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Our History

Our History

Providing Legal English products and services for over 20 years


Our History
Founded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1989, TransLegal has grown to become the world leader in Legal English. TransLegal’s in-house staff of lawyer-linguists is the largest in the world, providing a wide range of products and services to the international legal community, including Legal English testing, online Legal English courses and resources, live seminars and training, translation of legal documents, and the publication of Legal English materials.

TransLegal's Legal English products and services are used by lawyers and law students in over 100 countries, helping tens of thousands of lawyers around the world every year improve their Legal English.

    • 1991 - Paris office opened

    • Staffed originally by an Australian solicitor and a New Zealand solicitor, TransLegal's office in Paris, France opened in 1991 providing Legal English courses and translations to the Paris legal community. TransLegal Paris' Will Yeago, an American lawyer from California, is an Adjunct Professor of Foreign Law and Languages at the University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), the University of Paris I (Sorbonne) and the Head Lecturer and Bar Examiner at the Paris Bar Association Legal Training Cen [...]
    • 1991 - Paris office opened

    • 1996 - Digest Published

    • In 1996, TransLegal published the first journal of Legal English. Printed originally in paper form, the Digest was an 8-page monthly newspaper which helped lawyers and law students practice Legal English. The Digest went online in 2002 and was replaced by the TransLegal Blog in 2009. [...]
    • 1996 - Digest Published

    • 2005 - TransLegal & Cambridge ESOL in cooperation

    • In February of 2005, TransLegal signs a cooperation agreement with Cambridge ESOL, a division of the University of Cambridge, to produce and market the world's first internationally recognised test of Legal English. The Cambridge International Legal English Certificate (ILEC) is now sold in over 50 countries around the world and is the benchmark for Legal English used by more law firms, universities, bar associations and language schools than any other test of Legal English. [...]
    • 2005 - TransLegal & Cambridge ESOL in cooperation

    • 2006 - ILE Coursebook Published

    • In June of 2006, TransLegal's book, International Legal English, is published by Cambridge University Press, the oldest publishing house in the world and the leading publisher of English language teaching materials. International Legal English quickly becomes the bestselling coursebook for Legal English in the world and is now sold in over 100 countries. [...]
    • 2006 - ILE Coursebook Published

    • 2009 - Legal English Dictionary Published

    • In October 2009, TransLegal publishes the world's first Learner's Dictionary of Law. Published online, the Learner's Dictionary of Law is the product of thousands of hours of ongoing research carried out by an expert team of lawyer-linguists. Every term included in the TransLegal Learner's Dictionary of Law has been thoroughly researched to ensure the definitions reflect current usage. This research was carried out with the aid of numerous corpora (collections of texts) and legal documents [...]
    • 2009 - Legal English Dictionary Published

    • 2010 - OnLine Testing Launched

    • On 18 January 2010, TransLegal launches its new website. With over 5,000 pages, www.translegal.com is the largest website on the Internet devoted solely to teaching Legal English. For the first time, the site includes online diagnostic testing of Legal English. The online tests provide instant results and allow the test-takers to determine their level of Legal English in order to plan a course of study. [...]
    • 2010 - OnLine Testing Launched