Barkley Court Reporters merged with Magna Legal Services, a court reporting and full-service legal support firm, in October 2022. This merger expans Barkley's service offerings & national presence. Now, all Barkley clients have easy access to litigation support for each phase of the litigation cycle, including court reporting, graphics design, jury consulting, record retrieval, and translation services.
Barkley Court Reporters was founded in 1972 by Pat Barkley, a reporter who made her first mark in court reporting by doing everything possible to make depositions go smoothly even having chocolates on hand for the attorneys and witness. Ms. Barkley's quality reporting, fast turnaround and responsiveness to client needs created a Barkley Experience that attorneys quickly sought. To meet the demand her services generated, Ms. Barkley founded Barkley Court Reporters to give attorneys ready access to like-minded reporters when and wherever needed. Knowing the value experienced reporters bring to depositions in helping keep them moving and delivering more accurate, cleaner transcripts, Ms. Barkley proposed to provide reporters with excellent training and working knowledge of the type of litigation a deposition involved a practice Barkley continues to this day.
With the addition of Attorney Dan Wilen as President and Counsel in 1987, the Barkley Experience evolved to include strict compliance with the laws for the taking of depositions and handling of the transcript. Mr. Wilen had helped write several code sections pertaining to the taking of depositions and his expertise equipped Barkley's reporters with an understanding of their legal responsibility in reporting legal proceedings. He also serves as a unique resource to the legal community by providing expert counsel for the taking of depositions.
Mason Farmani, CEO and Managing Partner, joined Barkley a year later, bringing a drive to make the deposition process more efficient through the use of innovative and emerging technologies. Under his leadership Barkley expanded its service offerings and footprint to 23 offices nationally and internationally. Barkley was the first to offer realtime using Digitext software in 1990. In 2007, Barkley was named the first U.S. government-certified green court reporting firm and has planted more than 60,000 trees throughout the U.S. Barkley also was among the first to offer PDF transcripts with linked exhibits via an online repository, earning recognition as an Adobe Acrobat Success Story. More recently Barkley introduced Lexcity (eDepoze) electronic exhibits at LegalTech 2013, launched remote streaming of testimony in 2013 and unveiled a subscription-free transcript management program in 2015. Through the years Barkley has offered complimentary deposition technology consultation services and M/CLEs to the legal community another industry first.
In always seeking to set a higher standard for the court reporting business, Barkley Court Reporters has evolved into a global court reporting agency able to deliver the full range of deposition services anywhere in the world from our network of offices across the country and international offices in the major hubs of Paris, Hong Kong and Dubai. Yet, we have remained under the same private ownership and management, affording our clients direct and quick access to management for rapidly resolving requests and issues. Barkley clients also benefit from a team of dedicated, experienced reporters and support staff many of whom have been with us for nearly two decades. Barkley has been selected as one of the best places to work by the Los Angeles Business Journal twice. Barkley also has been named as the Best Court Reporting Service by the readers of The Recorder magazine for seven consecutive years.
Barkley Court Reporters has become the most trusted hands in the profession by continuing to honor our collective commitment to doing everything possible to make our clients litigation life easier. If you are not already using Barkley, we invite you to give us a call to experience the Barkley difference and why we are a leader in global deposition services. If you are an existing client, we appreciate and thank you for your loyalty and trust.