BECOME A MEMBERBIVR's Council:
A governing Council of up to 12 members oversees the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters. Members are selected at BIVR’s Annual General Meeting and are all experienced members of the verbatim reporting profession:
Mrs Helen Edwards - helen@bivr.org.uk
Elected President of the BIVR on Saturday 14 May 2011.
The old Knightsbridge Crown Court, Hans Crescent, with Harrods as my corner shop, is where it all started for me. My firm was Walsh and Sons and the year was 1974. After my stint at Knightsbridge I went “on circuit” around the country, interspersed with being hired out to the Association in the High Court and doing a bit of private work. Having children saw me back in the Crown Court - Kingston this time - for a few years. I then went off and started my wonderful career in the private field at home and abroad, including working in such places as Bahrain and the Cayman Islands. I feel that I have had some part to play in much of the major litigation that took place in the latter part of the 20th century as well as covering AGMs and all sorts of meetings, public inquiries and courts-martial. The 21st century saw me in Hansard at the House of Lords for ten years. I am now back in the private field currently covering regulatory disciplinary hearings with a few depositions thrown in for variety.
The old Knightsbridge Crown Court, Hans Crescent, with Harrods as my corner shop, is where it all started for me. My firm was Walsh and Sons and the year was 1974. After my stint at Knightsbridge I went “on circuit” around the country, interspersed with being hired out to the Association in the High Court and doing a bit of private work. Having children saw me back in the Crown Court - Kingston this time - for a few years. I then went off and started my wonderful career in the private field at home and abroad, including working in such places as Bahrain and the Cayman Islands. I feel that I have had some part to play in much of the major litigation that took place in the latter part of the 20th century as well as covering AGMs and all sorts of meetings, public inquiries and courts-martial. The 21st century saw me in Hansard at the House of Lords for ten years. I am now back in the private field currently covering regulatory disciplinary hearings with a few depositions thrown in for variety.
Mrs Sheryll Holley - sheryll@bivr.org.uk
I am a qualified Speech-to-Text Reporter, living in a village called Pontyclun, about 13 miles northwest of Cardiff, South Wales, but when I started my working life it was as an office junior, progressing to secretary working in several legal practices in Cardiff. I stopped work in 1992 to have the first of my three children, with the other two following close after. Since leaving full time work, I worked from home offering audio typing services on a self-employed basis. In 1999 my husband spotted an advertisement in the local press for Electronic Notetakers (Speedtext Operators) to train to work with deaf and dyslexic students. However, following qualification as an Electronic Notetaker, I decided to learn stenography, in order to take a verbatim realtime note, through a distance learning course and the rest, as they say, is history. I obtained my CACDP and BIVR qualifications in the Winter of 2004/5 and became a Qualified Realtime Reporter (QRR) with the BIVR in 2010. I have loved the work ever since, enjoying the travelling and constantly meeting new people.
Mrs Susan Humphries - susan@bivr.org.uk
Having left school and not knowing what to do I embarked on a secretarial course at the local college. During this time I discovered the interesting, if not specialised, world of court reporting and decided that it sounded very interesting.
Having taken a job as a Personal Secretary for a few years I kept attending evening classes until I attained the speeds required to train to be a shorthand writer in the Crown Courts, mainly in the north of England. During this time, however, the Government of the day decided that we should all re-train as machine CATstenographers and so I undertook this training and subsequently worked in Crown Courts, bankruptcies, city council meetings, depositions and the like.
However, when the future of court reporting seemed uncertain with the change of Government contracts, I undertook a part-time honours degree course in Business at Leeds Metropolitan University which lasted for five years. I started as a self-employed freelancer in the mid 1990s and subsequently began to undertake tribunal disciplinary hearings.
In 2004 to 2006 I was fortunate to be employed by the Special Court for Sierra Leone in West Africa working as a court reporter in the civil war trials in the courts which were specially built for the purpose. During this time I met a lot of very interesting people from all nationalities and walks of life some of whom I am still intouch with.
Since my return to the UK, I have worked in the provincial courts in Ireland and the Four Courts in Dublin, but now my work is mainly disciplinary tribunals of all kinds and occasionally international arbitrations.
