and thought I would be perfect for the film. So that was my first fore into settlement videos.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jonmatthewslegalmedia.com
• Instagram: @jonmatthewswv
• Facebook: @jonmatthewswv
• Linkedin: @jonmatthewswv
• Twitter: @jonmatthewswv
• Youtube: @jonmatthewswv