Granted it's usually done in something substantially cleaner, but this is pretty much how professional kitchens thaw frozen meat.

Edit: here's my faq so people can stop assuming things about this method of thawing meat.

• this is safe to do. Meat is cooked at temperatures that kill all potential bacteria and parasites, even for steaks cooked medium rare.
• this is generally done with the meat still in the packaging, unless there's a dedicated place to thaw meat. The thawing container is washed before and after each use.
• it's always done with cold, running water to prevent the meat from thawing unevenly or unsafely.