“I truly believe it’s the best trial presentation software on the market. It’s the best software I’ve used — bar none."
Bryan Ghingold is a professional trial technician, the owner of IPV Litigation Services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the first trial tech in the country to become LIT SUITE certified. He and his team run technology at trials, depositions, mediations, and scene inspections so that attorneys can keep their heads in the case instead of in the cables.
A trial tech, sometimes called a “hot seater", is the person in the back of the courtroom driving the exhibits, video, and call-outs while the lawyer examines the witness. It’s a specialized craft, and Bryan has done it on both sides of the aisle, often sitting a few feet from a competing tech running rival software. That vantage point has made him one of the most candid advocates for the LIT SUITE we’ve talked to, including on the question of whether you need someone like him at all.
Here is the counterintuitive part. Bryan’s livelihood is running courtroom technology for attorneys, and he’s the first to tell those same attorneys that the LIT SUITE was built so they can do it themselves.
"This is designed so that you don’t need a trial tech. This is designed for attorneys to do themselves."
He means it. Bryan points to clients like attorney Todd Hollis, who runs his own trial presentation in TrialPad and even shows documents from his iPad during video depositions, and to the Kelly firm, three sisters who built their new practice on the LIT SUITE. When an attorney tells Bryan they’re comfortable enough with the technology to go it alone, his response is to offer training rather than talk them out of it. Todd liked Bryan’s setup so much that he hired Bryan to come to his house and teach him how to replicate it.
Far from seeing the software as a threat to his business, Bryan sees it as the thing that makes his business possible, and he’s remarkably blunt about it.
"I don’t see the LIT SUITE as a threat at all. I’m actually terrified of the day you’d shutter your doors, because that would impact me more than you being successful and getting more and more attorneys to not need hot seaters. I want LIT SOFTWARE around, because your product is the best on the market."
His practical advice to lawyers: the tool is designed for you to run yourself, so if you’re comfortable with technology, run it. If you’d rather not, hire a tech. Either way, the software underneath should be the LIT SUITE.
Bryan has spent trials seated across the aisle from techs running the traditional heavyweight presentation platforms, OnCue and Trial Director, and what he’s watched has only deepened his loyalty to TrialPad. He describes software that freezes and crashes mid-trial, and that hands the operator so many options that simple tasks turn into unforced errors.
"It gives them too much control and too many options. They’d resize a call-out and it would distort the text — stretch it out so it looked like taffy. It just looked unprofessional. TrialPad is so intuitive; it gives you all the control you need while still keeping an eye on the presentation value of things."
The other advantage he keeps coming back to is footprint. Bryan is always hunting for ways to run fewer wires and take up less space in the courtroom. TrialPad, with an Apple TV, lets him cut the cables his competitors are still taping to the floor.
“The other side’s trial tech is taping down HDMI cords running from her computer to the witness stand and to counsel table. I just pop in the Apple TV and wirelessly broadcast. I feel very powerful when I’m able to do that."
Bryan runs the LIT SUITE on a Mac, mirroring wirelessly to the Apple TV, so he can toggle between TrialPad, TranscriptPad, and the occasional outside program from a single device, while the tech across the aisle juggles a computer, a switcher, and a second machine and secondary monitor. He calls the arrival of the LIT SUITE on Mac a turning point for his workflow.
"Having the LIT SUITE available for Mac has been an absolute game changer. A godsend. I can run everything from one device."
One of Bryan’s favorite demonstrations of TrialPad’s simplicity is what happens when a witness needs to mark up an exhibit live. With a competing setup, that means a separate annotation-enabled monitor at the witness stand and a tangle of extra tech. With TrialPad, Bryan simply gets the judge’s permission, walks the device up to the stand, still casting wirelessly to the courtroom, and hands it over.
"We can show them in 13 seconds how to circle things, how to do call-outs, how to do highlights, and the annotations happen live for the court."
Bryan discovered TrialPad years ago through a client, Dave Landay. After Bryan’s previous trial presentation software stopped being supported and began failing him in front of a judge and jury, he asked Landay, a vocal LIT SUITE evangelist, about the software. That was their introduction to Trial Pad, but for a long time before that, Bryan’s team didn't know about the rest of the LIT SUITE. For every case, his team would Bates-stamp documents in Adobe through a punishing 20- to 25-step process, import them into TrialPad, and hope the OCR held up.
