Legal translation in over 225 languages — by specialised translators

A legal translator has in-depth knowledge of the legal systems of both the source and target languages — not just the languages themselves. Legal concepts have no direct equivalents in other languages: a force majeure clause, a German GmbH or an Anglo-American affidavit requires a translator who understands the legal meaning and context, not just the words. Ecrivus works exclusively with translators who have demonstrable legal training or experience within the relevant practice area — corporate law, M&A, intellectual property, litigation, arbitration, employment, real estate and family law are covered by different specialists.

For business clients we translate contracts and agreements (commercial, M&A, employment, real estate), notarial deeds, articles of incorporation and shareholder agreements, court documents and writs, judgments and orders, due diligence reports, intellectual property files, arbitration submissions and international treaties. For private clients we translate international employment contracts, immigration files (Home Office / UKVI), divorce papers, decrees absolute, and academic transcripts for UK ENIC. For versions that need to be officially valid, we direct you to our certified-translation service, including apostille via the FCDO Legalisation Office and consular legalisation.

We cover all major commercial and private practice areas — corporate law and M&A, intellectual property, litigation, arbitration, employment, real estate, family law and immigration. For each practice area we select translators with demonstrable experience in that specific domain. A translator who works on shipping contracts is not automatically suited to IP litigation files; we match per project on practice area and language pair. For less common practice areas — for example crypto-asset regulation, sports law or pharma compliance — we draw on our network of over 10,000 linguists.

NDA on every project is standard — every translator working on your matter signs a non-disclosure agreement. Legal documents contain sensitive information; we work with NDA-bound translators, secure transfer channels and strict access control. Your documents are never shared with parties not directly involved. On request we sign additional confidentiality agreements with your organisation or law firm.

A legal translation is a specialist translation by a legally trained translator. A certified translation in the UK is a translation accompanied by the translator's signed statement of accuracy (per gov.uk guidance) — confirming a complete and accurate translation, with the translator's or agency's name, signature, contact details and certification date. Unlike countries with national sworn-translator registers (such as the Netherlands, Belgium, France or Germany), the UK relies on this signed-statement mechanism. Certified translators in the UK are typically members of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) or the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL). For international use, a Hague Apostille (1961) can be obtained from the FCDO Legalisation Office, or consular legalisation via the destination country's UK embassy.

We work on a per-project quote basis, usually based on the source word count. The price depends on the language pair, the complexity of the practice area (M&A and IP are typically more time-intensive than standard correspondence), whether certification is required and the desired turnaround. For case files with recurring contract structures we can lower the price on follow-up assignments via a client-specific translation memory — efficient for law firms with repeat business or multinationals with standard templating. Rates are always confirmed in writing in advance — no surprises after delivery.

We use CAT tools such as Trados and memoQ for terminology management and consistency of legal concepts, but in legal work the translation itself is always carried out by a human specialist. Machine translation alone is unsuitable for legal documents — misinterpreting a clause can have legal consequences. The combination of glossary plus human review delivers the consistency of technology together with the precision that legal documents require. Our CAT tools record consistent translations of terms ("party", "liability", "force majeure") so that the same terminology is used across all documents in a case file.

Yes. Thanks to our network of 10,000+ linguists in our network in over 225 languages we can deploy legally specialised translators even for less common language pairs — for example for Home Office immigration files in Tigrinya, Pashto or Burmese, or international family-law cases in Albanian or Vietnamese. Contact us for the options for your specific language combination; we will indicate in advance which specialist is available and what turnaround is realistic.