Built Inside the Industry. Designed
to Fix What Slows It Down.

Twenty years of court reporting agency experience, and the legal operations consulting practice that makes all of it work for you.

THE FOUNDER’S STORY

I've Never Waited to be Told What Was Needed.

The Trajectory-Changing Moment

Twenty years ago, I was working two jobs as a Starbucks barista and a UPS Store clerk. I landed an interview for an office manager position at a small court reporting agency run out of the owner’s home in Hancock Park, thanks to one of her reporters who came in regularly to ship exhibits.

Within ten minutes of sitting down, the owner and I had both agreed I was completely unqualified. No office experience, no legal knowledge, couldn’t tell a plaintiff from a defendant. I even laughed and said, “I don’t know why you’d hire me either.” We kept talking anyway, mostly to not completely waste my commute. Twenty minutes later she said, “You know what? F it. Let’s try it.” Those words changed the trajectory of my life and launched me into the legal services industry.

EXPERIENCE TIMELINE

Twenty Years in Legal Services

Sullivan Group

The job was supposed to come with a month of training from the exiting office manager. I was on my own by day three. The owner spent every day on the record, so I saved my most pressing questions for stolen moments around her bathroom breaks, lunch, and commutes. I offended a legal secretary in my first week by asking her to spell PMK. She didn’t trust me for two months. Then we stayed in touch for twenty years.

I was so grateful for the opportunity that it never occurred to me the workload had grown along with our revenue and help would have been natural. If something was hard, I assumed it was a me problem. I bought a blow-up mattress and started sleeping in the office Monday through Thursday to save the three-hour daily commute and get more work done. I rationed water during the day to cut down on bathroom breaks, and I learned that idle Xerox machines make unexpected noises at three in the morning.

My entire philosophy and understanding of this industry were formed in those four and a half years. I learned the importance of every click of the mouse, muscle memory, batching work for efficiency, and handling things right the first time when you are the only one handling the fallout. On my last day, I spent 18 hours completing a how-to manual so my replacement wouldn’t start the way I did. They replaced me with four people.…Read More

Merrill Corporation

Before Merrill, I spent fourteen months away from the legal industry. The first six were for my mom, who was on hospice. After she passed, I spent the next stretch helping my dad. He and my mom had run his real estate business together for years. He sold the houses. She did everything else. My job was to figure out what “everything else” actually was, document it, and get it ready to hand off to a real hire. Once we found her, I went back to the industry I knew.

Merrill was an entirely different world. Complex national and international cases, demanding clients, the kind of pressure and stakes I didn’t even know existed. I went from calendar coordinator to case manager to senior complex case manager within months. Eventually, entire firms and complex cases were moved over from competitors specifically for me to manage, thanks to the relationships and reputation I had built handling the pressure and anticipating their needs.…Read More

Centext Legal Services

My next stop was a multi-location and rapidly growing court reporting agency. I took a job as Executive Assistant to the CEO to get my foot in the door. Day one, I was putting stickers on candy boxes for the sales team. Day two, I was bundling pens in groups of 25. The owner was so busy she never had time to tell me what to do. She came in on the phone, stayed on the phone, and went from meeting to meeting all day. I sat at a small desk outside her glass-walled office, wondering how long I had before I’d be fired for being useless.

She had a habit of using speakerphone, and I have always had excellent hearing. I started quietly pulling the reports and research she was discussing and sliding them under her door before she finished the call. I was scared I might be fired for eavesdropping. She was thrilled. Taken aback, but thrilled.

For weeks, our entire mode of communication was through the glass. She’d scribble a note mid-call, hold it up, and have the answer in her hand before she hung up. Sales reps started asking for me directly. Within three months, I was managing the sales teams. Eight months after putting stickers on candy boxes, I was COO.…Read More

The Throughline

In twenty years, I never once asked for a title or a promotion. I am hardwired to hate feeling useless. I’ve never been one to wait to be told what or how to do something when I see the need right in front of me. I find the thing that needs doing, and I do it. The titles have always followed.

DuRoss Group

The problem with being COO of a thriving company is that the work I loved most, the deep transformation work, the problems that had reached a boiling point and needed someone’s full attention, was exactly what daily operations didn’t allow room for. My inbox constantly competed with my dreams.

In January of 2021, I started the DuRoss Group, a consulting practice for court reporting agencies and legal operations. I wanted my days designed around the work I loved most. Around the problems that have been on the list too long, the departments that are drowning, the companies that know something has to change, but can’t get to it. I wanted to show up the way I always had. Not because someone asked, but because I could see exactly what was needed.

WHO WE WORK WITH

Where I Make the Biggest Difference

From start-ups getting organized to mid-size agencies navigating growth to law firms that need the back office to run itself, I meet you where you are.

Court Reporting Agencies

My deepest expertise and largest client base. Court reporting agency operations are familiar territory: calendaring, production, billing, reporter relations, rate analysis, and growth strategy. This is the heart of my consulting work.

Legal Services Companies

Trial services, legal videography, interpreting, reprographics, and mediation companies. Different rhythms, same fundamentals: scheduling, vendor management, billing complexity, and client experience. I arrive already knowing how the work actually flows.

Small Law Firms

Practice management, process design, client experience, and the systems that let attorneys focus on the law instead of the back office. Operational consulting for law firms that I know works in practice.

Legal Tech Companies

Legal tech selling into agencies and law firms. I know your buyers from being inside the industry, what they actually value, what they write off as noise, and what they really want from you.