My name is Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz, and I love to work with entrepreneurs.

My first client was a direct business client (a media company), and over years of working largely with translation agencies almost all of my translations were for an entrepreneur as the end buyer, to be used in a business setting, largely in interaction with some other entrepreneurs (B2B). And sometimes consumers (B2C), or the general public, or stakeholders of various sorts, and obviously often the authorities and courts. I also continued to have my own direct clients, usually law firms and legal scholars and universities, sometimes developers, architects or IT companies — which is only a fraction of the list of sectors I have worked for through agencies.

Now I want to work with entrepreneurs more closely. I want to work with corporations, with manufacturers, traders, service providers, professional firms, business associations and industry bodies, and, of course, their lawyers, without having to go through a third party whose decisions don't always align with the client's best interest as the recipient or mine as the provider.

What I bring to the table is a couple of things you are almost never going to get from agency — starting from the unvariable certainty of who exactly you are being translated by at any point in time (or, in fact, how many different people, with varying skill and style, to make the deadline). But there is more. Scroll on to find out!

Best regards,

Łukasz

During the last of those years, aged 19 at the time, he passed the C2-level examination for the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English — something a lot of translators nowadays only achieve years after graduating linguistics, or in fact never.

This command of the language was what placed Łukasz ahead of already established professionals in agencies’ rosters, even though the rookie charged more than the veterans did. For the same reason agencies pegged Łukasz for marketing, PR and sensitive projects.

Eventually, Łukasz attended translation school — after-master’s in business and legal translation — at the Faculty of Applied Linguistics of his old alma mater, already as a practising translator.

In 2013 Łukasz became an accredited ‘sworn translator’, which customarily confers high standing within the translation profession, although the title’s once considerable prestige has recently faded somewhat. It is awarded by way of an individual administrative decision (by the Minister of Justice) following rigorous bidirectional state examination.

Thus Łukasz has always insisted on being a ‘normal’ translator, not looked at exclusively through the lens of his legal education but entirely capable of achieving high-quality results in fields other than the law, despite not actively focusing on them most of the time.

Those other fields, although a minor share of Łukasz's practice compared to legal translation, have ranged from Catholic theology to video gaming, with a lot of technical translation done alongside legal translation in construction, transport, energy, IT and telecom procurements and large industry contracts.

Łukasz firmly believes that it is impossible to be a world-class legal translator only translating law. You cannot be a legal translator without being a translator. You have to look behind the black letter and see business, see life. The law does not exist in a vacuum and is not a purpose unto itself.

Similarly to this broad experience within the narrower field of legal translation, extensive legal education allows Łukasz and, more importantly, his clients to avoid the typical constraints of having to approach legal disciplines as individual trees rather than taking in the whole forest.

The added pinch of generalism that comes from having occasionally provided business, financial, technical and marketing translation for the same or similar clients allows Łukasz — and, more importantly, his clients — the benefit of a further broader perspective and better grounded understanding. A more holistic view, as it were.

All of this, besides simply making Łukasz a more mature translator, makes him better positioned to handle complex, interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of law and business — and occasionally some other intersections — for his clients. And to fill in for a more generalist business translator in emergencies.

It also increases the chance that whatever it takes Łukasz has probably already done it before, or something similar, and if not, then is more similar to a barista making his first fern flower frappaccino than someone who has never brewed a cup (or only espresso and basic latte).

And finally, with less dictionary time and research time normally needed, faster turnaround times become possible.

He also translates with confidence, clarity and precision. This is the edge he gives to his clients, even — or especially — where it means the need to maintain extremely elevated mental focus for a prolonged time.

Łukasz is a sharp thinker, whether that's about connecting the dots or thinking outside the box. Conventional or unconventional. Mastering the known ways or carving new ways. As Caesar put it 2000 years ago, he finds ways or makes ways.

With a thoroughly strategic brain, to a fault, Łukasz is a natural at considering things from multiple angles, and fast. Often angles unthought of before, or tied specifically to the unique problem at hand, unique context, unique application. Most people are not aware of how many mental processes go into translating a single sentence... or the sheer endurance it takes to keep processing thousands of thoughts per minute for hours. Or the relevance of knowledge and sheer intelligence in the process.

Łukasz combines a heightened sense of understanding with greater awareness of ideas and connections — and combines analytical, synthetic, conceptual, strategic, creative and abstract thinking into almost a single process, making it look easy. This, however, comes with the focus and discipline to bring projects smoothly to conclusion without getting stuck in details and losing the big picture. And with his achiever personality there is a fire constantly burning, even if it's 4 a.m. already.