The paper reports the findings of the survey held at the Law Institute of People's Friendship University of Russia. The objective of the survey was to learn and examine the opinion of interpreters on the issue whether all students of higher education institution can be trained as interpreters of specific setting e.g. law. The respondents of the survey are the interpreters with different practical experience of interpreting who assessed the requirements to court interpreters, abilities and skills they are supposed to have and improve. The correlation of foreign language skills and the knowledge of special setting is focused on. The paper includes some recommendations to training interpreters inter alia what skills and psychological mechanisms should be focused on. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.