Notes from the desk
In-house counsel, operations leads, and communications managers across Hong Kong — writing about the documents we have read alongside them.
Return to HomeClient notes
A selection of unedited notes received over recent weeks. Names have been kept; employer names are withheld where the client preferred.
The shareholder agreement came back set in matched columns, with a delivery memo flagging two clauses where the original Chinese drafting was loose. We rewrote the source on the strength of those notes. Worth more than the fee.
Vivien Lau
In-house counsel · Central · 18 Apr 2026
We came in with a pile of training materials translated by three different freelancers over four years. Three months on the retainer and the new modules read like one course again. The glossary they keep for us is the quiet hero.
Ryan Tang
L&D Manager · Quarry Bay · 22 Apr 2026
Bilingual review on a parallel-language policy document. They surfaced six paragraphs where the Chinese and English versions had drifted apart since 2019. Memo was tactful about whose drafting had wandered. The revision job was much smaller than I'd feared.
Selina Chow
Compliance Officer · Wan Chai · 26 Apr 2026
Translated our annual report into Japanese for filing in Tokyo. The financial subject hand they assigned read the auditor's notes through and asked clarifying questions before drafting. Final file went out with no challenges from the recipient.
Daniel Hartmann
Group CFO · Sheung Wan · 12 Apr 2026
Single document — a service contract from a French supplier — turned around in four working days. The translator wrote with a question on a rendering choice mid-file rather than guessing. Small thing; tells you how the studio reads.
Michelle Kwan
Procurement Lead · Kwun Tong · 14 Apr 2026
We use them for clinical trial protocol translations, ZH to EN, on a programme retainer. The pharmaceutical glossary they hold for us is now seven pages long and saves us a week of internal review on every new submission.
Anita Ng
Regulatory Affairs · Tai Po · 04 May 2026
Case studies
Names of clients are withheld; everything else is as it happened.
Challenge
Forty internal policy documents in Chinese needed English versions for an incoming overseas leadership team. Previous translations across the group used inconsistent terminology — three different renderings of the word for "tenant", for example.
What we did
Programme retainer with a paired ZH-EN linguist. Kickoff style-guide session to settle key terminology calls. Living glossary maintained across every file. Two-pass review. Quarterly summaries of recurring queries.
Result
Forty policies delivered across ten months. The new leadership team reported the document set read as one body of work. Retainer renewed for a second year, now covering board memoranda and quarterly reports.
Challenge
A registered Hong Kong NGO had operated for sixteen years on a constitution drafted bilingually. Successive amendments by different counsel had introduced asymmetries between the Chinese and English versions, particularly around quorum and voting rules.
What we did
Bilingual Document Review of the full sixty-page constitution. Annotated mark-up of both versions. Summary memo highlighted eleven points of meaningful drift, ranked by governance significance.
Result
The board commissioned legal counsel on three of the eleven points. The constitution was reissued in a corrected bilingual version at the autumn AGM. The studio's memo sat in the AGM papers as a working reference.
Challenge
A Hong Kong-headquartered medical device firm needed an English version of a 2,400-word Japanese regulatory cover letter for a submission in Singapore. The original cited four PMDA standards by Japanese title.
What we did
Standard Document Translation. Linguist with a pharmaceutical background paired in. Standards were rendered with both the official English titles and the original Japanese in parentheses on first mention.
Result
Delivered in four working days. Submission was accepted on first review by the recipient regulator. The firm has since brought in a programme retainer for ongoing JA-EN regulatory work.
In numbers
9
Years of practice
240+
Organizations served
4.8/5
Average client rating
94%
Retainer renewal rate
Reach the desk
Phone
+852 9183 6427Studio
11/F, 21 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Hours
Mon–Fri 09:30–18:30
Sat 10:00–14:00 by appt.
For a representative passage in your subject and language pair, send a short note.