Meet the 2023 Excellence in Community Impact Crisp Game Changer Award Winner
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The 2023 Game Changers Summit was for Crisp Coach members only, and the event was largely crafted around celebrating the accomplishments of those firm owners.
Throughout the two-day Summit, Michael and Jessica Mogill took the stage to recognize the most committed members for their incredible transformations and contributions this year.
Winners of these brand-new, highly prestigious Crisp Game Changer Awards were determined based on specific results each firm generated, each leader’s commitment to their goals, and more.
While Firm of the Year Awards at each level (ELITE, PREMIER, and CrispX) were reserved for Day 2, four firm owners were celebrated on Day 1 for Excellence in the following categories:
- Excellence in Leadership
- Excellence in Firm Culture
- Excellence in Community Impact
- Excellence in Client Experience
In a moving display, Jami S. Oliver of Oliver Law Office earned the Excellence in Community Impact Award, recognizing her personal commitment to service and for the moving difference her firm is making in their community.
Michael and Jessica Mogill also announced onstage that all proceeds from the Crisp Swag Shop at the Game Changers Summit would go toward Jami’s chosen nonprofit: PanCAN (Pancreatic Cancer Action Network).
Meet Jami S. Oliver
Jami S. Oliver wanted to be a lawyer since the young age of eight, imagining what her office would look like and how it would feel to practice law since a sixth-grade teacher encouraged her to visualize her future.
“When I finally graduated from law school and began working in a plaintiffs’ personal injury firm, I was loving it and learning everything I could, but one thing was missing…independence and freedom,” she shares. “Independence meant I wanted to be able to make my own decisions about what cases I wanted to work on, which clients I wanted to represent, and which events I wanted to attend. I wanted the freedom to be a mom, be there for my kids and my family, and still follow my passion — being the best lawyer I could be.”
When she took the leap to open her own firm, Jami “jumped with both feet and no safety net.”
She describes her journey since as both the scariest and most fulfilling thing she’s ever done. As she says, “I would not go back and change a thing.”
Community Impact at Oliver Law Office
Jami keeps service at the center of her work and actively encourages community engagement projects in her firm.
In 2023, the entire Oliver Law Office team supported pancreatic cancer research and funding by starting a team for PurpleStride Columbus — for which they raised over $20,000.
“I chose the PurpleStride event after losing my dear sister to pancreatic cancer on December 21, 2022,” Jami shares. “The loss of my sister was devastating. She was diagnosed with stage 1 pancreatic cancer in February 2021, just 10 months earlier.”
Due to a family history of this disease (losing her mother at age 64, her uncle at age 68, and her grandmother at age 47), Jami and her sister decided to do annual screenings, despite being intrusive procedures that require general anesthesia.
“Because of COVID, we were unable to do screenings in 2020 and 2021,” she says. “In 2022, when we finally returned, the doctor first told me my scan was unchanged, but my sister was not so lucky. Never did we think for a second she would die. It was stage 1 and had not spread.”
Unfortunately, by early fall of 2022, the cancer had spread. While Jami’s sister had qualified for several medical trials, she did not make it through the long, delayed paperwork stage of the trials.
“My sister was my best friend and had been most of my adult life,” Jami shares. “She had stepped into the spot my mom left when she passed away in 2009, so she was my sister and my mom — and my confidante.”
When Jami announced to her team in December 2022 that she wanted this to be their focused charity for 2023, everyone was on board and excited.
“We had 100% participation, including showing up on a cold Sunday charity walk in April weather in Ohio,” she says. “Since the walk, I have been asked to head up the entire Columbus affiliate for PanCan. I am now the Chair of the Columbus Affiliate.”
Oliver Law Office Now
The response to Oliver Law Office’s community involvement in 2023 has been incredible.
Team members are inspired, independently bringing up ideas for ways to support causes they care about. Friends and colleagues respect and admire Jami’s dedication to causes around pancreatic cancer. Clients engage with posts on social media, showing their support and connecting on a human level with Jami and her team.
“I believe it inspires others to take action also,” reflects Jami. “It has definitely affected the individuals who work at the firm and teaches them the importance of giving to the community.”
