By writing âDear Sirsâ, some lawyers feel they are holding out against political correctness. The Register Generalâs present position is that any transgender man who gives birth â even someone legally recognised as male â must be registered as the childâs mother. âThe very occasional letter is addressed âMesdamesâ which is quaint and nicely European in these difficult times, but hardly suitable for the 21st century,â she says. Perhaps we can get in into the dictionary to officially bring a gender-neutral âsir/maâamâ into existence. Reader M has a question about gender-neutral names⦠I am a new practicing attorney with a gender-neutral name. Although itâs best to avoid gender-specific drafting (see 17.10), the gender neutral alternatives to Dear Sirs are too awkward to use in this context. by LawFuel Editors December 12, 2020, 12:53 am 365 Views Some of Strawâs intended audience clearly also feel they have âbetter things to doâ than worry about gender-neutral language. They only let you put one field in. Eduardo Reyes reports. âDear Sir, No Moreâ â Clifford Chance Uses Robots To Gender Neutralise Its Legal Documents An AI tool is used by the Big Law firm to purge its documents of sexist language. It found 81 law firms and banks exclusively used “Dear Sirs” on letters and communications during the process. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer said it has stopped using the phrase from this weekend. Dear Casey Yates, This is an example of a gender-neutral way to address a recipient. It sounds simple. As a female graduate student, I attended a talk at my university by a tech executive. The male-oriented salutation has been replaced by a number of gender neutral equivalents across its global network. Clause 11.2 in the updated NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract reads: ⢠done all the work which the Scope states is to be done by the Completion Dateâ¦. âItâs very complicated. Is there a gender-neutral way of saying "Dear Sir" in a formal letter? When Lady Butler-Sloss (pictured) was first made a lord justice of appeal, she was a lord justice until 1994. Client requests for gender-neutral documents sometimes turn out on further enquiry to mean âgender-specificâ, she adds. We should be looking at gender neutral language for our legislation too.”, Law firm Withers said the male address was “accepted standard”. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has stopped using the phrase from this weekend. All staff should be trained never to assume the gender of a personâs partner until they have used a gender pronoun from which a cue can be taken, she adds. The use of the singular âDear Sir or Madamâ to address an organisation also raised eyebrows. US litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel this week adopted gender-neutral forms of address in a break with tradition. In the UK the firm will now address all communications to âDear Sir or Madamâ, while in the US all correspondence internally and to clients will start with âDear Ladies and Gentlemenâ. Embracing uncertainty can build resilience into your business strategy. Dear Sirs (Gender Neutral in Business Writing?) Please click here to read about how we process your data in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). âTo turn the point around, using gender should not be a defence to sloppy drafting!â, She concedes, however, that simple substitutions of singular pronouns could cause confusion: âYou may need to repeat the name of the party or the defined term if there is any doubt or to emphasise that both the parties to the contract are entitled to do something.â. In the United States, variations of this greeting include âDear Sirsâ. âLGBT+ people, myself included, can find this pretty uncomfortable,â she explains. What happens if the transgender man who gives birth feels discriminated against as a result of the pregnancy? Suggestions for a more gender neutral approach include: Dear Mr/Ms Surname; Dear Colleague; Dear Position i.e. The Courts Act 2003 changed the title to be either âlord justiceâ or âlady justiceâ. âYouâve got people looking at someone and saying âhello sirâ. âThe problem is there is no rulebook on this.â. What if I write Dear Sir and the letter lands on the desk of woman official? Firms should focus on connectivity, communication and cloud to ensure robust systems are in place. Except, of course, in the US where you are going to say âDear Ladies and Gentlemenâ as if you are about to commence some kind of oratory. Arguing that âheâ and âsheâ should be used interchangeably rather than replaced, he added: âStatutes and statutory instruments ought not only to be clear and free of ambiguity, but surely ought also to stand as models for the correct use of the English language⦠to prostitute the English language in pursuit of some goal of gender equality is, I suggest, unacceptable.â. Freshfields’ joint managing partner Chris Pugh said: “It’s a relatively small change, but it’s a significant point and you notice that when everyone immediately accepts that the change needs to happen.”