Campbell Law Alumni Business Spotlight: Kristen Beightol ’01

Kristen L. Beightol ’01 is a longtime member and chair emerita of the Campbell Law Alumni Association Board. She credits her Campbell Law education for teaching her how to be a lawyer in the courtroom and in her community. Beightol, along with her partner Cate Edwards, began Edwards Beightol in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2021. Now seven lawyers strong — including three Campbell Law graduates, Edwards Beightol focuses on complex civil litigation of varied types.

Q: Describe how you started your firm and its specialties.

A: Cate Edwards, my now law partner, and I worked together at our previous firm. We have very different talents, but a very similar passion for helping those we can and being creative in providing that help. We both love what we do for a living. It is part of what makes us tick. The quiet of the pandemic allowed us to see those commonalities and begin to talk about ways we could join forces to do more of what we love and to do it better. Those conversations resulted in our current firm — Edwards Beightol. We handle catastrophic personal injury/wrongful death, medical malpractice, birth injury, traumatic brain injury, civil rights, trucking, negligent security, sexual assault and abuse, employment, whistleblower and Camp Lejeune Justice Act litigation.

Q: What is your law firm’s mission?

A: My goal in my practice is and always has been to provide the best help for our clients we can provide. What I love about our firm is our ability to tap into each of our strengths to deliver an approach to each case that is not one size that fits all cases but an approach that fits the case in front of us and that particular client we have agreed to help. We embrace creativity to find the best path forward. In the end, we do not do what we do for a living to sue other people or businesses. We do what we do for a living to make a bad situation better for our clients and for the greater community. For example, that can be by taking steps to improve medical care in a particular community through our medical malpractice cases. That can be by ensuring better policies to keep a known dangerous area safe for future visitors. That can be by focusing on what this particular client needs to attain closure, which — in addition to monetary gain — provides a different, often more powerful, kind of value.

Q: How did you feel your experience at Campbell Law prepared you for your career?

A: Campbell Law was exactly the education I needed. It threw me into the deep end and developed me on a professional and personal level into the lawyer I am today. My classes at Campbell Law were intellectually and personally challenging. Perhaps more important was the concept Campbell Law instilled in me that I continue to use in my practice and life today — pay it forward. Then Dean Willis P. Whichard is the reason that I am in a career I love. He got to know me and recommended that I apply for a particular job that he thought may be a good fit. That is the job that started me on this great path.

For more information about Edwards Beightol LLC, visit this link.