Pioneering a New Kind of Court Reporting at a New Kind of Company

ATLANTA – March 28, 2023 – Calloquy, PBC, a company that has been making waves in the legal technology industry for being the first remote litigation platform designed for litigators, has also been quietly upending the way litigators, law firms, CTOs, and general counsel think about court reporting. Gil Wolchock, the company’s Chief Growth Officer, is familiar with spearheading new court reporting initiatives, having been a key sales leader in Vertiext’s transition to a virtual environment. With Calloquy, he’s at the forefront of more innovation.

“The court reporting space is an exciting one,” says Wolchock. “Litigators will always need prompt and accurate transcripts for as long as litigation exists. We’ve learned a great deal during the past few years as the pandemic and the gig economy and an explosion of legal tech caused a great deal of disruption in the court reporting arena. The dust is settling, a new status quo has emerged, and we’ve been able to determine what works and what doesn’t for those court reporters and those attorneys who know remote litigation is the future but also know that court reporting from dining room tables is neither adequate nor a solution.”

Wolchock has several priorities as he establishes Calloquy’s footprint in the space. His first is recruiting a team of full-time court reporters to work from Calloquy’s state-of-the-art pods in its three state-of-the-art offices in Midtown Atlanta, Dallas, TX, and Tustin, CA. “The freelance model of court reporting we rushed to implement during the pandemic served us well. But we’ve had time to plan, strategize, and identify flaws in that impromptu, often haphazard, model,” Wolchock states. When asked about flaws, he replied, “Connecting a new court reporter – one which a company may or may not have even met - with a law firm client on the morning of a deposition is more problematic than people realize. No one really knows what they’re getting.”

To remedy this, Calloquy hires full time court reporters. “Our court reporters are also our employees, our colleagues. The attorney client knows that we vet each court reporter, provide them with encrypted and centrally managed equipment, and make sure the environment from which we all work is secure. The court reporter gets a reliable support team, health benefits, and all the benefits of full-time employment including being treated as more than a commodity. This also means our turnaround time for finished transcripts is quicker. And cheaper too. Everybody wins.”

Another priority for Calloquy and Wolchock is security. “Law firms are targets for nefarious cyber actors for a host of reasons. Every firm of which I’m aware maintains a list of criteria by which to screen and audit third party vendors. While the agency brokering the court reporters may meet those criteria, the individual court reporters themselves potentially, even likely, do not. That’s a serious security risk. It’s not the reporters’ fault. You can’t expect a freelance court reporter to invest in the sort of security necessary to thwart a cyber breach. But that court reporter is storing extremely valuable information. It needs better security.”

Another priority for Mr. Wolchock is spreading the message that human court reporters cannot be replaced. “I’m the Chief Growth Officer of a legal tech company. I love tech. But I can say with certainty that I have seen nothing that will ever replace a human court reporter. Transcripts need to be perfect. Tech companies touting their ninety-something percent accuracy rate don’t understand that anything short of 100% accuracy is just unacceptable. Period. So while I love tech, love our platform, love remote litigation, I also know that in this arena, nothing could ever deliver the sort of transcript attorneys need in the same fashion that a human being can.”

“I have four kids. I am accustomed to chaos. It’s good to shake things up now and again. The shake-up for court reporters has been happening. We’ve learned. And now it’s time to grow from it – but we must grow in the right direction. That’s what we’re doing at Calloquy.”

When not working, Gil, a Philadelphia native, enjoys watching, discussing, pontificating about, and generally basking in Philadelphia sports.

ABOUT CALLOQUY
Calloquy is the first virtual legal proceedings platform intentionally built for the way litigation is practiced now. Its technology and court reporting services empower attorneys to conduct and manage legal proceedings more effectively and securely, while increasing productivity and reducing costs. The company is helping to shape The Next Era of Litigation^TM by combining legal industry-specific videoconferencing technology, world-class security, highly professional court reporting services, and an access-to-justice social mission. Calloquy is a Public Benefit Corporation, and its commercial litigation clients fuel that mission by enabling the company to provide free platform access to legal service organizations and pro bono cases.