Jody Weiner

Jody Weiner (b. Jody Carl Weiner) is an American novelist, non-fiction author, attorney and producer.

Weiner’s newest book is Raise Your Other Right Hand (2025, Speaking Volumes), a legal thriller described by author Byron Spooner as “Nick and Nora Charles meet The Lincoln Lawyer in this slam dunk novel.” According to Donald H. Harrison, publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World, "Author Weiner is himself an attorney and a sports fan, who describes the games of law and basketball with equal authority.]”

Weiner also wrote the literary suspense novel Prisoners of Truth (2004) that draws in part from his experiences defending high-profile criminal cases in Chicago. Along with Jane Goodall, Dave Soldier and other animal activists, he co-authored Kinship With Animals (2006), an anthology of true interspecies encounters. In the book, he writes about serving as attorney to Koko the Gorilla. Weiner also co-edited Resistance: A Radical Political and Social History of the Lower East Side by Clayton Patterson (2007), and co-managed publication of Vali Myers-a Memoir by Gianni Menichetti (2007). Weiner was also consulting producer and counsel for the documentary A Conversation with Koko (1999), which received a Genesis Award for Best PBS Documentary in 2000. Weiner was also a consulting producer and wrote additional dialogue for Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (animated feature film, The Weinstein Company/Kanbar Entertainment, 2011). Weiner also co-authored Peoplescapes, My Story From Purging To Painting an illustrated Memoir by Nancy Calef with Jody Weiner (2014 Babu Books). He was also writer/director of the animated music video Lost My Mind Again (2004), and producer of Perfect Two, a music video by Ceej (Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil soundtrack, 2011). Weiner also wrote the original comedy screenplay, Heck No! (adapted for streaming series in 2023).

Weiner was born and raised in Chicago, where he spent eleven years defending criminal cases in state and federal courts. In 1985, he moved to San Francisco. There he began to write books and practice civil law securing million-dollar verdicts. Weiner's clients have ranged from MRI machine inventor Raymond Damadian to an Ohio death row inmate, from NBA All-Star Norm Van Lier to SKYY vodka inventor Maurice Kanbar. He has also advised the Artist's Guild of San Francisco and the Gorilla Foundation, and he is a former director of the Golda Foundation. Weiner is President of the Board of Directors of the Litquake Foundation, producer of the annual San Francisco Litquake Festival. Weiner was a 2013 recipient of The Acker Award for achievement in the Avant Garde. He holds a B.A. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a J.D. from DePaul University. Weiner is a member of the California and the Illinois State Bar, Federal District Courts for the Northern Districts of California and Illinois, and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Federal Circuits. Weiner is married to contemporary American figurative painter Nancy Calef.