Key Takeaways from Our 2025 Wrap-Up
We wrapped up 2025 with our final Law Division networking event of the year, and it was such a great way to close out the year together. This session gave us space to look back at everything we did in 2025, share post-conference insights, and talk openly about what our members want—and need—from the Law Division moving forward.
Thank you to everyone who joined us, contributed to the conversation, and shared ideas. And a very special thank-you to our ATA legal speakers, who generously took the time to recap their ATA Conference legal sessions for members who couldn’t attend in person.
➡️ We’ll be sharing the slides on our Groups.io group!
A Look Back at Law Division Events in 2025
We started by reviewing the Law Division’s activities throughout 2025, including networking events, co-working sessions, and webinars. Members shared what they found most useful and what they’d love to see more of next year.
We also shared the 2025 LawD Annual Meeting Minutes where we discussed every event in detail.
We also asked attendees to share their favorite Law Division event of the year—and the results gave us helpful insight as we plan for 2026.
Post-Conference Highlights from ATA 66 Legal Speakers
We were excited to welcome several ATA 66 speakers who joined us to recap their legal sessions:
- Rebecca Jowers shared highlights from her session (058) “Propiedad intelectual e industrial”: Fundamentals of Intellectual Property for Legal T&Is. Her session and slides were full of useful terminology, and she always does a great job of including legal Spanish variations from different Spanish-speaking countries—which makes it especially valuable for our work.
- María Eugenia García gave us a short overview of her presentation (126) From Common Law to Civil Law: Navigating Contract Structure, Terminology and Pitfalls, focusing on on the differences between common law and civil law contract structures, comparing English and Spanish contracts and discussing how translators can adapt documents for different legal systems.
- Grace Shalhoub also joined us to discuss takeaways from (026) Beyond the Grave: Decoding French Inheritance Law, where she discussed the various foundational legal principles governing French inheritance law.
We asked speakers and attendees to share a recap in our BlawG of their favorite legal session at ATA 66. If you want to write a recap please contact us at atalawdivision@gmail.com.
Many attendees expressed strong interest in seeing these speakers again in Law Division webinars in 2026, especially those who weren’t able to attend the ATA Conference.
Comparing Legal Systems and Contract Structures
One of the most engaging parts of the discussion focused on differences between common law and civil law systems, particularly in contract structure and drafting practices.
Members talked about:
- The growing presence of common law clauses in civil law contracts
- How these cross-system contracts affect translation choices
- The importance of explaining these differences clearly to clients
There was clear interest in organizing future webinars dedicated to comparative legal systems and contract analysis.
Specialization, Visibility, and Professional Profiles
We also discussed the role of specialization in legal translation and interpreting, and how important it is to communicate that expertise clearly.
Topics included:
- Educating clients about the difference between translators and interpreters
- Keeping ATA profiles current and accurate
- Making areas of legal specialization more visible in professional directories
We told attendees that we are going to provide a webinar next year to help our members craft their ATA profiles, specially to show their specialization, and easy to share to potential clients.
Networking, Blogging, and Collaboration Ideas
We shared with attendees our ideas for future initiatives, and ways to collaborate with the Law Division including:
- Networking and co-working sessions
- Marketing and business-focused work groups
- Blog contributions and content sharing
- Highlighting legal conferences relevant to translators and interpreters
Email Visibility and Spam Challenges
We also touched on a very important issue many of us face: email visibility and spam. Members exchanged experiences and strategies for managing unsolicited messages while staying accessible for professional referrals and networking.
Looking Ahead to 2026
We closed the session by looking ahead to upcoming conferences, future webinar topics, and new ways to continue strengthening the Law Division community in 2026 and beyond. The ideas and feedback shared during this event will help shape our programming moving forward.
We ended the event by sharing our best wishes for the holiday season and by looking forward to reconnecting at our first Law Division event of 2026.
Want to Get Involved?
We’d love to keep building this community with you.
Thanks to members who generously share their expertise—like Rebecca, María Eugenia, and Grace—we’re able to offer high-quality webinars and content to our Law Division community. If you have a legal or business topic you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you and explore it together with our members.
If you’re interested in:
- Speaking at a Law Division webinar
- Writing a BlawG post
- Helping organize events
- Collaborating on Law Division initiatives
➡️ Please let us know by filling out this short form:
ATA Law Division – 2026 Collaboration Interest Form
From the Law Division, thank you again to all our members, and especially to our speakers, for helping us close out 2025 with thoughtful conversation, shared expertise, and a strong sense of community. ⚖️
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