“I hope it will shed light on other things that we might inadvertently be doing that risk alienating people we communicate with - not only people at Freshfields but clients and other professionals as well.”, Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, the UK’s largest charity for women’s rights, said the change was long overdue. As lawyers and their clients get to grips with this fast-changing world they may start longing for the days when the use of âtheyâ as a singular pronoun was controversial. âItâs usually an older employee who says they like using âsirâ and âmadamâ. Rachel Reese, whose company Global Butterflies advises law firms on how to become more transgender-inclusive, says a large proportion of the generations born after 1981 do not see gender as a binary concept, but as âfluidâ. Our Privacy Policy has changed. And that fits with a trend weâre seeing among audiences when we do our training. Garrood recommends keeping language as gender-neutral as possible, in document drafting and in the firm generally. Rephrase to avoid the need for a pronoun or noun altogether: âImmediately before deathâ, rather than âimmediately before his deathâ. But while amending a policy may seem straightforward, there are implications of decoupling certain terms from the sex with which they have traditionally been associated. Marialuisa Taddia reports. This article is more than 4 years old. Dear Sir / Sirs, Gentlemen etc are specifically male. We learn in school to write letters and addressing them with Dear Mr.,Ms., or Mrs. depending on your audience. This salutation should be used for communication regarding specific projects, specific concerns, or employment. This is why our blog post recommends avoiding salutations such as âDear Sir or Madam,â âDear Mr. Smithâ or âDear Ms. Brownâ in correspondence: âThe problem with these formulas is that a non ⦠Meanwhile debates currently raging online about when and whether a personâs biological sex, rather than their gender, should be considered relevant are already spilling into the legal profession. Gender pay reporting legislation requires larger employers to publish annual calculations showing the pay gap between âmenâ and âwomenâ on their staff. The firm implemented the change after one of its London associates researched legal documents from the last 10 initial public offerings of private company shares. Equivalents in Cantonese, Mandarin and European languages have also been agreed across Freshfields’ global network. Last modified on Fri 1 Dec 2017 23.03 EST. Does, for example, the constitution demand that it is always âlord chancellorâ? A spokesman said: “It very much depends on who we’re writing to. Endings I think my father is correct that these should be on the formal side. NEC3 ECC contains the wording: 13.4 The Project Manager replies to a communication submitted or resubmitted to him by the Contractor for acceptance. What about the fact that when you change âDear Sirsâ to âDear Sir or Madamâ youâre still putting the male version first? Certainly the people drafting the contracts were all male until women were permitted to join the professions [from] 1919.â. Not to mention the fact Freshfields staff are not all signed up to the new ways, if documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the last two years are anything to go by (17 December 2017 and 9 March 2018). Is that the kind of inadvertent alienation weâre talking about? City of London law firms still use the male form of address as standard. But are there titles that cannot be changed? âThe lord chancellor cannot change their own designation under the 2003 act mentioned above,â says Small. I still get referred to as ‘Mr Sam Smethers’ by the media, despite being the chief executive of a women’s charity. She goes so far as to say lawyers should reject documents presented to them for signature if the traditional masculinised approach has been used. the greatest show on earth!). That undoubtedly remains the view in the dustier parts of the legal profession. âThe challenge for any drafter is to ensure that the meaning of a clause or term is clear and unambiguous, and in my view, the use of gender-neutral language should not make this task any more or less difficult,â he says. But the battle against gender-neutral language is surely a losing cause, reports Melanie Newman. âBut there are no âno-go areasâ in the British constitution: the constitution is what parliament says it is. Not if it is drafted correctly, says Iain Drummond, partner at Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP. She prefers her firm to be addressed as: âDear Cartridges Lawâ, âDear Solicitorsâ or âDear Lawyersâ. Others truly mean gender-neutral, often because they want template documents that can be applied to the whole workforce with minimal amendments. Words such as âchairmanâ were too often used for offices open to either sex and should be outlawed, he added. Around fifty ago, Dear Sirs would be appropriate to use since it was considered a formal way to greet multiple people who you don't know, such as writing to a company. âThis is particularly important when their relationship is at the centre of their enquiry, for example when they ring solicitors for advice about a separation.