Connect Series: Meet Kim Allen, our Legal Transcription & Appeals Director!

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Kim is Reportex’s legal transcription and appeals director. She’s responsible for overseeing the process of turning recorded audio into certified transcripts and managing the preparation of our various appeal products. This includes all aspects of the transcription process in the legal department at Reportex.

She also manages the preparation of appeal records, books and transcripts as well as our e-appeal products. Her keen attention to detail and exceptional project management skills ensure the seamless collaboration of Reportex’s vast network of reporters, transcribers and editors.

Kim is very active and passionate about life, particularly travelling the world and keeping fit with yoga and bikes — all the bikes.

We recently asked Kim a few questions, and here’s what she had to say:

How did you become the legal transcription and appeals director at Reportex?

I was nearing the end of a year away from working. I had coined it my “pre-tirement” — haha.

I applied for this job, interviewed and waited a few days. The job was offered to me, and I have to say back then things around here were very different. Reportex was a small company, and we were a tight group back then. I did work in the office for a few years and was certainly involved in all parts (besides the transcribing) of getting legal transcripts to our clients. I even met some clients face to face back then. It has truly been a pleasure over the past four and a half years to watch this company grow and grow and to meet all the new people who have joined!

Your job sounds like it involves a lot of coordinating. What are your top three tips for staying organized?

Organizing, logistics, planning, coordinating — I really do enjoy them all. Top three tips:

  1. Prioritize.
  2. Do it now.
  3. Keep track (a very solid track) of what is going on.

At Reportex our core values of team, mentorship, equality, community and industry are central to what we do. Which of these values resonates most strongly with you and why?

Team certainly resonates the most for me because my job is to coordinate a well-oiled machine. This machine is made up of a fantastic team of people. For this I am oh-so thankful.

What has been your most memorable bike ride?

This summer included so many memorable bike rides. Being “stuck in BC” during this pandemic felt like a lucky break. My wife and I did take full advantage and had cycling trips planned almost every second weekend. One of my favourites was a ride from Squamish to Whistler all on the Sea to Sky Trail. This trail includes dirt trails, gravel, sand, the odd bit of pavement and even some hike-a-bike sections. The views were stunning, which made the 1,251-metre climb enjoyable! I can’t wait to do it again.

Last week was our first week of fall. Do you have a favourite fall tradition?

One last kick at the can! There is always some lovely weather in the fall in BC, so we always hope to get in one last bike trip. The Okanagan is the plan this year. Fingers crossed the sunshine sticks around a few more weeks.

Scenes from the Sea to Sky Trail.

Connect Series: Meet Lindsay Bookout, our Legal Training Coordinator!

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Lindsay is Reportex’s legal training coordinator. She’s responsible for proofreading and evaluating our legal screening tests, reviewing all Catalyst practice files done by our legal trainees and overseeing transcript work done by our new court reporters, scopers and proofers.

She also collaborates with the editing and QC teams to ensure that our wiki content is current, is an integral member of the wiki reboot team and works with the QC team to review and finalize transcripts for production.

When not at work, Lindsay enjoys yoga, painting, the beach and spending time with her dogs.

We recently asked Lindsay a few questions. Here’s what she had to say:

What originally got you interested in your current field of work?

I have always had an interest in writing and editing, and I have always wanted to be some kind of editor. I enjoy proofreading more than content editing as I love grammar and punctuation and the nitty-gritty details that come with proofreading.

I came across the Proofread Anywhere course a few months after I had graduated from college. The plan was to take a year off and then apply to law school. I was the proud new owner of three degrees, and I needed a break, to be honest. I had taken some classes in technical writing, and the technical side of transcripts did not scare me off (and I had an interest in law), so I figured I would give it a shot!

