End of the line for Dear Sirs as legal letters embrace diversity

LAST month the Law Society updated its guidance on inclusive legal greetings in correspondence.

- BETHAN DARWIN

The guidance states that the use of Dear Sirs as a standard greeting in legal correspondence originates from a time when the profession was predominantly male and perpetuates the assumption that the recipients of correspondence are, by default, men.

This, says the guidance, is no longer accurate, representative or appropriate in today's diverse society with a broad scope of recipients including women and individuals with other gender identities.

Around 53% of solicitors are female according to the Solicitors Regulation Authority's most recent diversity data from 2023, so not addressing all recipients of correspondence as Sir makes sense.

I had never really thought of Dear Sirs as meaning that the person receiving the letter must be a man, just as I didn't think that the Yours Faithfully greeting at the end meant that the person sending it must be faithful.