Mrs Ann Lloyd - President - ann@bivr.org.uk
I started my career with DL Sellers & Co in 1979 where I remained for 10 years working mainly in the Crown courts with the occasional foray into the private sector. Operations were then scaled down whilst I had a young family and during this time I moved out of London to live on the South Coast. I returned to working solely in the private sector in the mid 1990s where I have remained ever since. For the last five years I have specialised in digital transcription services which is a rapidly expanding market. I also work on international arbitrations both at home and abroad providing daily transcription as well as covering disciplinary hearings and parliamentary work.
Miss Jean Lukins - Vice President - jean@bivr.org.uk
Mrs Ann Lloyd - President - ann@bivr.org.uk
I started my career with DL Sellers & Co in 1979 where I remained for 10 years working mainly in the Crown courts with the occasional foray into the private sector. Operations were then scaled down whilst I had a young family and during this time I moved out of London to live on the South Coast. I returned to working solely in the private sector in the mid 1990s where I have remained ever since. For the last five years I have specialised in digital transcription services which is a rapidly expanding market. I also work on international arbitrations both at home and abroad providing daily transcription as well as covering disciplinary hearings and parliamentary work.
Miss Jean Lukins - Vice President - jean@bivr.org.uk
When I was searching for something sensible to do with a law degree from Sussex University many years ago, I lit upon a booklet from BIVR extolling the virtues of verbatim reporting. “What is that?” I wondered. Having spent my spare time learning Pitman New Era to take down lectures, and with both parents able to write the same system, I should have guessed. After graduating, I was lucky enough to join Hansard in the House of Commons, and later worked in almost all of the Crown Courts in London. Along the way, I added stenography to the Pitman’s, and concentrated on the little American machine. This has taken me overseas for US depositions, and opened the door to a wonderful career. I spend most of my time nowadays in the field of health professions regulation.
Mrs Elisabeth (Betty) J Willett - elisabeth@bivr.org.uk
I never envisaged that verbatim reporting would be my chosen career but once I had put my hands on a Palantype keyboard I fell in love! My love affair with that ugly little black Palantype box was to take me to such exotic places as Venezuela, Japan and Zimbabwe to cover international conferences, to almost everywhere in Europe, and in the UK to assignments in the lowliest magistrates court to the Court of Appeal, as well as American depositions, trades union conferences and such things as the International Whaling Commission and the Piper Alpha disaster. In between all this I became a Fellow of BIVR, joined the Council in the 1960s and was elected President five times. Now retired (almost) I spend my time fighting the cause of older people so do not have time to get bored!
Mrs Karen Young - karen@bivr.org.uk
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My ambition was always to be a journalist, so I really stumbled upon this career as I replied to an advertisement for "Court reporters". Discovering that it was not what I had originally set out to do, I decided to give it a go. I undertook my training with Sellers & Co in 1989 moving to Virgina Wason & Associates in 1990, qualifying in the summer of 1990. I have never looked back. It has been exciting, challenging, and I have learnt so much along the way. I took part in a television programme for the BBC filmed in Oxford called "Trial by Jury" in 1997 where I was the stenographer. At present, I specialise mainly in the field of professional regulatory work and occasional deposition work. I have enjoyed my career as no two days are the same and I have been lucky to meet a wide range of people.
LEAH WILLERSDORF leah@bivr.org.uk
Co-opted on to Council on 14 May 2011. Welcome, Leah.
G'day!! I remember when I was 15 years old watching “LA Law” on TV with my mum and I said, “What is that lady doing, mum?” She said, “I’m not 100% sure. Why don’t you ask your Secretarial Studies teacher?” So I did.....and here I am.
I always loved and had a flair for Pitman shorthand, typing and English. I did work experience in secondary school going to see what this court reporting malarkey was all about and fell in love with it straightaway. In 1989, I achieved the grades required to go to university in Brisbane to study a two-year Diploma in Business (Court & Parliamentary Reporting), passed with flying colours and I’ve not looked back since. Upon graduating, in 1992 I moved to Adelaide, South Australia to embark upon my chosen profession. I worked there in the Courts Administration Authority and loved every minute of it, so much so I even wanted to do the Saturday morning Magistrates’ Court sittings.
