When I edit legal texts (and, as we’ve previously noted, I use this term advisedly), my primary objective is to produce a document that reads as though it could have been written by a native English-speaking lawyer. However, I strongly believe that an editor who works with non-native speakers has another important role, and that’s to set a good example to the people whose work you edit. People assume that you, as a native speaker, produce English that they can imitate.
While many native English-speaking lawyers, translators or editors do live up to this standard, it isn’t the absolute given that people may assume. In my view, this job entails a responsibility and people in this line of work should take this on board. I really don’t think it’s acceptable to follow the rather unhelpful maxim ‘Don’t do as I do, do as I say!’ but it seems more likely to me that where a bad example is set, it’s because the native speaker in question doesn’t contemplate the issue at all. I believe that our colleagues deserve better and that we should at least make an effort.
