Brown & Jones Reporting is made up of individual people who happen to be court reporters in the Milwaukee area.  We wanted to let you get to know our court reporters more than you’d learn working with them at a deposition.

This article is an interview with Jessie Waack, who has been a court reporter for 17 years. She has been with Brown & Jones Reporting for over 15 years.

How long have you been a court reporter?  17 years

How long have you been with Brown & Jones Reporting?  15 years

What do you like most about working with Brown & Jones Reporting?

I love the people I get to work with.  Everyone has a lot to offer the company in addition to what we do for each other.  Whenever someone has something come up, the rest of the reporters are willing to jump in and help out where they can.  It is really a family atmosphere.

Before becoming a court reporter, have you ever worked in other jobs or fields? If so, what did you do?

I was fortunate to have gone from high school straight into court reporting school.  I wanted to take a “gap year” before going to college.  Let’s just say my mother was NOT going to allow THAT to happen.  Needless to say, I didn’t see the outside of a classroom until I was 21 years old.

Where did you grow up?

I have lived my entire life in Wisconsin.  I grew up in a small town called Reedsville in the middle of nowhere.  I still have some great friends who live there.  Whenever I go back home, I love to catch up with them.

What changes have you seen in the industry since you became a court reporter?

I started reporting with an old manual steno machine.  I mean OLD manual machine.  I had a can of oil that looked like the one I use on my bike.  I also had to learn WordPerfect in college so I could type up transcripts.

What is the best part of being a court reporter?

I love being a jack of all trades.  I always know something I can insert into any conversation.  Another asset is the freedom my schedule offers.  I can do my shopping during the day and not wait in lines.  It’s a HUGE time saver.

What is the most challenging part of being a court reporter?

They don’t let me talk all day.  By the time I meet up with someone at the end of the day, my mouth is going non-stop – a lot like those chattering wind-up teeth.

What has been your most challenging deposition?

Living in the city, I enjoy walking around during snowstorms.  I got a phone call to cover a deposition another firm was unable to cover.  Instead of taking the time to go home, I picked up an older backup machine at my office and went straight to the deposition.  I was using an steno that used floppy disks.  I had no computer, no realtime feed, NOTHING!  I didn’t even know if it was writing to the floppy disk.  I was prepared to type everything from the paper notes.  Two people were in the room – the other SIXTEEN were appearing by phone.  It was a half-day deposition of an expert on boiler valves.  I hadn’t read back from my notes since college – but I did it!!

Have you ever had funny things happen to you in a deposition?

Let’s just say I have been mooned twice and another gentleman offered to share his prostate scar.  I still don’t know what the prostate scar had to do with his car accident.

Do you have any tips about work/life balance?

Get up every morning as if you are going to work.  The mindset has you prepared to work all day and ready to take any last-minute deposition.

What else would you like us to know about you?

Traveling is my passion.  I have covered 64 countries in seven years.  I will be heading for the second base camp of Everest in April 2014, and then 2015 will be spent on Mount McKinley, dog-sledding the northern boundary waters of Canada up to the Arctic to ice climb in Greenland.  I figure once I have those things knocked out, I am going to look into these vacations I have heard of where there are umbrellas in coconut shells.

We hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know Jessie Waack better. Look for future interview articles with other Brown & Jones court reporters. In the meantime, let us know in the comments if Jessie’s answers brought up any memories or ideas in your mind about court reporting.

Tags: Court Reporter Interviews, court reporters, Jessie Waack

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