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An Extra Mind for
Overwhelmed Leaders.

Built from twenty years inside the industry, now working for you to fix what's slowing you down.

From the front desk to the C-suite, I’ve worked every role in the legal services industry. Now I put that experience to work for court reporting agencies, legal services companies, small law firms, and legal tech, as a sounding board and advisor, a fractional COO, or the person who finally takes that project off your list. You get an outside mind that’s deeply experienced, brutally honest, and genuinely on your side.

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THE FIRM IS NEW. THE EXPERIENCE ISN'T.
20+

Years of Industry Expertise

50+

Employees Managed Across Operations and Administration

16

Departments with Hands-On Experience

ABOUT THE FOUNDER

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

I spent twenty years inside the legal services industry, starting as an unqualified office manager who earned my way to COO of a multi-location court reporting agency. I have worked every role, navigated every pressure, and built the kind of operational instincts and breadth of experience that can’t be replicated.

The DuRoss Group exists because more companies deserve access to that experience and knowledge.

Owners get answers. Teams get breathing room. The operational headaches that never make it to the top of the list finally get handled.

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CORE SERVICES

What We Do

Three Ways to Work Together

Whether it’s ongoing access, a hands-on rebuild, or a single project delivered, there’s a service that fits where you are.

Strategic Advisory Retainer

Ongoing access to me for the decisions and questions as they come up. Three access levels. No long-term contract.

Fractional
COO

A high-impact, time-limited engagement to rebuild systems, stabilize operations, and scale. For companies ready to make real change.

Project-Based Engagements

A defined scope, a clear deliverable, a start and an end. For the problems that have been on the list long enough.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR SERVICES
OUR CLIENTS

From the Legal Services World,
for the Legal Services World.

If you operate in the legal services industry, you know how much it matters to work with someone who already gets it. Twenty years across every department, every role, and every size of company means we skip the learning curve and the explanations, and get right to work.

Court Reporting Agencies

My deepest expertise and largest client base. From start-ups finding their footing to multi-state operations with complex service lines, I know the operations, the pressures, and the path forward.

Legal Services Companies

Trial services, legal videography, interpreting agencies, reprographics, and mediation companies. Different rhythms, same fundamentals, and I arrive already knowing your vendors, your workflows, and the demands unique to each.

Small Law Firms

Practice management, process design, and the systems that let attorneys focus on the law instead of the back office. I help small firms run with the capability of much larger ones.

Legal Tech Companies

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

SEE CASE STUDIES
ACTIVE MEMBER OF
TESTIMONIALS

What Clients Say

I have relied daily on Maggie’s expertise, support, leadership skills, and overall great instincts. She fosters a culture where issues are identified and dealt with, escalations are prevented, and operations stay stable. I would be lost without her guidance and support.
Client since 2021
COO/General Counsel
I appreciate all your time, thoughtful responses, advice, guidance, and just general willingness to help me. I honestly couldn’t have gotten this far without you.
Client since 2023
President/Owner
I have worked with Maggie for many years, and she has become one of my most trusted resources in the court reporting industry. Whether she is helping us with our website and messaging, conducting pricing research, advising on employee compensation, navigating a difficult regulatory issue, or simply giving me perspective on what she is seeing across the industry, Maggie brings an unusual combination of experience, judgment, and practical common sense. She understands this business from the inside, asks the right questions, and has a remarkable ability to get quickly to the heart of an issue and offer solutions that are both thoughtful and actionable. When I need an informed, candid perspective on an important business decision, Maggie is one of the first people I call.
Client since 2021
President
CASE STUDIES

The Operational Overhaul

FRACTIONAL COO

A full look at every department, new systems, and documentation ready for hand off.

This one was the whole company. I came in to look at every department, work out what each one needed, and then build the structure to support it. That meant organizational changes, new software, and finally getting started on the initiatives that had been sitting on the list for years. I built everything so it could grow with them and documented it so that someone could be trained to run it without me.

Services Performed
  • Full company and department assessment
  • Organizational structure and roles
  • Software selection and implementation
  • Getting priority initiatives off the ground
  • Documentation written for training and handoff
  • Everything built to scale
CASE STUDIES

Rebuilding a Twenty-Year-Old System

PROJECT

One person owning the whole build, so leadership does not have to run it.

