Clair Campbell, Campbell & Associates

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Position:  founder and managing partner,
Campbell & Associates

Lives in: SouthPark

Family: separated;
children, Ian 16, Anna 11

Clair Campbell admits she doesn’t shy away from a challenge.

And she has had more than her share to overcome since she began her career as a personal-injury lawyer when she was just 23 after being the youngest graduate of
the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

She had started at the University of Alabama, where she graduated in 1982 … at age 16.

Campbell is also a woman in a field that remains predominately male-dominated.

Part of her success, she said, has been in knowing how to look and act the part. It helps to be almost 6 feet tall, she said.

“God gave me my talent in this package, and I know how to use it to my advantage,” she said. “I’ve never slumped. I’ve always held my head up high. That conveys I am a confident and fearless attorney.”

In the 1980s and 1990s, when many women business professionals wore running shoes with their suits when walking anywhere, Campbell always stayed in her heels.

“I wanted to look the part of an aggressive young lawyer who was making a name for herself.”

Which Campbell, now 50, has done. She became a partner in
six years after joining Karney, Campbell & Karney, and then went out on her own in 1996.

Campbell & Associates has four attorneys and a support staff of 22 working out of four offices in Charlotte, Gastonia and Hickory in North Carolina and Rock Hill
in South Carolina.

Campbell spends more time managing and marketing the firm than with clients, although she still spends one or two days in court each month. She is contemplating hiring an office manager so she can spend more time with clients.

Over the years, she said, she has helped thousands of clients achieve a settlement or jury verdict in plaintiff personal-injury, workers’ compensation, wrongful-death and nursing home-negligence cases. More than half of
her firm’s business comes from client referrals, she said.

“My practice deals a lot with grief and loss,” she said. “At the end of the day, we try to turn it into a positive financially.

“Although you can’t put a price on a lost arm, it is the best solution we have. But we also show our clients genuine compassion and empathy. We treat every client the same, whether they have a $1,000 or a $1 million case.

“I enjoy the art and finesse of negotiating to get a win-win result. But if we have to resolve a case in the courtroom, all the stops are pulled out.”