House of tongues

Thomas West III just might have chosen the ideal time to move his business to Chattanooga.

While practicing law in Atlanta 15 years ago, West began Intermark Language Services, an endeavor that melds his legal know-how with an emphatic love of languages.

Earlier this year, he quit Atlanta and moved the business to the James Building on Broad Street, not realizing the potential for a new client base. What started as a change based on family geographic preferences could turn into a smart business decision.

"I didn't know there was so much with Volkswagen going on here," said the former lawyer, who speaks eight languages with a preference for German. "I haven't begun to try to tap into that yet, though."

Intermark is a translation service company with a niche in legal documents. About 50 percent of the company's business comes from Europe, and consists mostly of translating documents from a foreign language into English.

A network of about 70 translators across the country - who speak German, Spanish, Italian, French and other tongues - are called upon daily to quickly translate documents that range from a couple of pages to thousands.

"I'm grateful to live in the Internet age," West said. "Businesses in Europe wouldn't do this if they had to mail everything in. This kind of thing wasn't really viable in the 1980s, and the industry kind of began to explode in the 1990s with the Internet and e-mail."

Jill Thrash, project manager at Intermark, deals mostly with Spanish customers and said each day she fields e-mailed requests for translations. Although most of the company's business comes from overseas, the former contract lawyer said she sees a market for their services here, too.

"There are quite a few law firms - a couple that are large enough to have an international practice," Thrash said. "Plus, there's businesses, like Volkswagen, that are moving into the area and attracting new businesses."

West said it's taken a long time to build his business from scratch, especially because it takes work to ensure overseas clients that their technical documents are in the hands of translators with backgrounds in law and finance.

"It's a great market," he said. "And we can do it all from here - there are no geographic limits."

Upcoming Events