Connect Series: Meet Realtime Court Reporter and CART Provider Lana Allen!

Lana has over 20 years’ experience in both criminal and civil cases and an extensive knowledge base of aboriginal, medical, marine, environmental, construction and engineering-related terminology. She has international experience in reporting proceedings, including court, discoveries, arbitrations, hearings, inquests and depositions involving expert testimony, technical and job-specific legalese and interpreted matters.

Lana is very active and passionate about life, particularly travelling the world and long-distance running in mountains here and abroad.


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

How did you learn about and become interested in court reporting as a career choice?

It was a fluke, really. A counsellor told me about it in college (to try it), and it worked out. I liked the flexibility and the idea of working for myself the most, so that was a big factor for me to try it and really the most important part of my job to this day.


What is the career highlight you’re most proud of?

I absolutely prefer doing realtime and got my certificate as soon as it was an option. It has allowed me to travel a lot of places to work as a reporter, for which I am grateful as travelling is my number one passion. Working overseas at The Hague at the ICTY war crimes tribunal was a highlight for sure. I also really enjoy CART’ing (Communication Access Realtime Translation) as well, which I do more and more of these days.


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?

I suppose all of them are equally important to me.


What are your top three favourite things do when you have a day off?

Run, bike or just be outside and not sitting down in front of a laptop!


Ideally how would you spend your birthday?

Definitely not working 😉 and probably either on a mountaintop somewhere or away somewhere warm.