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English to Spanish: A Critical Legal Look at Corporate Practice
Source text - English Yet my knowledge of corporate practice is obviously impressionistic. I have been teaching law for thirteen years since my experience with the Air Force. I have sent a lot of students out into the world of private practice. I have watched the transformation that they have undergone from bright-eyed graduates to "corporate practitioners." I have watched them become different people, and I am sort of curious about that transformation. Why do students go into corporate law? How does corporate practice alter their characters?
For one thing, corporate practice offers students the message that they are at the top of their profession, that they have really made it. Even that message is becoming somewhat ironic, in light of the current trend toward employing in-house corporate counsel. That trend will surely (I hope) begin to undermine the traditional self-importance, complacency, and intellectual self-glorification associated with corporate practice. Nevertheless, the most interesing point about the ABA survey is that it indicates that students are still getting the traditional message from their teachers, since the law professors polled still see the large corporate firm as offering the greatest intellectual challenge available in law practice. Those same professors place in-house corporate practice significantly lower on the ABA questionnaire's scale.
These two conclusions taken together suggest that these law professors are themselves still caught up in the image associated with "fancy" corporate practice. Despite their perceptions, I suggest that the image is largely a fraud and serves to perpetuate hierarchy and stratification within the legal profession. Let's call the image an ideology, an "ideology of craft," of "expertise and style." Before exposing its pretense, however, I shall offer a bit of history, a suggestion about its origins.
The legal profession was radically transformed by the urbanization and industrialization of America in the era of rough-touh capitalism, nineteenth-century style, after the Civil War. Before this time, the large firm was nonexistent; lawyers practiced alone or with a partner. With the increasing industrialization of the country, a trend toward large firms began as "a response to the needs of corporations which wwere increasing both in numbers and in size." Legal problems of the corporations also increased with the growth of industry and commerce. New forms of managing and regulating capital were developed which required technical legal advice. As the law grew in complexity, some firms found it advantageous for their lawyers to specialize or to perform a wide range of services for their corporate clients in a variety of fields, including insurance, probate, collection and personal injury, reoganizations, and industrial combinations.
Translation - Spanish De todos modos, mi conocimiento sobre la abogacía en el ámbito societario es obviamente impresionista. He estado enseñando derecho durante trece años desde mi experiencia con la Fuerza Aérea. He preparado a muchos estudiantes para la abogacía en el mercado privado. He visto la transformación por la que han pasado de recién graduados a “abogados corporativos”. He visto cómo se han transformado en personas diferentes; y me intriga bastante este cambio. ¿Por qué los estudiantes deciden dedicarse al derecho societario? ¿Cómo altera éste sus personalidades?
Por un lado, la abogacía empresarial les ofrece a los estudiantes el mensaje de que están en la cima de la profesión, de que realmente lo lograron. Incluso este mensaje se está volviendo un tanto irónico, a la luz de la tendencia actual de emplear abogados internos dedicados al derecho societario. Dicha tendencia (espero) seguramente empezará a socavar la importancia, autocomplacencia y exaltación intelectual tradicionales asociadas a la abogacía en el campo del derecho societario. No obstante, lo más interesante de la encuesta de la ABA es que indica que los estudiantes todavía reciben el mensaje tradicional de sus profesores, dado que los profesores de derecho encuestados aún consideran que el gran estudio jurídico dedicado a lo societario ofrece el mayor reto intelectual disponible en el mundo de la abogacía. Esos mismos profesores ubican la abogacía empresarial interna significativamente más abajo en la escala del cuestionario de la ABA.
El análisis conjunto de estas dos conclusiones sugiere que esos profesores de derecho aún están atrapados en la imagen asociada a la abogacía empresarial "de fantasía". A pesar de sus percepciones, sostengo que dicha imagen es una farsa y sirve para perpetuar la jerarquía y estratificación dentro de la abogacía. Denominaremos a esa imagen ideología, una "ideología del arte", de “la pericia y el estilo”. Antes de exponer sus pretextos, sin embargo, ofreceré un poco de historia, una sugerencia acerca de sus orígenes.
La abogacía se transformó radicalmente con la urbanización e industrialización de los Estados Unidos de América en la era del capitalismo duro, de estilo decimonónico, posterior a la Guerra Civil. Antes de esta época, no existían los grandes estudios jurídicos; los abogados ejercían en solitario o con un socio. Con la creciente industrialización del país, surgió una tendencia a los grandes estudios jurídicos como “respuesta a las necesidades de las grandes empresas que crecían tanto en cantidad como en tamaño”. Los problemas jurídicos de las empresas también aumentaron con el crecimiento de la industria y el comercio. Surgieron nuevas formas de administración y regulación del capital que requirieron asesoramiento jurídico técnico. A medida que el derecho se fue volviendo más complejo, algunos estudios vieron ventajoso que sus abogados se especializaran o prestaran una amplia gama de servicios para sus clientes empresariales en una variedad de campos, incluidos seguros, legalizaciones, cobros y daños y perjuicios, reorganizaciones y combinaciones industriales.
I am a certified translator having extensive experience in legal and financial documents, with a degree in law and hands-on experience in the legal profession. My typical daily output is 3,500 words per day, but this figure may increase if necessary. I am familiarized with, and can translate to, LatAm and neutral Spanish.
1. SERVICES
Translation (both for-information and for-publication purposes)
Editing and proofreading
Tailored support to academic writers (esp., PhD dissertations and specialized books)
2. EXPERIENCE—RECENT ASSIGNMENTS
2.1 Law 2.1.1 Litigation
Divorce Decree (5,000 words)
Judgment on Reserved Issues (3,500 words)
Expert opinion on oil contamination (15,000 words)
Discovery proceedings (+1,000,000 words)
Deposition of witnesses (11,000 words)
Court transcript (5,000 words)
2.1.2 Contracts
Distributor Agreement (3,500 words)
Terms of Use (1,500 words)
Direct Access to Housing Program (4,000 words)
Medicine Manufacturing Contract (800 words)
Amendment to Royalties Agreement (900 words)
Contract for Professional Services (3,000 words)
Clinical Trial Research Agreement (2,000 words)
Mutual Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement (1,700 words)
Technical Quality Agreements (5,900 words)
2.1.3 Laws and Regulations
Executive Order on manufacturing, production, fractionation, import, export and warehousing of medicines (3,000 words)
Executive Order on Protection of Individuals' Rights in Health Research (2,100 words)
Ministry Regulation to Impose a Paper-Free Policy (1,600 words)
2.2 Certificates and Personal Documents
Certificate for the Import of Drugs (900 words)
Marriage Certificate (600 words)
Certificate of Insurance (500 words)
University Degree (150 words)
Academic Transcript (900 words)
Passport (88 words)
Birth Certificate (200 words)
Criminal Record Certificate (400 words)
2.3 Accounting and Business
Income certificate (300 words)
Annual Report (5,000 words)
Multi-familiy office brochure (2,500 words)
Strategic Asset Allocation Report (1,500 words)
Custom publishing; press releases (500 daily words)