Shari Karney is an attorney, incest and child rape survivor who advocates nationwide for all child sex abuse survivors. Engaging, charismatic, touching. Your heart will soar while it breaks. Shari Karney is the survivor of one fo the most horrific child sexual abuse cases in California history. A movie was made about Shari's life, Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story.
As an attorney, activist, and leader, she created and lobbied for the passage of a landmark piece of legislation in California, signed into law by the governor, that was the first to give victims of child sexual abuse justice by extending the civil statute of limitations. Shari is the founder and president of Roar as One, a non-profit that seeks to educate, prevent and change cultural awareness of sexual assault so everyone is safe.
Shari believes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Education, training, understanding, and communication is the ultimate end game for helping businesses prevent sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. Everyone deserves a safe workplace. The cultural rules are ever-shifting and changing. Bringing companies, decision-makers, entrepreneurs, employees, and workers to a deeper understanding of what sexual assault is, how to prevent it, what to do and not do in and outside the workplace, and what it feels like to be sexually assaulted, can save lives, jobs, money, and prevent litigation.
A movie was made about Shari’s life called, Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story—and at the time of its airing, it generated 12 million viewers. Shari, a member of the California Bar for twenty-five years, and a worldwide advocate for women and children’s rights, is a summa cum laude graduate of U.C.L.A (B.A.), a graduate of Loyola Law School, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Karney was an adjunct law professor at Loyola Law School designing and writing the first-in-the-nation training program for law students called “Child Sexual Abuse Litigation Manual and Training Program” adopted by several law schools across the United States.
With worldwide attention focused on rampant and previously underreported sexual assault, in 2020 Shari spoke at the United Nations about worldwide child sexual abuse and violence against women. On July 8, 2020, she was the keynote panelist for the Virtual Town Hall entitled, Shame & Silence, When Sexual Violence Occurs in Families, sponsored by Focus for Health.
As a widely respected legal expert, analyst, and commentator on breaking sexual assault, gender violence, and child sexual abuse legal news cases, she has appeared on Oprah, ABC PrimeTime, The Today Show, The Weekend Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, HLN, TruTV, CI, Discovery Channel, Lifetime, Inside Edition, CBC (Canada), and in the U.K. and hundreds of other television and radio/podcast news programs. She has written and given on-air commentary about the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking cases; the Prince Andrew child sexual child case; the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault cases; Dr. Larry Nassar, the USAG Team doctor who sexually assaulted over 160 child-teen athletes; and worked with adult victims of OB-GYN, Dr. Hadden, whom Evelyn Wang says sexually assaulted her during her pregnancy examinations. She has given expert commentary and opinion on the Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Prince Andrew, Michael Jackson, and Donald Trump sexual assault cases.
She has also been featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Glamour Magazine, TV Guide, Hollywood Reporter, Daily Journal Magazine, and in more than 200 publications across the country. Shari Karney was featured in a syndicated reality court show Power of Attorney, on Twenty-First Century Television in which the ten-most influential and notorious attorneys in the United States tried real cases against each other. As the lead attorney on the show, Karney would go head-to-head with some of the most famous litigators in the country, such as Gloria Allred, Marcia Clark, and Christopher Darden. Shari was recently featured on a new Biography Channel reality series, “One Day That Changed the Life of a Hero,” now airing on the CI Channel entitled, “Twisted Fate,” where she discussed aspects of cases as well as intimate moments from her personal life. Shari hosts a podcast, Roar with Shari. . . All Things Justice for Women & Survivors. Karney’s mission in 2022 is to advocate and lead an international Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Movement to educate, prevent, and change cultural awareness of sexual assault and gender violence worldwide.
