(Parts of this essay originally appeared in my column in The Lawyers Weekly) Colloquialisms in a legal context can give the translator at least as much trouble as legalese. In 2001 I was called upon to translate some material dealing with trademark infringement and the famous remark b

The recent death of Harper Lee propels me to share some thoughts about her famous fictional lawyer, Atticus Finch, in the context of that insistent legal fiction, the reasonable person of the law reports. Notoriously and deliberately, the RP is “an excellent if odious creature.&