As far as my role as training coordinator, though, I have always been “a trainer,” for lack of a better word. I have never been the person to give a job less than 100 percent (even those minimum wage jobs that you really want to!), and I would always offer to train people and take new employees under my wing. I have actually written three training manuals for three different jobs! When I was working as the kennel manager at a vet’s office, my first act as manager was to completely overhaul their training system, write an entirely new manual and set up new procedures for how we handled our dogs and clients.

I enjoy helping people succeed in their jobs. I think this stems from my first job where I was essentially left high and dry by who was supposed to train me! Once I figured everything out, that is when I started taking new people under my wing and helping them (because whoever was supposed to train them never seemed to be around to help!).

Word on Slack is that you recently created a grammar bootcamp class for Reportex staff and that class starts in early October. Can you tell us a little bit about this?

We have such an incredibly talented group of people working for Reportex. The idea is that we are a company that promises and takes pride in the excellence of our work, so we want to ensure that everyone working at Reportex feels as confident and prepared as possible to be able to provide that excellence when writing emails, reports or whatever else their jobs throw at them. The bootcamp is going to be broken up into different sections, so everyone will likely take more than one session with me. We are going to go over the basics of grammar and writing, and I am hoping that the activities I have planned will make it enjoyable for everyone!

At Reportex our core values of team, mentorship, equality, community and industry are central to what we do. Which of these values resonates most strongly with you and why?

Mentorship. I love working with our new contractors and helping them get accustomed to our rules, procedures and style guide. When I was being trained as a proofer, I loved the encouraging and helpful attitude as I really feel like that kind of positivity helps you feel confident in your job and the work that you are doing. I try to pass on that encouragement to the people that I train. I also love that mentorship is not necessarily a one-way street here. There is always someone who knows something that you do not, and I love that I can read through our proofers corner Slack group and see an awesome discussion on grammar that helps me better understand something. I also love being part of the QC team and learning from and working with them, so I guess that “team” resonates strongly with me as well.

What is your top proofing tip?

Triple-check everything! Whenever I see something that I am 99 percent sure is correct, I take a few seconds to check. It never hurts, and every now and then I find it was a mistake! And if I just cannot figure something out, I will leave myself a note, take a break and then check again later. Letting your brain reset is essential. We have to keep these proofing brains sharp!

If you could time travel, when and where would you go?

How about into the future a few months after we beat COVID??

In all honesty, I would love to see North America at some point earlier than the 1300s when the wilderness was still vast. I love camping and hiking, and whenever I am camping, I always find myself wondering what these forests looked like so long ago.

Connect Series: Meet Ari Sebo, our Legal Documents Director!

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Ari is Reportex’s legal documents director, ensuring all of our digital products meet our signature level of quality. In addition to focusing on transcript quality control, Ari prepares all of Reportex’s appeal products and electronic documents such as e-appeals, e-binders and transcript bundles.

As well as being fluent in French, Ari plays the violin and viola and enjoys donating to local food banks and animal rescue organizations. She’s also a film and television buff!

We recently asked Ari a few questions. Here’s what she had to say:

What do you find most interesting about being a legal documents director at Reportex?

It’s interesting how many different forms a transcript can take and the many jobs and many hands it takes to complete one correctly. I perform a variety of tasks each day such as transcript quality control, assembling appeal books, records or transcripts, creating transcript bundles (which are court transcripts with attachments hyperlinked and bookmarked for easy access), training, proofreading, writing and editing.

Did you find this career, or did it find you?

I started out in the legal editing field as a proofreader after taking the Proofread Anywhere course. I had proofread generally — editing books, articles and websites — but I hadn’t worked specifically with legal transcripts, so this course helped me learn the skills I needed to be proficient working with PDF court transcripts. I worked mostly with American court reporters at the time, so when I started with Reportex, there were style, terminology and formatting differences with Canadian transcripts. I learned how to use computer-aided transcription software, and then I never looked back. CAT software is complex and robust, so I’m always learning new tricks and tips to make work easier.

