Lawrence and I go way back, long before LegalLingo was even an idea. Whenever I ran into trouble with translation tools or got stuck fixing a messy file, I would post questions on Baidu Zhidao and translation forums. Lawrence always came through with quick fixes that actually worked, and it didn’t take long for us to go from forum friends to trusted teammates.
As our client base grew, so did the range of client-specific requirements. Some clients came with their own internal glossaries, requiring us to apply in-house terminology, even when it conflicted with standard legal usage. Others provided detailed style guides, specifying whether bilingual text should appear side by side or in a paragraph-by-paragraph layout, or requiring every defined term in Chinese to be bolded throughout the document. On top of that, we regularly handled finer points, like whether English singular and plural distinctions needed to be reflected in the Chinese translation — adding yet another layer of consistency control.
These requirements, seemingly minor compared to the translation itself, often forced translators to spend significant time on formatting, terminology management, and technical details outside their core expertise. Without the right tools, keeping up with all of this meant manual checks across every file, a slow and error-prone process.
Once Lawrence joined, these technical headaches started to clear up. We quickly realized he has a natural drive to tinker, improve, and create, always thinking about how to dive in, figure things out, and make our work smoother. He didn’t just fix daily issues with translation tools and formatting quirks, he also developed custom tools and processes tailored to our actual needs. Together with our reviewer CC, he refined our QA process, combining content review with terminology consistency checks, making sure every file met both language quality and formatting requirements before delivery.
He also built our knowledge management system, which tracks client-specific terms, feedback, and preferences, ensuring every client correction feeds directly into the system. This way, we no longer had to rely on memory or dig through old files to recall what each client wanted. On top of that, he created a bilingual legal termbase using trusted sources, including Black’s Law Dictionary, giving translators direct access to key legal terms right inside their tools — no need to waste time searching through external resources.
With Lawrence handling the technical side, our translators could fully focus on the substance of each translation. His work frees translators from unnecessary tasks and helps collaboration flow naturally. By constantly refining our processes, he showed us how the right tools, in the right hands, can clear obstacles and let translators focus on what matters most. That’s exactly what makes him indispensable to the way we work.