â. Shadow solicitor general Ellie Reeves MP says violence against women and girls is âclose to the topâ of her agenda. Are there any circumstances where the change to gender-neutral could make a clause too ambiguous? In that year the master of the rolls directed that she should be known informally as lady justice and addressed as âmy ladyâ, notes Baker McKenzieâs Harry Small. It is more than a decade since former home secretary Jack Straw announced future laws would be gender-neutral. Mam and sir are so outdated, though safe. Solicitors pointed out on social media that sex is one of the protected characteristics stipulated by the Equality Act 2010 and that failing to collect this data would make it more difficult to determine whether firms are discriminating on this ground, or to compare with previous years. We represent and support our members, promoting the highest professional standards and the rule of law. Gender-inclusive writing, which avoids references to gender whenever possible, is increasingly becoming standard practice in correspondence. We have to think about the language we use as it reveals the assumptions and decisions being made. Update: Normally I would write Dear Sir, but it's going to an office where I think they are all or mostly women (the local council). Technically "he" can be used in a gender-neutral sense and it historically has been. âIt would be pretty crude if a law firm said you are technically male, so weâll just tick that. Irrespective of what happens in the case Reese says there is likely to be a move away from the language of âmotherâ and âfatherâ in parental leave policies and other documents towards, for example, âperson carrying the childâ and âperson not carrying the childâ. But in both the UK and The United States, this greeting is considered borderline offensive and sexist (because itâs unclear whether the writer is addressing a man or a woman). If it’s an organisation, then we currently use ‘Dear Sirs’ as that remains the accepted standard. âA person who practises without a permit commits an offenceâ, rather than âA person commits an offence if he practises without a permitâ. Putting 'dear sir/ma'am' at the beginning of a letter is preferred over 'To Whom it May Concern' (the latter is considered rude in recent times), but sir/ma'am language assumes gender binaries and such. Greeting and interacting with customers is the most important thing I do. Addressing Gender . Beyond that, let⦠And parliament could very easily change the lord chancellorâs title to remove a gender-specific term, just as it did for lords justices of appeal.â. For instance, I have heard a lot of "sir" in Silicon Valley start-up culture, without a female or gender-neutral equivalent. âThe same Act (s64) now empowers the lord chancellor to change the title and mode of address of most judicial office-holders from lord chief justice down and including masters,â says Small. People do not tend to use titles, or want them.â. LONDON: One of the UK's leading law firms has taken a lead to drop the use of the traditional "Dear Sirs" from its legal documentation in favour of a more gender neutral term "Dear Sir or Madam". Poor grammar is one of the primary reasons that cover letters are rejected. That doesn't mean it's anything other than a stupidly bad idea to do so in modern writing. I wouldnât use this term if I were not sure who I am speaking to. âDear Sirsâ goes gender neutral. Law Society Publishing titles, e-books and selected key works from other legal publishers. Dear Sir/Madam IS gender-neutral - it lists both of the most common genders. Even parliament continues to use ‘he’ in legislation, the assumption being that that will refer to everyone. Use of male pronouns to apply to both sexes was potentially confusing, he argued, and could be seen as reinforcing gender stereotypes. âWe are getting statistics from the US that suggest 12% of the workforce is non-binary,â she says. When writing to a company, say for example, XYZ Insurance Co., how do you write salutation in a gender neutral way? The Solicitors Regulation Authority has come under fire for not specifically asking practitioners to specify their sex in a survey of the professionâs diversity. In practice making these kinds of changes can be difficult, Reese says. I work in retail. For example, Clause 11.2 of the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract reads: (2) Completion is when the Contractor has, ⢠done all the work which the Works Information states he is to do by the Completion Dateâ¦. Eduardo Reyes reports. âWhat weâre finding is that a lot of systems are not very customisable. Get jobs by email. Avoid âDear Sir or Madamâ because itâs impersonal, outdated, and not gender inclusive. The problem with that is that Dear Sirs is not only gender-specific but also old-fashioned. By comparison, the traditional honorifics of Miss, Mrs, Ms and Mr all indicate the binary gender of the individual.. The Law Society is the independent professional body for solicitors. He called on each man who had a question by saying, "Sir," but he called on me with merely, "Yes." It was not until 2016 that the first of the magic circle law firms banned the salutation âDear Sirsâ from its legal documents and communications. Designed to give members efficient, easy access to high quality courses. It may be useful or even essential to apply gender-inclusive guidelines when writing to the following audiences: 1. individuals whose gender is unknown; 2. non-binary individuals (that is, individuals who do not identify with either the masculine or the feminine gender); 3. a diverse group of people (so that no member of the group feels excluded). And third, it's vague and a bit lazy. The guidance discusses the use of âtheyâ to replace âheâ or âsheâ as a singular pronoun â a grammatical matter that has become somewhat controversial, as awareness of gendered language has entered the mainstream. To be as inclusive as possibl⦠- Quora. 'Dear Sir or Madam' is an outdated salutation traditionally used to open formal business emails. In a House of Lords debate that year he cited examples of âappalling draftingâ such as âthe claimant or their partner is a personâ, and âan adult who is not the claimantâs partner if they are part of the claimantâs Extended Benefit Unitâ. While you should always address your letters as specifically as possible, if you can't obtain the person's gender, you can use their first and last names: Dear Rory Smythe. Change the pronoun including by turning it into a plural: âParticipants may only carry on the regulated activities if they hold a permit.