- NEU: Legal English Seminar:

(Detailinformationen als .pdf)

Written / taught by ANNA McKEOWN – legal English consultant, Dublin, Ireland

Target group: lawyers and trainee lawyers who deal with commercial contracts in English in their work.

Aim of the course: to increase the participants’ awareness of the significance and function of language in the context of commercial contracts and to enable them to read, interpret and discuss such texts with increased accuracy and confidence. It is not a course in English law.

Level of the course: A good working knowledge of English is required. Participants should be able to understand spoken English with few problems. The use of English will involve reading and discussing legal documents. 

Content of the course: The course is offered on an in-company basis. The program is short (12 hours contact time) and highly intensive. The materials have been specially developed for the course and focus on the following:

The Language of Contracts

· Typical format and structure of a commercial contract
· Identification of typical commercial provisions and 
standard boilerplate clauses found in contracts, as well as 
analysis of the language found in them
· Awareness of the function and possible interpretation of 
particular legal terms and technical language used in 
commercial contracts.
· Avoidance of unnecessary legal jargon and old-fashioned 
language.
· Significance and possible interpretation of particular non-
legal words, when used in commercial contracts.
· Use and possible interpretation of time expressions in 
commercial contracts.
· Sentence structure, word order and use of punctuation in 
commercial contract clauses. 


Legal English consultant Anna McKeown is an Irish lawyer with extensive language teaching experience. She holds an RSA Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. 

For more than 12 years, she has taught legal and business English in Paris, Edinburgh, Prague, Rome, London, Vienna and Cambridge, both with the British Council and with a number of prestigious institutions and universities. 

WICHTIG: Wir bitten um Verständnis, dass dieses Seminar erst mindestens sechs Wochen nach erfolgter Buchung stattfinden kann, denn einerseits lebt Anna McKeown in ihrer Heimatstadt Dublin, andererseits ist sie sehr gefragt und hält ständig Vorträge in großen europäischen Städten.