Case files from high-stakes multi-district litigation.
2013–2014 · Baltimore, MD · Institutional Medical Abuse
Nearly 9,000 women affected by a Johns Hopkins gynecologist who secretly photographed patients during exams. I ran communications for the plaintiffs’ steering committee: the case reached a publicly reported $190 million settlement, with same-day national pickup from the AP, The Washington Post, NPR, and NBC News.
“Karen has the ability to get press no one else seems to get. She understands false narratives and knows how to tell the real story. Her media connections are unmatched.”
The firm brought the legal action; I shaped the public narrative to shift the focus from a standard settlement to institutional accountability.
The case moved from a standard settlement track to sustained institutional-accountability coverage, forcing transparency the defendant had resisted throughout litigation.
While the defendant used a global PR operation to maintain a positive public image, my narrative work bridged the gap between the defense’s messaging and employees’ lived experience.
Coverage shifted from the defendant’s diversity messaging to employees’ actual experience, changing the public record ahead of resolution.
I built a communications strategy to counter a defendant’s global PR operation, shifting press coverage from institutional statements to survivor accountability.
Sustained national coverage shifted the story from institutional statements to survivor accountability across the related proceedings.
I translated a legal verdict into a story of consumer harm that drew national financial and news coverage, bridging the win in court with market accountability.
National financial and news coverage reframed the legal verdict as a consumer-harm story, adding market pressure beyond the courtroom win.
I provided real-time communications strategy to counter the PR teams of large industrial and chemical manufacturers, forcing transparency where silence was the standard defense.
Sustained media pressure forced transparency across a portfolio of transportation, toxic exposure, and industrial-accident matters where silence had been the standard defense.
I managed communications to surface labor practices at a multinational company, countering a global corporate PR operation that sought to minimize the allegations.
Sustained coverage prevented the defendant’s PR operation from minimizing the allegations through resolution.
I identified the defense’s minimization strategy during a mass data breach and reframed the story around consumer rights and institutional negligence before the defense could define the record.
The public narrative shifted to consumer rights and institutional negligence before the defense could define the record.
A medical specialist at a regional healthcare facility performed unnecessary invasive procedures on pediatric patients over an extended period. I reframed the litigation from “medical error” to systemic institutional negligence, securing a settlement that forced public transparency.
→ Hundreds of survivors · years of unaddressed internal warnings · institutional accountability secured
A long-tenured staff member at a private educational institution exploited a position of trust to abuse students over a period of years. My work shifted the public narrative from an isolated incident to institutional failure to protect.
→ Dozens of survivors · years of unaddressed internal warnings · institutional accountability secured
A fatal carrier crash where the insurer's PR team moved within hours to frame the driver as solely at fault. I positioned the family's account with local and regional press inside that same window, anchored to the carrier's own safety record.
Local coverage held the carrier's maintenance history in the story through mediation, instead of letting driver-error framing stand unchallenged.
A years-long Anti-Terrorism Act matter on behalf of families of fallen service members, where coverage tends to fade between filings. I built a slower, sustained cadence of press touchpoints tied to hearing and discovery dates instead of a single news cycle.
Family accounts stayed in national and military-press coverage across multiple years of proceedings, instead of one initial-filing story.
The secret is simple: deference and kindness. I ensure a consistent, high-value communication cadence — a master press release and strategic social posts every month — so every firm stays on-message and feels genuinely appreciated.
I don’t “dole out” media through a distribution list — I pick up the phone. The reporters I call are people I know, not names in a database.
Before any story runs, I make sure the client and the survivors behind it understand exactly what’s coming, why, and what it means for them.
I answer my own phone — for the firm that retains me. What I build instead is a system: every survivor treated the way I’d want someone in my own family treated. Every first Wednesday, the system holds a structured briefing: plain-language updates, real answers, and space for whatever they need to say.
For the defense firms on the other side of that? I don’t go easy. That’s where the fight belongs — never on the people who already survived one.
How a communications firm talks about its past clients is the best available evidence of how it will talk about you.
I don’t name a client, a defendant, or a matter without counsel’s written consent. Where a matter is named on this site, I have that consent.
I don’t publish settlement figures that aren’t already public — including numbers that would flatter me.
I don’t enter work for awards. Doing it would mean putting client matters in front of a judging panel.
Full case detail is shared under privilege, once retained — which outlets, which reporters, what moved and when.
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