Videoconferencing for Law

Source: The Miami Herald-Business Monday
Written By: Amy Ellerson
Title: Court reporting Leads to New Venture Scoop
Seeking Respite from Vicious Heat, Man Discovers Success in Court

Allen Benowitz was only trying to escape the midsummer heat of Brooklyn when he found his calling. Determined to become a dental technician after graduating from high school, Benowitz was taking classes and holding down a part-time job. In need of a cool place to do his homework, he discovered the New York Supreme Court building in Brooklyn, ideal because it was air-conditioned. "Back then, every place wasn't air-conditioned like it is now," said Benowitz, 55.

Seated in a courtroom, Benowitz plodded through his homework while trials unfolded. After two weeks, a court reporter offered to treat him to lunch, mistaking him for a journalist at the New York Daily News.

"You can imagine how he felt when he found out who I really was," said Benowitz, a Brooklyn native.

Taking interest in the court reporter, Benowitz became mesmerized by the speed with which courtroom dialogue was recorded. Before long, he abandoned his goal of becoming a dental technician.

"I liked the mystique of the silent person in the courtroom who's responsible for the verbatim account of what goes on," said Benowitz, president of one of Miami's oldest court reporting firms. "It looked respectful, and it piqued my interest."

He enrolled at Interboro Institute of Business in Manhattan and graduated within a year. At 18, he had passed every test needed to become a court reporter but, because of his age, could not get a job. Then a Miami firm came calling.

Jack W. Mallicoat & Associates had just lost four court reporters and desperately needed a replacement. Benowitz was that replacement, charged with the task of doing the work of four.

He remained at the firm for nearly nine years. Then in 1969, he created H. Allen Benowitz & Associates with just $750. Starting out with a loyal client base of mostly attorneys, he collected $2200 in the first month and never looked back.

Deciding to strike out on his own was difficult, however. He had a three-year-old daughter, a son about to be born, only $1000 in savings, and a close relationship with his boss, Jack Mallicoat.

"It was a very emotional experience," Benowitz recalled. "As tough as I thought I was from growing up in Brooklyn, I cried when I told him I was leaving. But I felt I was stagnating. I was 27 with a growing family, and I needed to grow financially as well."

Today, he employees 20 court reporters and has started another business, Worldwide Videoconferencing, which sells videoconference equipment and services to some of his attorney clients who can't always make it to depositions far away.

A Second Success

Using the profits from his court reporting business and more than $300,000 in personal savings, he built Worldwide Videoconferencing, now with five employees, by targeting the legal profession as well as the business community and public sector.

He founded Worldwide Videoconferencing in 1989 in response to attorneys' complaints about traveling. The new technology would allow them to attend out-of-town meetings without actually leaving town.

Surprisingly, though, lawyers were slow to take advantage of videoconferencing, Benowitz said. Many were reluctant to use the new technology and, despite their complaints, still wanted to do some traveling.

"You know, you can't have dinner at Spago in Los Angeles from Miami," Benowitz said, grinning.

In the last year, his videoconference business has quadrupled, he said, largely due to increasing travel costs, more affordable technology and greater public awareness. Clients include the Ruden McClosky law firm, Burger King, First Union Bank and State Attorney's Office. Also his company serves as co-marketing representative for resellers of VTEL, PictureTel and Sony videoconference equipment.

"The industry used to sell about 5,000 videoconferencing systems in a year. Today, we're selling almost twice as much as that in a quarter," said Richard Gadberry, distribution manager for Sony Videoconferencing in Dallas. "About five years ago, when someone bought a videoconference system, they did so for their own private network, to improve internal communications. But people today are buying them to speak to suppliers, manufacturers, customers, prospects and business associates."