Influential Woman · Crisis Communications, Litigation Communications
Karen Elizabeth Campbell
Principal, Oliver & Ginger
Burtonsville, MD
Her Story
About Karen
I started my career 40 years ago in the management training program at Cruise Allens and worked as a reporter for Dow Jones before founding my own company, Oliver and Ginger, 25 years ago. The name comes from my cat Oliver and my dog Ginger - lawyers needed something that sounded professional. I work exclusively with law firms representing victims, and my specialty is opposition research that would scare anybody, like the FBI for corporate work, and getting stories out to national audiences. I can book clients on programs like Joe Rogan and other national shows. One of my biggest cases was representing the 9,000 victims of Dr. Levy at Johns Hopkins, who did exams without gloves and took photographs. Hopkins wanted to make it about one doctor, but I uncovered the truth - they hired him knowing he was sketchy, put poor women at an outside facility, and had a history of experimenting on Black people for 80 years, including the Tuskegee experiment. I took that settlement from $50 million to $190 million by telling the whole story. Right now I'm working on the Meta case in the Supreme Court about their pixel tracking. I found out what the Supreme Court justices watch to make the privacy issue personal - like Amy Coney Barrett watches The Good Wife, and Ketanji Brown loves NASCAR. I also worked on Flint, Michigan. I work for plaintiffs' lawyers representing victims because I love righteous indignation. Beyond my company, I run a nonprofit called SK Innocence Clinic where I help wrongfully convicted women become exonerated, because women don't generally commit DNA crimes, making it almost impossible for them to prove innocence. They estimate 7,000 American women in prison are innocent. I've gotten 36 people out so far.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Karen
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to God. It's only the Lord, honestly. This is what God put me on the earth for.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is: never let the bad guys win. That's what drives me in my work representing victims and fighting for justice.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice is: don't let people tell you that you can't do it, because you can. Everyone told me I couldn't start my own company - everybody did - and it's just not true. I have to be careful how I say this, but in a professional context, 'no' doesn't mean no. Don't let people tell you you can't do it, because you can. I also believe that anything is possible if you're willing to work hard. The biggest thing I would say is you have to outwork everybody else. I was a single mom and my son had cancer, and I still started my company. Even if it seems impossible, we can get things possible.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge for me professionally is getting busy lawyers who want my service to start working with me. I'm in my own lane, so what happens is they need my help with communications, but getting willing people to a yes is difficult because everybody's so busy.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are kindness and understanding that everybody has a job to do. I believe that people come to situations with different things, and even if they look mean, they still have a story. You have to understand people before you can get to a solution. That's fundamental to everything I do.
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