They had been on the same proprietary system for over twenty years and decided to modernize and redesign it from the ground up. I helped choose the development partner, and now project manage the entire build, which runs nine months. I met with every department to document how the system is used and what each one needs, and I coordinate testing and the pipeline for what gets built now versus later. The development company does the building. I am the one keeping everyone talking to each other and making sure it gets done. Ownership does not have to oversee any of it day to day.

Services Performed
  • Choosing the development partner
  • Documenting the existing system department by department
  • Translating what each department needs into direction for developers
  • Coordinating testing and quality control
  • Managing the pipeline of current and future build items
  • Single point of contact between the company and the developers
CASE STUDIES

Can I Run Something By You?

ADVISORY ACCESS

Have you heard of this? Can I run something by you? What would you do?

Almost every email, call, and text starts one of those three ways. Someone is in the middle of a decision and wants a read from somebody who has seen it before. Often, I am not even the one with the answer. I ask the questions that get us to the heart of it, and somewhere along the way they find their own way forward. Most calls end with a clear next step instead of another week of going back and forth.

Services Performed
  • Email, text, and Teams access between meetings
  • A quick read on decisions already in motion
  • Codes, rules, and what is normal in this industry
  • Light document review when it fits
  • The questions that get to the heart of it
  • Direction and judgment, not implementation
CASE STUDIES

Payroll, Rebuilt and Handed Back

PROJECT

A job that took most of someone’s week now takes under ten hours a month.

Resource pay and employee payroll were both done by hand and ate up most of one person’s week. I reviewed both systems and documented what was happening versus what should be happening. For employee payroll, I replaced a punch clock and a stack of Excel sheets with the online time clock from their payroll company, so hours go straight into payroll. For resource pay, I helped design an entire tracking system for all departments to ensure payrolls were met. When the person handling it went on leave, I covered both. After that, I trained one of the billers on resource pay and kept employee payroll as an outside service, which the owner liked for a reason I had not expected. Salary and compensation information stopped living inside the office.

Services Performed
  • Audit of reporter and employee payroll
  • Tracking system built for resource pay
  • Online time clock through their payroll provider
  • Interim coverage during staff leave
  • Training and handoff to internal staff
  • Ongoing monthly payroll as an outside service
CASE STUDIES

Someone for the Team to Call

PARTNERSHIP

An upset client, a missing reporter, a tough invoice. None of that waits for the CEO to get out of a meeting.

At the Partnership level, access goes past the owner to the directors, supervisors, and managers running the daily operations. They are the ones with an upset client on the phone, a reporter who has stopped responding to transcript requests, an out-of-state question nobody can answer, a messy invoice, or an employee situation that needs handling today. Owners tell me what they like most is knowing their team has somebody to call, and that the answer they get will be a good one. I have seen most of it. What I have not seen, we work through together.

Services Performed
  • Direct access for directors, supervisors, and managers
  • Solutions for upset clients and difficult conversations
  • Out-of-state codes and practice questions
  • Invoice, billing, and rate decisions
  • Employee situations
  • Coverage when leadership is unreachable
CASE STUDIES

A Reporter Database Schedulers Actually Use

PROJECT

Everything the schedulers knew, finally somewhere you can search.

The system they had could not hold what the schedulers knew. Who covers which counties. Who is good with which job types. Who is licensed where. Who is worth a premium and when. All of it lived in people’s heads and dozens of Excel files. I sat with the schedulers to find out what they needed, looked at project management platforms, and picked one we could customize. Then I built a reporter database tagged by skill, preference, license, area, and rate, with management dashboards and pre-sorted lists for the searches schedulers run all day.

Services Performed
  • Sitting with the schedulers to find out what they needed
  • Platform research and selection
  • Reporter database design and build
  • Tagging for skills, licenses, and coverage areas
  • Dashboards for tracking
  • Pre-sorted lists for everyday searches
CASE STUDIES

Growing Into a New Service Line

ADVISORY + STRATEGY

Monthly sessions through an expansion, covering the big picture and the next step at the same time.

