According to the U.S. Census, the number of people in this country who speak a language other than English at home has tripled in the last four decades. Now nearly 70 million people speak a language other than English at home. Between one-quarter and one-half of those people say they speak English “less than very well,” which means there are millions of people who need, or would benefit from, having an interpreter at legal proceedings.

As an attorney and mediator who is fluent in both English and Spanish, I often represent clients who have limited English skills or for whom English is not their native language. I’ve also found that there are several advantages to being a bilingual mediator and have been chosen to mediate cases because of my ability to speak Spanish.