Nothing lost in translation
D
avid Salter, 30, likes
to work hard, but
not so hard that he
can’t have a life out-
side of work, or enjoy his fian-
cee’s company, or go surf-
ing at Manly beach. So, after
three and a half years at Allens
Arthur Robinson, in litigation,
and having just made senior
associate, he last year reviewed
his situation.
He couldn’t, he wanted to
make clear, have been in a
better firm than he was: “It was
a great bunch of people, great
managers and a really good
team, with good resources and
the best legal work I was aware
of ... If I had pots of cash, I’d
definitely instruct them to do
my legal work.”
In fact, Salter said, it was due
to his “almost Allens approach”
that his new business – a trans-
lation firm, Linguistico – has
been so successful.
Among other things, what
he learnt at Allens is client
service and precision – to
make sure he gets back to
Continued funding for home building
advocacy service
T
he Home Building
Advocacy Service
operated by the
Macquarie Legal
Centre as a pilot program
since January 2007 has
received a commitment of
continued funding, with
$645,000 being pledged over
three years by the NSW
Government.
The service complements
the free dispute-resolution
service from the Office of Fair
Trading, offering practical
and commonsense advice,
particularly on contractual
and legal issues associated
with building disputes.
Home Building Advocacy
Service staff offer legal
advice, advocate for and
represent consumers at
Consumer, Trader and
Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT)
proceedings and help resolve
20 L AW SOCIETY JOURNAL
people immediately, that he
gets things “spot-on” first time,
writes emails a particular way
and ensures that everything is
spelt and formatted correctly.
Recruiters, he says, often don’t
realise that lawyers have an
incredible skill level which is
very transferable – attention to
detail, high-level writing skills,
research skills and a desire to
get things right.
At 29, at a career crossroads,
Salter had to decide whether to
move back to the UK, commit
to a law firm for the foreseeable
future and work toward becom-
ing a partner, or try something
entirely new. He was not in
love with the law, and he liked
the idea of working in market-
ing, so he applied for a few jobs
with firms like Coca-Cola and
Unilever, but with no luck.
Then, last year at Christmas,
travelling round Australia in a
rickety old campervan, he hit
on a new idea.
He remembered that, in pre-
vious law firms, an email would
circulate asking if anyone could
disputes by negotiating with
legal representatives from the
other party.
Since the pilot scheme
commenced, the service
has dealt with 448 matters
requiring face-to-face or
telephone advice and has
been involved in 56 cases.
A client satisfaction survey
conducted by the Macquarie
Legal Centre showed a high
approval rating from clients.
The service has also reported
the resolution of many
matters before they had to
progress to the CTTT.
The Home Building Service
is currently recruiting
another home building
solicitor to their team. For
information on the position
contact the Macquarie Legal
Centre on 8833 0920 or by
email at macquarie_nsw@clc.
net.au. q
speak French and translate a
document. Instead of busy law-
yers doing translation, why not
outsource?
Clients would be able to pay
a lot less than the charge-out
rates for a lawyer, and trans-
lators were generally better
qualified to do the work. While
lawyers’ rates were between
$300 and $600 hourly, trans-
lator costs were significantly
less, depending on the lan-
guage, level of technicality,
and urgency. Clients who are
‘frequent flyers’ get bulk dis-
counts, Salter said.
He speaks French fluently,
some German and a touch of
Spanish. He’s from the UK, and
the business French he’d stud-
ied as part of his law degree
would, he realised, be particu-
larly useful.
As well as legal work, Salter
is targeting corporate Australia
in other areas where specialist
people are needed – pharma-
ceutical and insurance compa-
nies, and medical patient and
technical translation work.
Legal advice on home building disputes assured for a further
three years at the Macquarie Legal Centre’s Home Building
Advocacy Service, which dealt with 448 matters requiring face-to-
face or telephone advice during the scheme’s pilot phase: (l to r)
para-legals Alan Trethewey and Natasha Patney, solicitor Theresa
Simon and CLC principal solicitor John Rafferty.
PHOTO: JESSICA SHAH
Linguistico has around 80
translators it regularly uses in
the legal sector, across all lan-
guages. Many are lawyers by
background, perhaps people
who hadn’t liked client contact
and preferred this more aca-
demic linguistic work.