Growth is when you find out what does not scale. Through monthly sessions, we work through what it actually takes to add a service line or move into a new state. The codes and practices that are different. What the rates should look like. Where the current setup is going to strain. What has to be in place before the first job comes in. We talk about the growing pains while they are happening instead of after. If something needs real build work, we scope it as a project. Everything else is part of the retainer.

Services Performed
  • Monthly strategy sessions
  • Adding a service line
  • Moving into a new state: codes, rates, and practices
  • Growing pains as they come up
  • Goals and how to actually get there
  • A clear line between what is included and what becomes a project
CASE STUDIES

What the Sales Team Actually Costs

PROJECT

What each rep costs and what each one brings in, side by side.

Ownership knew what the sales team brought in and what it spent. What they did not have was how those two things connected person by person. I pulled every expense, categorized it, and lined it up against revenue and margin by rep and by territory, then built it out over time so the trends were actually visible. They ended up with a straight answer on what each rep costs, which territories were carrying which, and where to make changes.

Services Performed
  • Expense categorization and cleanup
  • Revenue and margin by rep
  • Territory and region comparison
  • Trends over time
  • Cost per rep
  • Written recommendations
CASE STUDIES

Writing Down What Only Lives in People's Heads

PROJECT

Written down after the process was fixed, not before.

Almost every company I walk into is missing training guides and written procedures, and it is always the thing nobody has time for. This one started as a documentation project and turned into something more useful. I spent time watching how the work was actually being done, which surfaced a handful of things worth changing before anything got written down. We tested the changes, and then I documented the version that worked. They ended up with procedures their team could follow and reference material for the people already there. If I had just written down what I found on day one, they would have made the broken version permanent.

Services Performed
  • Watching how the work is actually done
  • Suggestions for what to change
  • Testing the changes in practice
  • Written procedures and SOPs
  • Training guides by role
  • Reference material for the people already there
CASE STUDIES

When an Owner Starts Thinking About Selling

ADVISORY + STRATEGY

A sounding board and an introduction. I am not an M&A advisor.

I want to be clear about this one. I am not an M&A advisor, and I do not do valuations. What I can be is the person an owner talks to before any of that starts. What do you actually want out of this? What is the timeline? What is going to come up that nobody warns you about? A lot of that is emotional and does not get said out loud anywhere else. From there, I connect people with the M&A attorneys, financial advisors, and valuation specialists who do the actual work. For one client, I knew of parties looking to acquire and made the introduction. That is the honest extent of it.

Services Performed
  • A sounding board before the process starts
  • Talking through what you want out of an exit
  • Introductions to M&A attorneys and financial advisors
  • Referrals to valuation specialists
  • Connecting owners with interested buyers when I know of them
  • Telling you plainly when you need someone else
CASE STUDIES

Onboarding That Does Not Start From Scratch Every Time

PROJECT

One path for employees, one for freelancers, both written down and ready to use.

Onboarding usually lives with whoever did it last, so every new person gets a slightly different version, and it never gets any better. I looked at what they already had and built proper systems for both employees and freelancers. A step-by-step path, the emails that go with each stage, an expectations document, and the checklists and forms that keep anything from getting missed. New people get the same start every time, and whoever runs onboarding gets their week back.

Services Performed
  • Review of what already existed
  • Step-by-step onboarding path
  • Email templates for each stage
  • Expectations and welcome documents
  • Checklists and forms
  • Separate tracks for employees and freelancers
CASE STUDIES

Choosing Software Without the Sales Pitch

PROJECT

Demos run, prices compared, and a recommendation with the reasoning behind it.

Picking new software is one of those jobs nobody has time for, so it usually comes down to a vendor call and a gut feeling. I work out what the system actually has to do, build a shortlist, sit through the demos, and compare pricing on the same terms instead of however each vendor wants to present it. I have done this for video syncing software, payroll systems, CRMs, task management, and accounting. You get the recommendation and the reasoning, so it holds up when somebody asks why.

Services Performed
  • Working out what the system has to do
  • Vendor research and shortlist
  • Running and sitting through demos
  • Like-for-like price comparison
  • A written recommendation with the reasoning
  • Help with rollout
CASE STUDIES

Are Your Rates Where You Think They Are?

