yndigo

Law firms and globalization

The translation industry has taken on much more than just translation over the last several years. As the world’s economies quickly become one, localization and internationalization services are expanding to keep pace, to the extent that our industry is now known as the Globalization, Internationalization, Localization and Translation industry (GILT). For a good explanation of these terms, read this newsletter put out by LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association).

Now, translation agencies marketing to law firms have traditionally targeted their attorneys, not their marketing departments. And attorneys do not need discovery documents or their attorney work product localized, only translated. Meanwhile agencies involved in localization were busy pursuing bigger corporate fish as law firms were not so quick to jump on the globalization bandwagon.

Times have clearly changed. Browse some of Vault’s top law firms. Terms like “global,” “international,” “around the world,” abound. And with the sagging U.S. economy, pressure has increased to globalize even more.

For law firms seeking translation services, this parcelization in the translation industry can lead to confusion. The skills required to communicate your firm’s message globally — both from a technical and translation standpoint — are not the same as those needed to faithfully translate what your attorneys are working on. Different translators. Different tools. Different approach. Entirely different mindset.

Of course, as in other service industries, the “one-stop-shop” model that targets both sets of consumers exists for translation too. The strategy of the one-stop-shop is diversification; its strength is convenience. I contend that a specialty shop like, oh, I don’t know — ok, totally at random — yndigo translations, will be better suited to perform translations for attorneys, just as internationalization and localization oriented agencies will be better at adapting your marketing message for a global audience.