Interview With Gary Buckland

Welcome to August! I do not know how the weather has been for you this summer, but it has been crazy hot in Missouri. I hope you have been able to stay as cool as possible – or at least embrace the outdoors in enjoyable ways. I also hope you have been able to step away from work and spend time with friends and family, as summer is a perfect season for pools, vacations, and weekend adventures.

While I have been enjoying the summer so far, I have also been thinking a lot about our business. It has been several months since Alaris rebranded as a part of Lexitas, and the transition has been going incredibly well so far. I want to thank you for all you have done to help make the transition as smooth and as seamless as it has been and for all your continued support. It means a lot to not only me, but the entire team here.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to share with a bit more context about why we made this transition in the first place – and why Lexitas was an ideal fit for Alaris. When I began Alaris in 1985, I wanted to build a business that provided meaningful, beneficial, and focused litigation services that were not widely available at the time. With the help of countless colleagues and friends, I grew a small company into a large company that developed a powerful reputation for quality and personalized services. A large part of the reason I agreed to join Lexitas is because I recognized many of the same goals in their vision. Lexitas is dedicated to the same mission that has always driven Alaris, and joining the company allows us the resources to offer more extensive services to new and existing clients.

Another reason I chose Lexitas was because of the great leadership of Gary Buckland, CEO. I have had the opportunity through my forty-two plus years in this industry to meet and engage with law firm leaders, CEOs, all types of leaders, and I have to say Gary ranks up there as one of the best. I am extremely grateful for his transparency and willingness to listen and work together, not to mention his vision of growth within the Lexitas organization.

I recently had an opportunity to speak with Gary about some of this, and I hope you will enjoy reading our conversation below.

As always, thank you for your continued support. We cannot do what we do without you, our valued clients.

Interview with Gary Buckland, CEO of Lexitas

Can you tell me a little about your professional background, and how you came to work for Lexitas? What drew you to the leadership role at the company?

I landed a sales position out of college at Motorola and enjoyed a 14-year career with the company in several global sales leadership positions. That experience gave me the foundation to move into higher-level General Management roles in staffing, healthcare, and (of course) legal. I found my way into the court reporting industry in 1998 with LegaLink and eventually was promoted to President.

Fast forward 10 years to 2015, and I had the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors of Deposition Solutions. I’ve always had an admiration and great respect for people working in the court reporting industry. That board invitation ultimately led me to join Deposition Solutions, which is now known as Lexitas. Trinity Hunt Partners, Zack Miller, and former CEO Mike Clepper had created a compelling business plan to become a national player in the industry, and I was given the opportunity to drive and scale that vision. I saw it as a challenge, and putting together a leadership team to organically grow the business through increased sales and acquisitions was as exciting to me then as it still is today!

What is it about Lexitas that sets it apart from other litigation support companies? What does Lexitas offer that other industry competitors might not?

When you ask that question to any competitor in our space, they will say they have the best technology, best reporters, and best employees. I believe we have all those things too, but I truly believe the secret sauce for us is very simple: We provide outstanding customer service and transparency to our clients with passionate and driven team members. We also provide diverse service offerings that many of our competitors do not. We have not only acquired best-in-class organizations, but also acquired outstanding talent as well – many of whom have gone on to Senior Leadership roles within Lexitas.

What are some concrete ways in which Lexitas is living up to its Mission, Vision, and Values (see below)? How is a large and ever-growing company able to keep its eye on the specific, individual, and tailored needs of its clients?

Mission: To build long-term client relationships through service excellence, increase client efficiency through innovation, and build long-term value

Vision: To be the industry’s most trusted, most efficient, and most recommended legal and corporate support services partner.

Values:

Service Excellence
Positivity
Innovation
Respect
Initiative
Teamwork
Ethics
Diversity

Again, our service excellence is paramount to our success. We listen to our clients when they have needs that may be outside of our normal service. I think we do a great job readily responding to the concierge type of requests that come our way across all of our solutions. Also, we monitor our Net Promotor Scores from our clients to make sure we are being effective for them and delivering what we promised. Having intelligence about how we are performing from a client’s perspective is what leads to recommendations/referrals. As I always like to say, our clients’ perceptions are our reality.

As for our Company Values, I take them very seriously because they are critical to our success and create a positive work environment. We should all be cognizant of what SPIRITED truly means for each of us, and we should expect our fellow colleagues to be supportive of our values and follow them.

Can you talk a little about the role acquisitions play in building Lexitas’ broader brand identity? What does Lexitas leadership look for when they’re thinking about acquiring a litigation support company?

Acquisitions have played a critical role in the growth path of our company. Since March of 2015, we have acquired 34 companies to create a nationally recognized brand and are now the second largest in our industry. I think this is impressive, since the Lexitas brand did not even exist until 2016.

The data points we look at, besides year-over-year growth, are customer concentration, strategic markets, market share, and whether the company’s culture and leadership style are similar to our own. We explore many acquisition opportunities annually, but we walk away from most due to a lack of cultural fit.

What specifically did Alaris offer when Lexitas decided to bring the company into the fold? What was the appeal, and how was it beneficial to both companies (and – perhaps more importantly – their clients)?

Alaris’ reputation and leadership team caught our attention early. The growth of the company, having acquisition experience of its own, and Lexitas’ new markets and service offerings were all compelling reasons why we wanted to bring Alaris into the Lexitas family. We also felt that Lexitas’ other service offerings would benefit the Alaris client base by providing an even wider variety of solutions.

What is your favorite part of approaching work each day? What gets you up in the morning and keeps you engaged?

As a former college athlete, I have always had an internal competitive drive to win! I not only want to win in business, but I want to win by improving my skills and leadership abilities. I love my job, this company, and our employees, and the competitive drive kicks in as soon as I wake up. I want to create opportunity for our employees and our investors, and I’m committed to seeing this company continue on a growth track that will make us all proud. That is what keeps me engaged and driven!

After beginning her career as a court reporter with a degree from Brown’s Business College, Debbie purchased the firm she worked for in 1985. That firm continually grew and evolved into Alaris, providing litigation, trial, and mediation services. As Alaris transitioned to Lexitas, Debbie remains committed to the company and now operates as Lexitas' Vice President of Community Relations.

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