Continuous Professional Development (CPD) courses on Legal and/or Financial Translation for your institution

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) courses have been organised by Dr Davide De Leo for the City University in London and for some translation companies and can be tailored to the needs of your institution/company. They are designed for translators (who do not count financial or legal translation among their specialities), translation students, linguists and anyone wishing to learn about of financial and/or legal translation.

Courses can last from 2-3 days (over a weekend, for example) to 1 or 2 weeks. For example, a typical one-week course on Financial Translation held at the City University every year covers the following subjects: bonds, inflation, foreign exchange, shares, the stock exchange, hedge funds and derivatives. A Legal Translation course includes “modules” on contracts, litigation, company law, property law, civil and criminal procedure and an introduction to legal translation studies.

Each day begins with a two-hour interactive lecture (which can be given in English, French or Italian) during which students learn about financial/legal concepts through source text analysis. This is the “innovative” perspective of this course: the financial/legal concepts are not explained theoretically as in a typical academic lesson, but they are found/extracted from within a text. Not only is this a way to explain financial concepts, but it is also useful to show students how to analyse a source text for translation purposes.

Students are then given a translation task which they complete in the early afternoon (on the same subject explained in the morning) which is then discussed in a two-hour workshop at the end of each day. Many different language combinations are offered. Students receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course. No previous knowledge of finance and/or law is required.

Similar courses can be organised for your institution. The courses can be offered to the university’s current students or to anyone wishing to attend and thus provide a profit for your institution. The length of the course can vary, of course, and can be adapted to the particular needs of each university. For example it can last for 1 or 2 weeks, or can be held over one or several weekends. The course can also be limited to the text analysis.

Dr Davide De Leo has been a professional translator since 1991. He specialises in economic, financial and legal texts. He holds a Degree in Translation from the University of Geneva (Ecole de Traduction et d’Interprétation) and a PhD on the Translation of judgments from the University of Surrey. He teaches specialised (economic-financial) translation and Understanding your source text workshops at the University of Surrey and taught legal translation at City University, London from 2011-13. He is a certified translator (ITI) in the UK, is enrolled in the List of translators at the Italian Consulate in London and is a sworn translator at the Milan Courts of Justice.

Contact information: davide.deleo@btinternet.com