Comments on: Don’t Get Lost in [FCPA] Translation http://tfoxlaw.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/dont-get-lost-in-fcpa-translation/ The Nuts and Bolts of FCPA Compliance and Ethics Mon, 20 May 2013 12:01:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Cole http://tfoxlaw.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/dont-get-lost-in-fcpa-translation/#comment-1608 Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:13:30 +0000 http://tfoxlaw.wordpress.com/?p=2611#comment-1608 From my experience as a professional legal translator, I can absolutely tell you that the scenario where clients believe they can handle different foreign languages in house is a reality even when it comes to legal acts.

Too often companies simply did not think about all the possible side effects of dealing with foreign partners (especially from Asia) and lost the deal. It is important to understand that Google Translate and a semi-bilingual employee cannot do what a professional specialised translator does every day in his/her life.

In a globalised world like ours, it is necessary for people to understand that it is necessary to rely on professional translation service providers.

]]> By: thebungblog http://tfoxlaw.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/dont-get-lost-in-fcpa-translation/#comment-1603 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:41:52 +0000 http://tfoxlaw.wordpress.com/?p=2611#comment-1603 Hi Jay. As a typically cynical trial lawyer my immediate reaction to the idea of using the boots “on the ground” option was this.
How on earth do you know that the in-house person doing the translating isn’t in some way involved in the problem themselves? In fact in any such “problem” there seems to be a high likelihood that someone with multilingual skills would have been essential to the design and execution of the original “problem.”
For a start, you can never be sure that you are getting accurate and complete translations, especially if the nuances of the odd word or phrase in a document are critical to the investigation, as they may well be in certain Far Eastern languages.
Independence of thought is just as important as Transparency.
The same might be said of the use of General Counsel as opposed to outside counsel, but I may have to declare an interest there!

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