In 1995, I came to England for what was meant to be a two-year working holiday....it’s now 2011 and I’m still here. I love my career (and London) and the variety of the jobs that I do (ranging from court work, courts-martial, arbitrations, AGMs, press conferences, regulatory bodies, public inquiries, US depositions and STT, just to name a few). My absolute favourite jobs are American depositions, but I must admit that I’m not a fan of arbitrations. The opportunity to travel the world in this career is an added bonus that I certainly was never expecting, not to mention meeting people constantly and making new friends along the way.
I have passed the Institute’s Qualified Realtime Reporter exam, was recently appointed as a Member and my friend, Karen Young, recommended me to join the Council. I’m pleased to have been co-opted on the Council and I will endeavour to make what I hope will be useful contributions to keep this profession as skilful and fascinating as it is and always has been.
Oh, and the Saturday morning Magistrates’ Court sittings in Oz......these days I wouldn’t be offering my services for that as I’m usually transcribing!!!
My ambition was always to be a journalist, so I really stumbled upon this career as I replied to an advertisement for "Court reporters". Discovering that it was not what I had originally set out to do, I decided to give it a go. I undertook my training with Sellers & Co in 1989 moving to Virgina Wason & Associates in 1990, qualifying in the summer of 1990. I have never looked back. It has been exciting, challenging, and I have learnt so much along the way. I took part in a television programme for the BBC filmed in Oxford called "Trial by Jury" in 1997 where I was the stenographer. At present, I specialise mainly in the field of professional regulatory work and occasional deposition work. I have enjoyed my career as no two days are the same and I have been lucky to meet a wide range of people.
LEAH WILLERSDORF leah@bivr.org.uk
Co-opted on to Council on 14 May 2011. Welcome, Leah.
G'day!! I remember when I was 15 years old watching “LA Law” on TV with my mum and I said, “What is that lady doing, mum?” She said, “I’m not 100% sure. Why don’t you ask your Secretarial Studies teacher?” So I did.....and here I am.
I always loved and had a flair for Pitman shorthand, typing and English. I did work experience in secondary school going to see what this court reporting malarkey was all about and fell in love with it straightaway. In 1989, I achieved the grades required to go to university in Brisbane to study a two-year Diploma in Business (Court & Parliamentary Reporting), passed with flying colours and I’ve not looked back since. Upon graduating, in 1992 I moved to Adelaide, South Australia to embark upon my chosen profession. I worked there in the Courts Administration Authority and loved every minute of it, so much so I even wanted to do the Saturday morning Magistrates’ Court sittings.
In 1995, I came to England for what was meant to be a two-year working holiday....it’s now 2011 and I’m still here. I love my career (and London) and the variety of the jobs that I do (ranging from court work, courts-martial, arbitrations, AGMs, press conferences, regulatory bodies, public inquiries, US depositions and STT, just to name a few). My absolute favourite jobs are American depositions, but I must admit that I’m not a fan of arbitrations. The opportunity to travel the world in this career is an added bonus that I certainly was never expecting, not to mention meeting people constantly and making new friends along the way.
I have passed the Institute’s Qualified Realtime Reporter exam, was recently appointed as a Member and my friend, Karen Young, recommended me to join the Council. I’m pleased to have been co-opted on the Council and I will endeavour to make what I hope will be useful contributions to keep this profession as skilful and fascinating as it is and always has been.
Oh, and the Saturday morning Magistrates’ Court sittings in Oz......these days I wouldn’t be offering my services for that as I’m usually transcribing!!!
Mrs Mary C Sorene - Secretary - sec@bivr.org.uk
Secretary of the Institute, I began my working life on 1st January 1962, as a junior shorthand typist, then moving up the career ladder to become a secretary all the while attending evening classes to build my speed up to the required minimum 180 wpm before training (as a Pitman's pen writer) at the Old Bailey in November 1971. I eventually gained 210 wpm in Pitman's shorthand and then retrained in 1988-89 on to the steno machine achieving a speed of 180 wpm on the machine. I travel all over the UK to train realtime stenographers for verbatim work in Speech-to-text or other work - wherever a verbatim record is needed. I have also been to Jersey as well as Nigeria, to train realtime stenographers for His Excellency Babatunde Fashola, the Governor of Lagos. Many of my past students are now working as verbatim and/or STT Reporters. I am also Chairman of the IPS (Incorporated Phonographic Society) a group of shorthand enthusiastis and am on the reading rota for Thursday evenings at the Bishopsgate Institute, London.