09/02/2026
"Accountability” is easy to talk about. Much harder is explaining how it actually happens.
K|U Partner, Cristina Pierson, sees it this way: an individual person is often badly outmatched when the other side has unlimited money and institutional power.
That is where the justice system matters. It can level the playing field. With the right lawyer, one person can use that system to investigate what happened, compel evidence, put facts in front of a jury, and force a powerful defendant to answer for its conduct.
Accountability is not an abstract idea. It is a process. And the justice system is what gives an individual the power to pursue it.
General Motors knew their fuel tank design put customers at risk, and they chose not to fix it. Adding a shield would have cost $4.50 per vehicle. GM decided that wasn't worth it.
That decision cost a young boy, Shane McGee, his life.
John Uustal obtained secret internal documents GM had buried, study results the American public had never seen. At trial, those documents came out and proved this was never a mistake. It was a calculated decision to let people burn alive rather than spend $4.50 to prevent it.
Having a lawyer who fights for you made the difference. The McGee family received $60 million in damages for the wrongful death of their son.
The message was clear: companies that gamble with human lives to increase their own profit can be held accountable.
