Legal Translation Training – A Way Forward for Aspiring Lawyers in a Clogged Job Market?

In a competitive and congested job market, this paper examines new career opportunities open to linguistically minded young lawyers. Globalization has led to a soaring demand for the translation of legal documents, and we are now at a fork in the road – on the one hand bespoke automated systems are able to handle large volumes for discovery and information purposes translation, whilst on the other expert lawyer-linguists are needed to work on major cases, multilingual legislation and at international courts. Market stimulus and moves to professionalize legal translation have led to lawyer-linguist training being offered jointly by law and language faculties. Examples of innovative education programs will be discussed, as will various interpretations of the role of ‘lawyer-linguist’. Legal translation is the ultimate legal and linguistic challenge – a gauntlet waiting to be picked up by a new generation as part of a fully globalized mature legal services market.