Episode 13 - Legal Translation - Interview with Catherine Way

Today’s guest on the podcast is Catherine Way. Cathy works in a field related to the law, but she is not a legal professional. Cathy is a Senior Lecturer in Translation and Interpreting at the University of Granada. She teaches translation students at the Bachelor and Masters levels, and her focus is on teaching legal translation. Cathy began her career as an interpreter; she is a native English speaker and studied French and Spanish. Over her career, she has been involved in translating and interpreting for people from many different countries. She not only teaches but is engaged in finding new and better ways to train translators for their real world jobs. She has engaged in projects teaming law students with translation students to look at how one ends up with the most reliably useful translations. During our interview, Cathy shares her observations about the most challenging parts of being a good legal translator: the laws are always changing, the large amount of background research required, and the need to convince legal professionals of the expertise of well-trained translators. She also shares many insights into how translators are educated giving listeners a much better insight into how a professional translator works. At the end of our discussion, Cathy gives us some tips to consider when working on the translation of a legal text. Cathy can be reached by email at [email protected].