A lawyer-linguist is an EU official who combines a full law degree with mother-tongue command of an EU official language to translate, revise and quality-check legal texts. The role exists at the Court of Justice, the Council, the Parliament and the Commission, and is one of the highest-paid linguistic profiles in the EU institutions.
Lawyer-linguists work on legislation, judgments, opinions, and procedural texts where legal accuracy and linguistic equivalence across 24 official languages are equally critical. At the Court of Justice in Luxembourg they translate judgments and orders into the language of the case; at the Council and Parliament they verify legislative texts before publication; at the Commission they help DG LEGAL ensure that proposals are watertight across language versions. Recruitment is by dedicated EPSO competition, usually graded AD 7 for entry-level lawyer-linguists. Candidates must hold a full law degree (4 or 5 years depending on member state) qualifying them to practise or sit a national bar exam, plus perfect command of the target mother tongue and a thorough knowledge of at least two other official EU languages, one of which is usually French or English. Tests cover legal translation from foreign languages into the mother tongue, plus the standard EPSO competency assessment. Career progression follows the AD grade structure, and lawyer-linguists are eligible for promotion to senior reviser, head of unit and director roles within their language service.
Frequently asked questions
- What languages do I need to apply as a lawyer-linguist?
- You need perfect command of the target language as your mother tongue, plus a thorough knowledge of at least two other EU official languages, typically including French (essential for the Court of Justice) and English. The specific language combination is set out in each competition notice.
- Do I need to be a qualified lawyer to apply?
- You need a full law degree that gives access to a national legal profession (typically 4-5 years of university law studies). You do not need to be a fully-admitted member of the bar, but you must hold the diploma that would allow you to enrol.