Luise Krahmer, translator:
"Legal texts have to be translated properly or not at all."
"I can lie awake thinking about the consequences of an inaccurate translation. Getting one sentence wrong can make a good contract worthless or can even cost a business a large sum of money. That's why I enjoy translating for Swart & De Schepper Attorneys.
I started in their administrative team and I still work in this area of the firm. Since Swart & De Schepper also acts for a large number of foreign companies, I often saw documents and correspondence in German or English passing through the office. As a native of Germany, I couldn't help reviewing those texts. I've been living in the Netherlands for about ten years and I've done translations for companies before. I know the differences between the two languages, the sensitivities and the areas of difficulty.
I know that legal German is completely different from legal Dutch. I know that Germany has a completely different tradition from the Netherlands. A good translator takes this into account. He or she communicates exactly the same message in the translation as the one communicated in the original text. German customers assess every translation extremely critically; they use language in a very precise way themselves and expect nothing less from their translator.
Anyway, these days translating is my principal occupation. I set up a company for this purpose: Juraterm. I translate from Dutch to German and vice versa myself, but I also arrange and supervise translations into other languages. I do this using a good network of professional translators. I ensure that the work is carried out quickly and that customers are always kept informed of progress. I sometimes think that our top quality translation service wins new clients for Swart & De Schepper Attorneys."
See also: Juraterm
