Our Mission
The Law Division (LawD) is one of the American Translators Association (ATA)’s youngest divisions. With thousands of members around the world, we help the legal community connect in the world’s major languages.
Our mission is to raise the bar in legal translation and interpretation; to provide our members with valuable training and information on law and linguistics alike; and to promote the policies and services of the American Translators Association.
If you’re already an ATA member with an interest in legal translation or interpretation, join us!
If you would like to become a member, join the ATA first and then select the Law Division in your membership application form. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a newbie, our division will welcome you with open arms.
Our History
Back in 2016, an ATA member asked in one of the organizational listservs why ATA didn’t have a Law division. After all, the organization has both language-specific and specialization-specific divisions. This got some of us thinking. After doing a little digging, we discovered that the only reason we didn’t have a Law division was because nobody had ever petitioned to start one. So with the help of Jamie Padula from ATA Headquarters and former Divisions Committee chair Lucy Gunderson, Paula Arturo and Ana Gauz put together an informal gathering of all legal translation and interpretation specialist they could find and asked them to help get the division started.
The group met for the first time at ATA’s 58th Annual Conference in Washington DC. Present at the meeting were about 20 ATA members, but only some stayed and became founding members. Other founding members joined a little later, when the actual groundwork began. Those founding members are (in alphabetical order): Amanda Morris, Ana Gauz, Arnold Winter, Elizabeth Herron-Sweet, Emanuel Weisgras, Heidi Casez-Sevilla, Mariano Vitteta, Natalia Rezzonico, Paula Arturo, Sandro Tomasi, and Tony Rosado.
It took the group a little over one year to ultimately petition for the creation of the division and get the broad to approve it. But we did it! And now our division proudly has been proudly serving thousands of ATA members since 2017!
Current Administrators
Elizabeth Herron-Sweet, Administrator, 2021-to date
Monique Longton, Assistant Administrator, 2021-to date
Past Administrators
Paula Arturo, Administrator, 2019-2021
Elizabeth Herron-Sweet, Assistant Administrator, 2019-2021
Elizabeth Herron-Sweet, Acting Administrator, 2018-2019
Paula Arturo, Acting Assistant Administrator, 2018-2019
Amanda Morris, Administrator, 2017-2018
Elizabeth Herron-Sweet, Assistant Administrator, 2017-2018