About
Who are we?
We are a group of lawyers who believe in the importance of high quality and risk-free legal translation in legal practice.
After using legal translation services in many and various forms over the years while practising law, we became discouraged at the varying quality of outsourced translations and frustrated at often having to spend hours reviewing and editing even the better translations, a costly and inefficient process for all involved.
Bringing together lawyers with linguistic expertise and translation experience, we deal with complex projects and documents for law firms and companies. At the heart of what we do is the principle that, in order for a legal translation to be the most accurate and equivalent to the original document possible, it should also be clear and readable: this is why we believe that the best translators are those that best understand legal texts.
Below, the profiles of some of us:
Jennifer studied French and Italian literature at Princeton University (A.B., Magna Cum Laude), and law at Columbia Law School (Juris Doctor, Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, law review editor) and Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne (Maîtrise, mention bien). She practiced corporate law in Paris, New York, and Baltimore for 10 years at Cleary Gottlieb and DLA Piper, before founding a small firm with two other partners in NYC. Jennifer holds certification from the American Translators Association for French to English translation.
Carmen was admitted at the Paris Bar and holds a degree from the ESSEC (top 3 French business school), Paris I University (Sorbonne), and obtained an LLM at Harvard Law School. She practised Corporate Law in NY and Paris for nearly 10 years at leading French and US law firms before joining the M&A team of a French listed luxury company, where she worked 5 years before undertaking a career in legal translation.
Coralie obtained 2 Ph.Ds (one in Private Law, and one in Anglophone studies - from the Sorbonne) before she decided to teach law and English at the Sorbonne and top French business-schools (ESCP, Dauphine...). To this day, she is still teaching, training legal translators and engaged in legal translation. She is a sworn translator before the Administrative Court of Appeals of Paris.
James. After studying languages at Oxford University, James worked as a translator at international organisations, then as a legal counsel in France in the early 1990's. He later worked as a solicitor with an international Law firm in London for a couple of decades, first as an associate and then as a partner. He recently decided to stop working in a law firm, and to perform other activities, including the occasional translation for TransLex.
Laura is an American lawyer who graduated from the University of Michigan (BA) and Georgetown (JD), and worked for 8 years at major international law firms (Holland & Knight, Hogan & Hartson). She has been freelancing as a specialized legal and finance translator since 2007.
Naomi was admitted at the Bar of California, and graduated from UC Davis (Juris Doctor) and obtained a Ph.D in Private Law at Paris I University - Sorbonne. She practiced law before starting a career in legal translation (at international institutions, law firms, etc.).
Peter is a multilingual lawyer-linguist specialising in international commercial and investment arbitration. He was born in Russia, studied European and comparative law in the Netherlands and qualified as a solicitor in the UK. Peter has over 12 years of practical experience in leading international legal practices in Paris and London, and now works independently from Belgrade, Serbia, offering language services in English, Russian, Dutch, French and Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian.
Robina comes from Britain. She was admitted at the Paris Bar and worked as an associate with several major international law firms in Paris for more than 6 years (Herbert Smith, and Allen & Overy) in projects and project finance, before she joined a mining startup company in London as Head of Legal for 3 years, working on projects with French-speaking African countries. She then joined a specialised consulting firm and now divides her time between legal translation and her practice as a contract attorney (Skadden, Slaughter & May) based in London.
Valérie graduated in French Law from Montpellier & Paris II University - Assas, and obtained an LLM at Columbia Law School. She practiced Corporate Law at major international law firms in Pittsburgh and Paris for 7 years. She then moved to Athens where she got married and was admitted at the local Bar. She has worked there since 1998 and has specialised in trilingual legal translation (French, English & Greek) since 2012.
What do we do?
We optimise the translation process for lawyers by providing translations by lawyers.
A less than solid understanding of the legal concepts and terms used in the source text and their equivalents in the target legal system can lead to a translation that, while linguistically accurate, in fact does not make much sense and has little legal basis.
For example, Supreme Court of New York cannot be translated literally because it is a Court of first instance, contrary to what its name might suggest. In French, "une dette certaine, liquide et exigible" is a legal concept that the translator must understand in order to produce a suitable translation rather than a merely literal one which does not carry the same legal meaning.
A translator who has dual knowledge and experience of both the source and target legal systems means a translation that is equivalent in legal meaning as well as linguistic expression. For example, besides avoiding mistranslation of common 'false friend' terms that are linguistically similar but legally different, to ensure accuracy the translator has the knowledge necessary to paraphrase in the absence of a suitably equivalent term or expression.
How do we do it?
Attention to detail, collaboration and an adaptable approach to each translation project to ensure quality and speed.
We assess the specifics of every translation project to find the best solutions, taking into account the linguistic and legal nature of the documents and the time frame in question. We work together and with industry subject-matter specialists if necessary. Every translation is also proofread and reviewed by at least one other lawyer.
For more on our methodology, click here.
