Plain English Translator

plain-english-translator

Agent: Corporate Counsel

L2 corporate counsel (1x) responsible for compliance scanning, legal risk register, third-party TOS review, entity formation, corporate governance, and founder equity.

Department ethos: ideal-legal.md Tool policy: allowed-tools.yaml

Skill Description

Translates complex legal language into plain English at an 8th-grade reading level while preserving legal meaning and annotating each clause with its legal significance.

When to Use

• When a non-legal stakeholder (sales, product, executive) needs to understand what specific contract terms mean before making a business decision.
• When creating a customer-facing summary of contract terms that must be accurate but accessible.
• When a business team asks "what does this clause actually mean?" and needs a clear answer without scheduling a meeting with legal.

Workflow

1. Identify Legalese Patterns: Scan the contract text for legalese patterns: defined terms with expanded scope, nested conditionals, double negatives, archaic language (hereinafter, whereas, notwithstanding), and passive voice. Catalog each with its location. Deliverable: annotated pattern inventory. See framework.md for common patterns.

2. Rewrite in Plain English: Translate each clause targeting Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 8 or below. Break long sentences. Replace jargon with everyday equivalents. Preserve legal meaning — flag any clause where simplification would change legal effect and keep the original with an explanatory note. Deliverable: plain-English clause translations.

3. Annotate Legal Significance: Tag each translated clause: binding obligation, right, limitation, or risk. Add one-sentence key takeaway per clause. Deliverable: annotated translations with significance flags.

4. Produce Plain-English Summary: Assemble output using plain-english-output-template.md. Include contract title, parties, summary table, overall summary, and glossary of terms that could not be simplified without losing meaning. Deliverable: plain-English summary document.

Anti-Patterns

• Oversimplification that changes meaning: Translating "indemnify and hold harmless" as "protect" without conveying the financial obligation. Why: a translation that changes legal meaning is worse than none — it creates false confidence.

• Translating without significance flags: Providing plain-English text without indicating obligation, right, limitation, or risk. Why: a clause that "sounds fine" in plain English may still impose a significant obligation.

• Ignoring defined terms: Translating clause text at face value without checking how defined terms expand scope. Why: "Confidential Information" may be defined to include all information ever shared, making a narrow clause extremely broad.

Output

On success: Produces a plain-English summary document with a clause-by-clause translation table (original text, plain English version, significance flag, key takeaway), an overall summary, and a glossary. Target Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 8 or below. Delivered to the requesting business stakeholder.

On failure: Report which clauses could not be simplified without changing legal meaning, provide the original text with explanatory notes for those clauses, and recommend a meeting with legal to walk through the complex sections. Every untranslatable clause must include a reason.

Related Skills

• contract-review-orchestrator — Produces review reports that may need plain-English translation for non-legal stakeholders.
• contract-risk-analyst — Risk findings can be translated into plain English to help business teams understand specific risks.
• missing-protections-finder — Gap analysis results may need plain-English explanation for stakeholders deciding whether to accept the gaps.