2025 Legal Interpreting Summit: Agenda
A1 | Court Interpreting Lite (Part I)
This seminar will provide an overview of the legal system for practicing and potential court interpreters, including discussion of the roles of court interpreters, positioning of court interpreters, courtroom personnel, pre‑requisite knowledge and skills for a legal interpreter, court code of conduct, roles and protocol for court interpreters.
Participants will be able to:
- Articulate the differences between community interpreting and legal interpreting, and the differences between legal interpreting and court interpreting.
- State the three major functions used in court interpreting
- Explain how evidentiary principles such as hearsay and the contemporary objection rule affect interpreters.
- Define the three accepted modes of interpreting in court and state the principles involved in note taking while consecutive interpreting.
A2 | Sign What You Mean: Legal Semantics in Practice
This interactive session is designed to help participants explore the role of semantics in legal interpreting, with an emphasis on how meaning is shaped and conveyed through ASL. Participants will examine how word choice, phrasing, and context influence interpretation accuracy and clarity in legal settings. The goal is to support interpreters in making more deliberate and effective language decisions when working in complex legal discourse.
Participants will be able to:
- Identify and explain the impact of semantics on legal interpretation in ASL
- Apply strategies for analyzing and rendering legally nuanced language more accurately
B1 | Court Interpreting Lite (Part II)
Part II of this seminar will continue to provide an overview of the legal system for practicing and potential court interpreters, including discussion of the roles of court interpreters, positioning of court interpreters, courtroom personnel, pre‑requisite knowledge and skills for a legal interpreter, court code of conduct, roles and protocol for court interpreters.
Participants will be able to:
- Articulate the differences between community interpreting and legal interpreting, and the differences between legal interpreting and court interpreting.
- State the three major functions used in court interpreting
- Explain how evidentiary principles such as hearsay and the contemporary objection rule affect interpreters.
- Define the three accepted modes of interpreting in court and state the principles involved in note taking while consecutive interpreting.
B2 | Breaking Down Legalese: A Visual Approach for ASL Interpreters
This session offers a focused review of commonly encountered legal terms and their accurate representation in ASL. Participants will engage with vocabulary spanning various legal contexts, while discussing strategies to maintain clarity, precision, and neutrality. The session aims to reinforce interpreter confidence and consistency when interpreting legal terminology.
Participants will be able to:
- Recognize and define at least ten frequently used legal terms
- Demonstrate accurate and contextually appropriate ASL representations of legal vocabulary.
C1 | Interpreting Legal Depositions
This course is designed to provide participants with a theoretical overview of a commonly interpreted civil legal setting – the deposition. The presenter will provide a description of the goals and purposes of the deposition and its role in the civil legal process. The roles of the deposition interpreter and the table interpreter will be examined. The presenter will lead a discussion and practical application of consecutive interpretation and notetaking. Participants will discuss various ethical issues that commonly arise in depositions. Participants will practice interpreting a deposition transcript. Finally, participants will engage in peer review and discussion of their interpreting work.
Participants will be able to:
- State the 3 purposes for taking a civil deposition and the 2 primary uses for the transcript
- Staff a civil deposition given two different configurations of deaf participants in order to ensure the 3 legal interpreting functions are covered.
- Shall consecutively interpret a transcript while using note taking techniques and analyze their work and the work of their peers.
C2 | Interpreting Justice: A Groundbreaking Framework for Intralingual Interpreting by Deaf Interpreters
This session introduces an intralingual interpreting framework developed as part of Christopher Tester’s 2021 doctoral research, offering one of the first systematic analyses of Deaf interpreters’ strategies in complex courtroom interactions. Building on Jakobson’s (1959) foundational concept of intralingual translation and Zethsen’s (2009) elaboration of intralingual dimensions, the framework situates Deaf interpreters’ work within broader translation and interpreting studies and legal interpreting (e.g., Hale, 2004; Berk-Seligson, 2002). It demonstrates how Deaf interpreters make nuanced linguistic and ethical decisions that go far beyond simple “rewording,” examining strategies such as strategic omissions to preserve core meaning, paraphrasing for clarity and cultural relevance, signposting to orient audiences within discourse, adjusting register to align with situational formality, and spatial positioning to convey relationships and emphasis. Grounded in theory and courtroom practice, the session reveals the sophisticated cognitive and linguistic work intrinsic to intralingual interpreting and reframes Deaf interpreting as a distinct professional practice.
Participants will be able to:
- Explain the theoretical foundations of intralingual interpreting, drawing on Jakobson (1959) and Zethsen (2009), and how they apply to Deaf interpreting.
- Describe the five key components of Tester’s (2021) intralingual interpreting framework—strategic omissions, paraphrasing, signposting, adjusting register, and spatial positioning—and their practical application in courtroom contexts.
- Recognize how this framework reframes Deaf interpreting as a distinct professional practice, integrating research on translanguaging, language development, and cognitive processing.
- Analyze case examples that illustrate the cognitive and linguistic complexities of Deaf interpreters’ intralingual work in legal settings.
D1 | Session Title Coming Soon
D2 | Co-Interpreting in Legal Settings – Hearing and Deaf Interpreter Collaboration
This session centers on the dynamics and best practices of co-interpreting between hearing and Deaf interpreters in legal contexts. Participants will explore the unique roles, responsibilities, and ethical considerations involved in these partnerships, with attention to preparation, real-time decision-making, and post-assignment debriefing. The goal is to enhance team cohesion and improve outcomes in high-stakes legal environments through intentional collaboration.
Participants will be able to:
- Describe the roles and contributions of both hearing and Deaf interpreters in legal interpreting teams
- Apply at least three strategies for effective co-interpreting preparation, coordination, and ethical decision-making in legal settings.
E1 | The Role and Positioning of Interpreters in Courtrooms: Employment Status and Teamwork Dynamics
This workshop critically examines how interpreters’ employment status and team configurations shape their work and professional positioning in courtroom settings. Drawing on Tester’s (2021) ethnographic research on Deaf interpreters in courts, Goffman’s (1981) concept of positioning and footing, and frameworks from Dean & Pollard (2013) and Witter-Merithew (2019), the session explores how staff and freelance interpreters experience differing expectations around authority, neutrality, and collaboration, and how these factors influence Deaf–hearing co-interpreting teams. Findings from Tester’s dissertation highlight how systemic structures and courtroom hierarchies intersect with interpreter identity and status to influence teamwork, role negotiation, and ultimately language access for Deaf court users. Participants will analyze the unique contributions Deaf interpreters make to legal discourse and examine both interpersonal and institutional barriers they face. By situating these issues within both theory and practice, the session encourages critical reflection on equity and offers strategies to strengthen collaboration and outcomes in courtroom settings.
Participants will be able to:
- Analyze how employment status (staff vs. freelance) and institutional hierarchies affect interpreters’ positioning and role perception in courtroom contexts, applying Goffman’s concept of footing.
- Examine how systemic expectations influence Deaf–hearing co-interpreting teamwork and role negotiation, drawing on Dean & Pollard’s demand–control schema and Witter-Merithew’s work on supervision and reflective practice.
- Identify institutional and interpersonal strategies that improve communication, collaboration, and equitable treatment of Deaf interpreters within courtroom teams.
- Critically reflect on their own positionality and the impact of employment structures on professional relationships and interpreting outcomes.
E2 | Session Title Coming Soon
Conference Registration
Registration for the 2025 Legal Interpreting Summit is now open.