PROJECT

Where your rate sheet sits in the market, without me telling you anybody else’s numbers.

Twenty years in this industry and a lot of contacts means I know where rates are going. Send me a rate sheet and I will tell you if you are low, average, or high for your market, and whether anything bigger is shifting, like agencies moving from per page to hourly. What I will not do is tell you what another agency charges. That goes for clients and non-clients both. I give market context in ranges, which is enough to make a decision without anybody’s private information getting passed around.

Services Performed
  • Rate sheet review
  • Where you sit against the market range
  • Pricing structure trends
  • What your margins look like by rate tier
  • Reporter rate and compensation comparison
  • Written findings and recommendations
CASE STUDIES

The Deck They Did Not Have Time to Build

PROJECT

You tell me the theme. I handle the talking points, the slides, and the design.

Some of the best projects are the small ones. A client has a presentation coming up, knows roughly what they want to cover, and has no time to build it. I take the theme and the context, work out the talking points, and build the slides. This has been everything from a sales meeting to a client training on scheduling best practices to a session on what AI actually means for a legal services business. Because I know the industry, I am not just formatting someone else’s content. I can write the substance too and am quick to pick up your company’s voice.

Services Performed
  • Talking points built from your theme
  • Slide design and build
  • Content written, not just formatted
  • Marketing pieces and flyers
  • A revision round
  • Materials you can reuse
CASE STUDIES

The Template That Saves an Hour a Day

PROJECT

A quick estimate that used to take fifteen minutes now takes two.

Most of the templates a company actually needs are the small operational ones nobody gets around to building. Quick client estimates. Rate comparisons. Scorecards. The thing somebody rebuilds in Excel from scratch every single time because no one ever saved a clean version. I build them to match how the work really happens, with the formulas and logic already in place so the person using it just fills in what changes. They are small projects, and they tend to pay for themselves faster than anything else I do.

Services Performed
  • Quick estimate and quote templates
  • Rate and margin comparisons
  • KPI scorecards
  • Intake forms and checklists
  • Email templates and scripts
  • Built to match how the work actually happens
CASE STUDIES

The Website They Kept Meaning to Redo

PROJECT

Copy written, proofed, and carried all the way through to launch.

The site had been on the list for years and kept getting pushed for whatever was on fire that week. I worked with the owner to settle what they wanted to say, wrote the copy for the whole site, then edited and proofed it. I stayed on through the build, working with the developer, reviewing pages as they came together, and doing the final proof before it went live. The owner made all the decisions without having to run the project.

Services Performed
  • Messaging and what they wanted to say
  • Copywriting for the full site
  • Editing and proofreading
  • Working with the web developer
  • Page-by-page review through the build
  • Final proof before launch
INSIGHTS

Resources

Tools, templates, and insights from twenty years of doing the work.

Blog
6th October, 2026

AB 2783: California Opens the Door to Out-of-State Reporters

AB 2783 lets RPR holders skip the California skills exam, and it extends the remote court reporting pilot to 2028. Both took effect immediately. Here is what it means for your reporter pool and possibly rates.
READ BLOG
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Whitepaper
1st October, 2026

Your W-9s Are Telling You More Than You Think

A W-9 tells you whether a resource gets a 1099, who the check should be made payable to, and which name belongs on the form. Most of that gets missed because nobody is taught to read one. Here is what to look at and how to store it so you can report on it.
DOWNLOAD RESOURCE
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Whitepaper
1st October, 2026

Stop Paying to File 1099s You Never Owed

Most agencies file more 1099s than the IRS requires. Every extra form costs filing fees and staff hours, and it still does not stop the January phone calls. Here is who you actually owe one, what changed for 2026, and how to set it up once.
DOWNLOAD RESOURCE
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GIVING BACK TO THE PROFESSION

Beyond the Record

Free education, resources, and community for court reporters, students, and legal professionals.

This industry gave me a career and a community. Beyond the Record is how I give back.

Free webinars, practical resources, and a growing community for court reporters and legal professionals who want to stay connected and keep learning. No cost, no catch. Just good information from people who know the industry.

EXPLORE BEYOND THE RECORD

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You Are

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Just a conversation.
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