I carry out highly interdisciplinary research in a constellation of fields around law, language and business, bringing extensive experience as a practitioner, where my key achievements include the translation of: documents submitted for G20 meetings; major cases in corporate litigation, AML, white-collar crime, banking, and Financial Intelligence Unit reports; over 2,500 pages of EU legislation; correspondence between heads of state and governments; and the co-translation of the book Revolution by French President Emmanuel Macron.
As a researcher, I have contributed articles to international journals as well as book chapters, and in early 2019 my monograph, Legal Translation Outsourced, was published by Oxford University Press.
As a regular speaker at conferences around the world, including giving plenaries and keynotes, I have a very diverse network of colleagues, and am committed to reinforcing links between academia and practice, and to working across disciplines.
In my role as a linguistic consultant and executive trainer, I have assisted a great number of clients to take on new challenges, internationalize their businesses, meet their objectives and exceed them. I specialize in integrating the learning of language skills seamlessly with intercultural awareness and operational requirements, and always leverage material from the participant’s own environment.
PERSONAL BACKGROUND
I grew up in a bilingual family, and was educated and lived in the UK for 24 years. I lived in France for 16 years, in northern Italy for 7 years, and have lived between England, Italy, and France since 2013. I have dual nationality (English/French). My languages are English, French and Italian.
BUSINESS EXPERIENCE
I have been a language and internationalization specialist for over 25 years. At the start of my career, I was assistant and then head of production at a commercial publishing house in the UK, where I gained considerable experience in negotiations and finance, as well as in editing and proofreading, developing an eagle eye for detail.
I then set up and ran a successful language consultancy in France offering executive language courses and internationalization assistance to all sizes of companies from multinationals to SMEs.
This was in parallel to working as a sworn translator, and from 1998-2008 I was appointed to the French Courts as an expert judiciaire in translation.
Working closely with law firms and in-house counsel throughout my time in France and subsequently in Italy has given me experience in a wide range of legal documents. I was the lead translator, interpreter and cultural facilitator on an EU business development project for 6 years.
QUALIFICATIONS
I successfully completed a PhD on legal translation with a thesis entitled Optimising the Performance of Outsourced Legal Translation. I also hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Commercial & Corporate Law and a Postgraduate Diploma in European Law. I hold an MA in Translation Studies; the Diplôme Supérieur d’Etudes Françaises from the Sorbonne University in Paris; and the highest level certificate from the Franco-Italian Chamber of Commerce for business Italian. I regularly undertake further training courses, as CPD is a passion of mine.
PROFESSIONAL BODIES & MEMBERSHIPS
I am a member of the following: RELINE Legal Linguistics network, the Society of Legal Scholars, the Socio-Legal Studies Association, and the Law Society of England & Wales (International Division).
TECHNOLOGIES & SOFTWARE
With a longstanding interest in technology, I make ample use in my research of qualitative data analysis software and of emerging electronic tools. Drawing from corpus linguistics scholarship, I have developed a corpus methodology for legal terms coined as NIFTY. As standard practice I use a variety of translation environment tools, workflow solutions and terminology management software.
BLOG
I have a special interest in legal translators’ professionalization and advocacy. This engagement has taken concrete form since 2011 in a blog devoted to building bridges between the translation, interpreting, and legal professions, and between academia and practice, entitled From Words to Deeds, which has achieved outreach to 224 countries, and spawned two innovative conferences.
PRO BONO
I work for the United Nations Volunteers as a translator. I am an active member of Kiva, a micro-loan organization for supporting entrepreneurship and self-help in developing countries and countries affected by war and poverty. I have also assisted the New York Family Courts with translation for the underprivileged.