The turning point came when he emailed LIT SOFTWARE to request a Bates-stamping feature, and we pointed him to DocReviewPad, where he could stamp exhibits in seconds and export them straight into TrialPad. All the Bates numbers were searchable, and there was no transferring between devices. He calls it a light-bulb moment.
"That cut down so much admin time. It made our lives so much easier. Now when I get a twelve-page document in the middle of 2,100 Bates labels, I import it, add the Bates numbers, send to TrialPad, and it takes me two minutes. It’s amazing."
That end-to-end workflow is the heart of the case for adopting the whole LIT SUITE rather than a single app. Bryan now builds court-compliant digital trial binders in ExhibitsPad, locked down with Guided Access. Since TranscriptPad added on-device video syncing, he now redacts and exports designated deposition clips on the fly, or in the ten-minute recess a judge gives him after ruling on objections. Each app has removed steps that used to eat his prep time.
Bryan is also using the LIT SUITE to do something the litigation-support industry rarely does: cooperate. Rather than clutter a courtroom with two projectors, two screens, and two sets of speakers, he’ll offer to run presentation for both sides when neither has a dedicated tech — keeping each party’s materials walled off in separate, confidential exhibit folders so plaintiff never sees defense and vice versa.
"The litigation-support industry is very cagey and protective, and nobody likes playing in the sandbox with anyone else. I’m trying to change that, because there’s enough food for everyone to eat, and everything is better when we can get along."
Bryan recently authored and presented a CLE called “The Visual Verdict,” on jury psychology and the case for visual persuasion. His most striking point: a meaningful share of any jury is neurodivergent, and a purely verbal presentation quietly loses them.
"Fifteen to twenty percent of the general adult population is neurodivergent. If you’re not engaging jurors through multiple channels — oral testimony, visuals, a call-out you highlight, a 3D demonstrative they can hold — you’re potentially missing almost a quarter of your jury, and just leaving them behind."
It’s not, he stresses, that those jurors are lacking anything, they simply process information differently, and it’s the lawyer’s job to meet them where they are. Used well, he argues, TrialPad’s call-outs, highlights, and side-by-side comparisons aren’t courtroom flash; they’re how you keep an entire jury with you.
For firms that want to run the technology themselves, Bryan is a training resource. He can teach attorneys and their staff how to use the LIT SUITE and take them through LIT SUITE certification, the same credential he sought out because his competitors carried certifications on other platforms. He is currently getting his own associates across Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and the Scranton area certified, with the goal that anyone on his team will be able to deliver the full range of IPV’s services. And, he’s building toward serving attorneys who need a certified traveling trial tech in venues without a local resource.
The takeaway for lawyers is the same one Bryan lives by. You do not have to hire a hot seater — the LIT SUITE is built for you to run yourself, and Bryan can train you and your team to do it, right up through certification. But if you’d rather bring in a professional, know that the best trial techs choose the LIT SUITE for a reason.
Whether you run the technology yourself or hire someone like Bryan to run it for you, the software underneath should be the same. Individual attorneys can get started with TrialPad, TranscriptPad, DocReviewPad, TimelinePad, and ExhibitsPad on the App Store today. Firms ready to standardize across a whole litigation team can join the LIT SUITE Enterprise Program, so the licenses, training, and support sit with the firm rather than on individual credit cards. And for training, LIT SUITE-certified professionals like Bryan can get your team courtroom-ready.
To learn more about Bryan Ghingold and IPV Litigation Services, or to ask about LIT SUITE training and certification, reach out to IPV Litigation Services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Learn more about Bryan Ghingold:
Website: www.ipvservice.com
Bryan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-ghingold-85760713/
IPV Litigation Service’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ipv-litigation-services
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPVLitigationServices
Meet Bryan on our upcoming Featured Pros LIVE webinar:
Bryan Ghingold makes his living running courtroom technology for attorneys. He’s also the first to tell them they might not need him. He has run exhibits, video, and call-outs at trials, depositions, and mediations for both sides of the aisle, often a few feet from a trial tech using OnCue or Trial Director. In this Featured Pros LIVE session, he’ll explain why he keeps choosing the LIT SUITE and how attorneys can run it themselves.
What you’ll learn:
Whether you’re presenting your first case on an iPad or bringing courtroom technology in-house across your firm, you’ll come away with practical workflows from someone who has seen how every major platform holds up in front of a judge and jury.
Bring your questions!