Plaintiff Litigation Communications

The defense calls it an accident.
I tell the story of years of negligence.

The company your client is suing already hired its communications machine — Kirkland, FTI, Sitrick. They brief the reporters. They shape the jury pool. They set the number before you reach the table. You cannot win the case without winning that story. Twenty-five years across the table from them — I built the system that takes it back.

Text Karen → Call Karen — 415.359.4454

Fifteen minutes. I’ll bring you the reporter on your case — and the names and playbook behind the defense’s communications.

Karen Elizabeth Campbell  ·  $50M → $190M at Johns Hopkins  ·  Former Dow Jones reporter

You cannot win the case without winning the story.The story is decided before the trial starts.

01  /  The Problem

The defense wants one unfortunate accident. I prove the pattern.

An isolated incident is something an institution apologizes for. A pattern of decisions is institutional negligence — and institutions pay for negligence. While you build the case, the defense is already building the story: that this was a tragedy, not a choice. One doctor is an accident. A documented history is a reckoning.

Mass tort, environmental, and catastrophic-injury cases are among the most active beats in journalism. Yet the attorneys forcing these companies to pay are largely absent from the coverage — so the story the public hears is the one the defendant’s communications team tells. That is a correctable problem.

Who the other side hires
01
Kirkland & Ellis
Retained before the complaint is filed. Builds the legal defense narrative.
02
FTI Consulting
Runs the war room. Scenario analysis, jury research, third-party positioning.
03
Sitrick and Company
Manages the public record. Places the stories. Shapes what the press says.
04
Brunswick Group
Handles the financial press. Manages investor and board communications.
05
TrailRunner International
Runs the political and regulatory operation. Moves the landscape before trial.

It runs pre-filing. Through discovery. Through motions. Through settlement. Through verdict. It never stops.

The plaintiff bar brings a press release to a knife fight.

You get coverage when you file. You get coverage when you win. In the space between — the longest part of the case — the defense fills the airwaves and the plaintiff goes silent. That silence is mine to break.

02  /  The Field Manual
Karen Elizabeth Campbell

OUT­
GUNNED

The Defense Communications Machine That Is Winning Your Cases Before You File

I wrote the field manual on the machine you’re fighting.

Twenty-five years across the table from the defense became a book. Outgunned documents the machine end to end — and the five cases that prove how it runs: Monsanto, J&J talc, Purdue, 3M, Meta. Then it lays out the counter.

The legal case and the communications case are the same case.

  • IThe Machine. Kirkland as the legal command. FTI as intelligence and narrative. Sitrick as the offensive weapon.
  • IIThe Cases. Five mass torts, read as communications wars — where the machine won, where it broke.
  • IIIThe Counter-Machine. Pre-filing intelligence, narrative architecture, third-party allies, settlement pressure.
03  /  The Counter

I studied their machine for twenty-five years. VIS is how I take the story back.

I know who they are. I know which reporters they’re briefing. I know how to get there first.

VIS is a method, not a hunch — documented, measured, repeatable. I don’t guess.

Pre-filing intelligence brief
What the defense is building before you file — who they’ve hired, what they’re preparing, which reporters they’re briefing.
Narrative architecture
One plaintiff story the defense cannot occupy — built before Sitrick places the first.
Named-counsel press program
You, positioned with the reporters on your beat — before the case frames you.
Verdict-day campaign
Built in advance, deployed the moment it breaks. Win or lose, you own the story.
Same-day response
Available the moment anything drops — regardless of the hour.
The seventy-two hours
I own the window around a bellwether verdict — the one that sets the MDL settlement number.

Engagements start at $10,000 a month.Every term negotiable, structured to the case — against a number I’m retained to move. At Hopkins, that number moved $140 million.

One operation, pre-filing through verdict. Not a press release. A system.

See how VIS works →

04  /  The Record

The lawyers won the case at Hopkins. I won the narrative.

$50M → $190M

At Hopkins, the institution wanted the story to be one doctor. I placed it inside Hopkins’s own documented history — 9,000 women filmed by their own physician, most never knew they were victims. The story reached them, and moved the offer from $50 million to a $190 million settlement.

New York Times Washington Post CBS News Wall Street Journal

Across four national outlets, in a single day.

$190M
Johns Hopkins
Settlement
9,000+
Victims
Reached
25
Years
Plaintiff-Side
5
Major Mass
Tort Cases

See the full record — five mass tort cases →

05  /  Where I Work

I already know the reporters on your beat.

I read your record before I write a word. The right contacts are practice-specific — here is where mine are deepest.

I don’t get out-worked. I don’t get out-researched. I don’t get out-strategized.

01

Mass Tort & MDL

Opioids, defective devices, pharmaceutical injury. The cases that move markets and reach thousands of victims who don’t yet know they’re part of the litigation. Coverage is how they find you.

National Legal AffairsInvestigative UnitsHealth Desks
02

Environmental & PFAS

Water contamination and toxic exposure — among the most consequential public-health litigation in the country, and one of the most active beats in journalism right now. The defendants knew. The public should too.

Environmental ReportersPublic HealthInvestigative TV
03

Catastrophic Injury & Wrongful Death

Verdicts against hospitals, contractors, and corporations whose negligence caused permanent harm. Often the firm sits in the same city as the press corps that should be covering it — and the relationship simply doesn’t exist yet.

Health AccountabilityConsumer SafetyBroadcast Producers
06  /  How I Work With Counsel

I work inside privilege, not around it.

I am retained through counsel and work under your direction. The strategy is yours. I execute it — and nothing goes public without your sign-off.

I structure every engagement to protect privilege and work product, and I know Rule 3.6. Public activity stays within what the rules of professional conduct permit. I will not put your case, your standing with the court, or your license at risk to win a news cycle.

Twenty-five years on the line between the press and the courtroom taught me exactly where that line is — and when the right move is silence.

07  /  What Counsel Says
“A million hits in a day. The strategy was amazing.”
Jon Schochor
Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea · lead counsel, the Johns Hopkins settlement
Watch the settlement press conference — on lead counsel’s site ↗
A Brief Conversation

I work with a limited number of retained clients.

Fifteen minutes. On the call I’ll tell you which reporter is already working a case like yours — and the names and playbook behind the defense’s communications.

The defense is not waiting for you to decide.

Text Karen → Call Karen — 415.359.4454

All consultations confidential · NDA available on request
karen@oliverandginger.com