“I get the work in and it saves
them doing work they may be
less comfortable doing, such
December 2008
David Salter, who has forged for himself a business he finds
satisfying, and which gives him a chance to go surfing more
often. PHOTO: TOM WILLIAMS
as sales and marketing,” said
Salter. “To be honest, I wasn’t
fascinated by commercial liti-
gation work, whereas I have
always been really passionate
about languages.
“I know some people read
law books before they go to
bed, and I salute them, but I’m
not one of them.”
Editors, if required, are used
to check for typos, consistency
and quality so that the trans-
lations flow, and can be used
immediately. German and
Turkish, he said, are more dif-
ficult to make flow because the
sentence structure is so dif-
ferent, while French is more
aligned to English.
Salter is very happy, very
busy and still pleasantly aston-
ished at how well Linguistico is
going.
He enjoys being his own
boss and learns new things
every day about different lan-
guages, cultures and subcul-
tures in Australia.
For example, the major,
initial Vietnamese immigra-
tion to Australia was about 30
years ago, and the language
here evolved differently so, for
the Vietnamese community in
Australia, you’d use a differ-
ent translator than you would
if you were translating for an
audience in Vietnam.
If you had to use a Viet-
namese translator from Viet-
December 2008
www.linguistico.com.au
nam, then, he said, a Vietnam-
ese person based here should
at least be involved with the
editing.
He had not until this year
been aware that there were
two different forms of written
Chinese. While the two most
common spoken forms were
Mandarin and Cantonese, Chi-
nese fell into two main writ-
ten forms, Traditional Chinese
and Simplified Chinese, the
latter generally used in China
since government reforms in
the 1950s. In Hong Kong, Tra-
ditional Chinese was the stand-
ard written form, although Sim-
plified Chinese was creeping
in, as was the case in Taiwan,
and also in the Chinese com-
munity here.
Recently, Salter said, he’d
had to find a Dinka translator
– the Dinka are from southern
Sudan – to translate a health-
care document for patients in
the burgeoning Dinka commu-
nity in Melbourne.
Initially, work had come
through contacts and Allens,
but it spread from there
through word of mouth. At
Allens, he did manage to surf
once a day. Now he aims for
a twice-daily outing with his
beloved surfboard, before and
after work, and potentially, he
says, his earnings shouldn’t
suffer either.  q discovered a child residing in
Anne Susskind
media mentions
Paula Wallin
Solicitor
DGB Lawyers
The case: When an inter-
country adoption is
finalised in an Australian
court in accordance
with the Family Law
(Hague Convention on
Intercountry Adoption)
Regulations, the adoption
order is registered and
the Registrar of Births
Deaths and Marriages
may issue a birth
certificate for that
child. Children from
China, however, are adopted
in accordance with the Family
Law (Bilateral Arrangements
– Intercountry Adoptions)
Regulations, which provide
for adoptions legally finalised
in the country of origin to
be officially recognised in
Australia. Having the adoption
finalised in the country of
origin, the requirement for
the adoption being registered
in the Australian state is not
present, and as such, no
domestic court order is made,
and no birth certificate issued.
At the time of adoption in
China, the children receive
their Chinese abandonment
and adoption certificates to
rely upon as proof of identity.
This creates a potentially
humiliating and emotionally
distressing situation as the
child gets older. We believe
the Births Deaths and
Marriages Act provides an
unfettered discretion to the
District Court to direct that
a child be registered, as a
consequence of which the
child may be issued a birth
certificate. The Registrar-
General of NSW has opposed
our client’s application to
the District Court for such a
direction. The matter is still
before the court.
How did you become involved?
After discussing the issue
on an internet forum with
parents of children adopted
from China, our client
Tasmania who had been
adopted in China and who had
obtained a birth certificate. It
became apparent that many
families are in this unfortunate
situation, which was of great
concern.
Your background: I studied
at the University of Western
Sydney and have been
admitted for almost three
years practising at DGB
Lawyers in Wollongong.
Your reflections: Of particular
concern is the strong
opposition of the NSW
Registrar-General to grant
these children the right to
obtain a birth certificate. It is
hoped that a court order will
not be required and that some
form of policy/legislative
change is implemented. In
today’s society with anti-
discrimination laws and
human rights interests, this
issue should not exist.
How did the media treat the
case? The media attention is
welcome. We hope it makes
people aware of the situation.
Advice for dealing with
the media? Obtain proper
instructions from your client
as to what can and cannot be
divulged. In such a personal
and emotional case, it is
important to let the journalist
know the boundaries before
the interview takes place. q
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