
Translations with Deep Roots.
Helping cooperatives, social enterprises, and ethical funders audit their structure and find the right words to build a better economy.
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About Me
It’s an unusual combination, I know.
On paper, my career might look like it’s going in two different directions at once. For nearly a decade, I worked on the inside of the corporate financial data industry at Zephus Ltd / Bureau van Dijk (a Moody’s Analytics subsidiary) – initially researching M&A transactions across Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, before progressing to Senior Researcher and Team Leader / Assistant Director managing the Private Equity and Venture Capital team and covering the Americas team – alongside earlier operational experience in fund accounting at BNY Mellon.
Spending years harvesting European and Latin American regulatory filings and designing classification workflows for the Zephyr and Orbis databases gave me a practical grounding in how cross-border capital markets work – and how standard corporate taxonomies routinely flatten non-extractive economic models. Alongside that financial background, my academic work during and since my MA in Translation at the University of Bristol has focused on the Francophone sociological tradition – recovering the rigorous social science and institutional accounting theory that underpins classical mutualism and the modern social economy.
Since going freelance in 2019, I have combined those two halves. As a Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (MCIL) holding an MA in Translation (Distinction), I translate from French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Catalan into native English – helping cooperatives, mutuals, foundations, and ethical funders ensure their statutes, financial reports, and research are rendered with clarity and structural precision.
A Specialist Translation Practice Anchored by an Open-Access Archive
Root & Branch operates both as a commercial legal and financial translation practice and as an open-access research repository for the Social and Solidarity Economy – recovering foundational statutes, cooperative accounting standards, and mutualist sociology so practitioners and funders share a rigorous common vocabulary.
Open-Access Statutory Library
Annotated English editions of landmark cooperative and commons legislation (Italian Law 381/1991, Portuguese Baldios Act Law 75/2017, 1936 Catalan Collectivisation Decree) and empirical studies.
Explore the Library →Six-Language SSE Glossary
198 comparative legal, prudential (IAS 32 / IFRIC 2, Basel III, Solvency II), and governance headwords across EN, FR, ES, IT, PT, and CA – eliminating corporate false friends.
Search the Glossary →The Sovereignty Audit & Briefings
Interactive balance-sheet diagnostics and dated Briefings stress-testing term sheets, indivisible asset locks, and cross-border regulatory frameworks.
Run a Diagnostic →Trusted by...

Cayce Jamil
little big eye publishing‘I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Shaun for several projects over the years. His passion for languages resonates in his work, ensuring each translation is precise and accurate. Shaun stands out not only for his linguistic skills but also for his reliability and professionalism. His calm, positive demeanour makes him a joy to work with.’

Paula Álvarez
WAHL Traducciones‘I can confidently say that Shaun more than meets our expectations. Not only can he translate with precision, but he is consistently respectful, delivers work punctually, and never hesitates to offer assistance during our busiest times. His dedication has earned him a reputation as one of the top translators we've had the pleasure to work with.’