At Reportex our core values of team, mentorship, equality, community and industry are central to what we do. Which of these values resonates most strongly with you and why?

Definitely team. I work with such a wonderfully talented group of people. Everyone is always willing to lend a hand, and we are all always learning new tips and tricks and sharing them with each other to make our work lives easier. Everyone I work with at every level is awesome. I also can’t say enough about Reportex leadership. It is amazing to work with such caring, insightful people. I learn so much from them and from everyone I work with every day. I couldn’t ask for a better team to be a part of.

Do you prefer to read books, magazines or blogs? And what are your top three?

I read a lot of websites. I’m always searching for things. I like checking the Apple News and Google News apps on my phone as well as social media. I also like to borrow e-books and audiobooks from the library using the hoopla library app. I read so much during the day at work that after hours I will usually read shorter texts. But I can never give up reading non-fiction books. I love learning.

Cats? Dogs? Or both?

All animals are great. I live with a pug and a clowder of cats (most are rescued), so I love them all. I hope to always live with animals. They’re the best.

Connect Series: Meet Max K, our Digital Content Director!

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Max is the digital content director for Reportex, responsible for creating written and graphic assets for internal and external outreach and training. He is the creator of the ever-popular wiki as well as partly responsible for our successful bids for government contracts.

As a writer and designer with an extensive computer background, Max is responsible for bridging the gap between technology and the humans who can benefit from it. He works closely with our systems and communications leadership to create materials ranging from wiki articles to brochures and videos.

Fun fact: Max plays six musical instruments poorly but enthusiastically.

We recently asked Max a few questions. Here is what he had to say:

How did you come to be the Digital Content Director at Reportex?

I used to live in Vancouver, about six blocks from Reportex HQ. When I started at Reportex eight years ago, we were much, much smaller. I shared an office with our sole QC person and our transcription manager (one person coordinating legal and medicolegal transcription) and handled all our marketing and day-to-day tech support while acting as an assistant to the transcription manager. In between designing brochures and building macros for our reporters, I’d go out in a blizzard to deliver gift bags or stay up late making flowers from crepe paper for an event. I eventually took over all our IT duties and became Systems Director in addition to handling marketing. I was wearing a lot of hats (probably too many), but I loved it.

Eventually it came time to move to Victoria with my partner, and I was apprehensive about having to leave my job. I’d always felt supported at Reportex, and basically every single one of my friends had some sort of horror story about their boss. Our owner Christy was able to find a new role for me that would work long-distance and hired a seasoned IT professional to take over my tech duties (just being “good with computers” was no longer enough for our rapidly increasing needs) along with a marketing person who could attend in-person events in Vancouver.

I keep meaning to go back to school for a second degree in computer science, but I like my job so much that I keep putting it off. I get to focus on the things that interest me and that I’m good at, which is a pretty rare thing.

What are your top three tips for new wiki users?

The search bar is your friend! If something isn’t popping up, try a synonym for the word you’re looking for. You can also use your web browser’s search function (Ctrl + F) to find a word on the page.

We’ve tried to make articles easier to use by organizing them into hubs. Click a link on the sidebar to get to a list of the most helpful articles on a given subject. These lists may not be exhaustive, so if you’re still looking for information, use the search bar.

Remember that we want your feedback. One of the great things about the wiki is that editing it is trivial. If you see a mistake, let someone know, and we’ll fix it!

What is the phone app you use most?

I really like Firefox Focus, a secure web browser that erases itself every time you use it. I use this in conjunction with the DuckDuckGo search engine to avoid being tracked while surfing the web.

Where is the next place on your travel list and why?

The pandemic got in the way of a trip my partner and I were planning to visit my parents in California, so that’s next on the list when things get better. My hometown of Berkeley is cool place, and it’s right across the Bay from San Francisco, so we were basically planning on hitting a bunch of museums, tourist traps, and fancy restaurants before spending some time in wine country and finishing off with a couple days poolside in Las Vegas.