About Joseph J. Welch, Esquire – French to English Translator and Licensed Attorney

After a decades-long career in law and finance, including legal training on both sides of the Atlantic (common law and civil law), my goal is to combine my legal and linguistic expertise, providing expert French to English legal translations for discerning clients.

I have been translating professionally since early 2021, although I had some prior informal engagements. My professional translation work has focused primarily on the banking and financial fields, including but not limited to technical aspects of financial software, marketing materials, white papers, general contracts, press releases, use cases, website content, bank licensing, terms and conditions, testimonials, corporate pitches, international payments, financial education, stock market explanations, investing, security and compliance, online payment practices, employment matters (including contracts), foreign exchange, lending practices, and accounting practices.

My academic translation work ranges from literary texts, including poetry, children’s literature, pop literature, thrillers, and cultural literature, to all types of legal documents in the areas of corporate law, corporate tax, antitrust, arbitration, family law, employment law, letters rogatory, data protection, court decisions, sales contracts, and texts from the Hague.

I bring a broad and deep skillset to the table: practicing law in corporate, commercial, litigation, family, real estate, and estate planning, practicing financial planning, living, studying, and working in French-speaking jurisdictions for over five years, and studying translation theory, practice, and strategy. I understand the legal systems of France, Québec, and the United States, and clients count on me to deliver articulate, well-written French-to-English translations, accurately reflecting the detail contained in the original document and rendered in a culturally appropriate text that reads smoothly, as if it were originally drafted in English.

My academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in French from Salem State University, an LL.B. and a B.C.L. (common law and civil law degrees) from McGill University in Montréal, coursework in Western New England University’s Estate Planning Master’s in Law program, an MBA from Suffolk University, and a Master’s in Translation (French track) from Kent State University. I attended the University of Strasbourg, for law, as well as the Universities of Caen and Genève, for French. I am licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and licensed as a Certified Financial Planner ^®.

I work and live in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, with my family.