Programme overview
Introduction:
Legal English errors cost legal teams more than style points: a misused modal verb turns a duty into an option, a false friend misstates a ruling, and a literal translation imports a concept the other legal system does not recognise. This Core Concept course builds legal English and legal drafting skills for Arabic-speaking legal professionals, working on the language of contracts, judgments, memos and letters rather than on the underlying law. Participants analyse and rewrite real legal texts and leave with a Personal Legal English Toolkit: a bilingual Arabic-English legal glossary, a drafting style sheet and correspondence templates.
Course Objectives:
- Use legal English terms of art, Latin expressions and doublets accurately and avoid false friends common to Arabic-speaking lawyers
- Analyse the language of each part of an English-language contract and identify ambiguity in its wording
- Draft obligations, permissions, prohibitions and conditions with the correct modal verb and in plain legal English
- Read and summarise English judgments, legislation and agreements into accurate case notes and document summaries
- Write English legal memos, letters of advice and correspondence with opposing counsel in the appropriate register
- Translate legal concepts between Arabic and English, handling non-equivalent terms and building a bilingual legal glossary
Target Audience:
- Practising lawyers who advise clients on matters documented or negotiated in English
- In-house legal staff who review, mark up and correspond on English-language agreements
- Legal advisers and legal researchers who read English legislation, judgments and legal commentary
- Legal translators and interpreters who render legal texts between Arabic and English
- Paralegals and legal assistants who prepare first drafts, summaries and letters in English
- Compliance and company secretarial staff who draft English resolutions, notices and policies
Course Outline:
Day 1: Legal English Vocabulary, Terms of Art and False Friends
- Legal English Diagnostic Using TOLES Skill Areas: Reading, Writing and Vocabulary
- Terms of Art and Ordinary Words with Legal Meanings Using Black's Law Dictionary
- Latin Expressions in Current Use: Inter Alia, Mutatis Mutandis, Bona Fide and Pari Passu
- Doublets and Triplets Audit: Null and Void, Terms and Conditions, Give Devise and Bequeath
- False Friends Log for Arabic Speakers: Sentence, Jurisprudence, Actual and Eventual
Day 2: The Language of English Contracts and Drafting Conventions
- Kenneth Adams Categories of Contract Language: Obligation, Discretion, Prohibition, Policy and Declaration
- Recitals and Parties Wording: Whereas Clauses Versus Background Statements
- Definitions Section Language: Means, Includes and Capitalised Defined Terms
- Boilerplate Phrasing Patterns: Notwithstanding, Subject To, Provided That and Herein
- Cross-Referencing, Numbering and Headings Conventions in English Agreements
Day 3: Modal Verbs, Plain Legal English and Precise Drafting
- Shall, Must, Will, May and May Not: Modal Verb Selection Table
- Garner Plain Legal English Guidance: Short Sentences, Active Voice and Concrete Verbs
- Conditions and Exceptions Wording: If, Unless, Except, Provided and Subject To
- Ambiguity Clinic: And/Or, Reasonable Efforts, Including Without Limitation and Time Expressions
- Legalese-to-Plain-English Rewriting Exercise with Before and After Comparison
Day 4: Reading, Summarising and Writing Legal Documents in English
- Judgment Reading Method: Facts, Issues, Ratio Decidendi and Obiter Dicta
- Case Note and Contract Summary Template for Non-Lawyer Readers
- IRAC Method for Structuring an English Legal Memo
- Letter of Advice and Letter to Opposing Counsel: Structure, Register and Hedging Phrases
- Without Prejudice, Subject to Contract and Other Protective Headings in Correspondence
Day 5: Arabic-English Legal Translation Case Work and the Legal English Toolkit
- Non-Equivalence Case: Trust, Equity and Estoppel Against Arabic Civil Law Terms
- Bilingual Contract Case: Reconciling Arabic and English Versions and the Prevailing Language Clause
- Legal Translation Quality Checklist: Terminology, Register and Omission Review
- Bilingual Arabic-English Legal Glossary and Drafting Style Sheet Build
- Personal Legal English Toolkit Presentation and Peer Review Panel
Skills You Will Gain:
- Legal Terminology Precision
- Contract Language Analysis
- Modal Verb Drafting
- Plain Legal English
- Judgment and Statute Summarising
- Legal Memo Writing
- Legal Correspondence Register
- Arabic-English Legal Translation
Why Attend This Course:
- Return with a Personal Legal English Toolkit: a bilingual legal glossary, a drafting style sheet and ready correspondence templates
- Catch shall-versus-may errors, false friends and ambiguous phrasing before an English document leaves your desk
- Handle bilingual agreements and translations with a tested method for terms that have no direct equivalent
- Work through legal English problems alongside lawyers and translators from firms, corporate legal teams and public bodies
Conclusion:
Precise legal English is a working skill that can be practised and checked, not a matter of fluency alone. This course moves from legal vocabulary, Latin expressions and false friends, through the language of each part of an English contract, to modal verbs and plain legal English, and then to reading judgments, writing memos and letters of advice. The final day applies this material to Arabic-English translation cases and produces a Personal Legal English Toolkit that participants use on their next English legal document.