â. You can use the appropriate gender title (such as "Sir" or "Madam") if you know the gender of the person but not their name. Managing Partner, Senior Associate etc; Dear Counselâ The use of âDear Sirsâ, of course, dates to the time when law firms were usually named after two or three, usually male, lawyers. Of the letters coming into Cartridges Law, where Bridget Garrood is a consulting partner, 99% still commence âDear Sirsâ, although for several years the firmâs partners have all been female. Like when you have 13% female partners? Browse over 5,000 law jobs. While Freshfields tells the Gazette the initiative was âvery well receivedâ, it was not without its critics, including those who saw it as paying lip service to equality at a time when less than 20% of the firmâs partners were female. A further example can be found at Clause 13.4. It brings you quick, access to the library catalogue and value added legal information sources. One of Britain’s most prestigious law firms has banned the use of “Dear sirs” from all of its legal documents and communications, apparently the first of the “magic circle” of top City legal companies to do so. One of the UK's leading law firms has taken a lead to drop the use of the traditional "Dear Sirs" from its legal documentation in favour of a more gender neutral term "Dear Sir or Madam". âThis is a throwback, presumably, to when people in business entering contracts were all males. Will Covid-19 revolutionise the market for commercial property, or just accelerate existing trends? âIt means you have to decide, often in your very first seconds of contact with a business, whether or not you are prepared to âoutâ yourself.â. If you do not feel comfortable using a gender-specific personal title like "Sir" or "Ms.", just use their full name. In just over a fortnight the Brexit transition period ends. âYou should know your client well enough to make them comfortable to indicate a preference if it is not obvious.â. If the gender is unknown, people should address it with a gender neutral noun. There is currently no formal plan to change this, but it is an area we’re happy to explore.”, Top City law firm now addresses all letters ‘Dear Sir or Madam’. The contrary argument is that discrimination on the basis of biology occurs regardless of gender identity and that obscuring data on sex would do a disservice to a larger number of female staff. Strawâs plans were not well received by then MP for Maidstone and the Weald, Ann Widdecombe, who retorted: âA chair is a piece of furniture⦠all he is doing is distorting the English language, and I would have thought he had better things to do.â. So some firms are saying letâs not bother with titles at all â they get rid of them altogether. @Graham even that page, which is a guide to rather dated formal conventions, says "'Dear Sir' is technically the correct form". Garrood, a member of the LGBT+ lawyers division of the Law Society, has heard multiple anecdotal reports of people ringing solicitors firms who have been automatically assumed to have a partner of the opposite sex. The newer term "Mx" avoids specifying gender for: If his reply is not acceptance, the Project Manager states his reasonsâ¦, 13.4 The Project Manager replies to a communication submitted or resubmitted by the Contractor for acceptance. An internet search pulls up 1.5m hits for the word âchairmanâ on .gov.uk websites â mainly in local government â compared with 2.25m âchairsâ. In the UK the firm will now address all communications to “Dear Sir or Madam”, while in the US all correspondence will start with “Dear Ladies and Gentlemen”. In 2017 HSBC announced it was offering customers a choice of nine titles, including âMâ, âMiscâ, an abbreviation of miscellaneous, and âMreâ, which stands for âmysteryâ. Dear Sir may have been an acceptable gender-neutral salutation some time ago, but I would suggest 'To whom it may concern,' as a more modern and suitable alternative :). When dealing with individuals, establishing their personal preference is key, advises Farr: âIf you want to be inclusive, you must take account of the individualâs views.â, Sarah Austin of Austins Solicitors agrees. Opinion is divided, reports Marialuisa Taddia. But have their priorities changed? Global Butterflies advises law firms on use of titles by receptionists and other staff, recommending an end to gendered forms of address such as âsirâ and âmadamâ. Gentâam â A respectful way to greet a man or a woman This word can be used as a substitute for âsirâ or âmaâam,â and is appropriate and honorable for both the young and elderly. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer would now use âDear Sir or Madamâ in UK correspondence and âDear Ladies and Gentlemenâ in the US, it said, with equivalents in other languages used in the firmâs international offices. Professional support lawyer Rachel Farr, whose firm Taylor Wessing is receiving increasing numbers of enquiries about gender-neutral documents, also thinks gender-neutral language is not imprecise. I received this question about a gender-neutral way to say sir or maâam in English via the âAsk Danâ section of the website: Dan. A case involving a transgender man who gave birth and wants to be registered as the father on the birth certificate is currently being heard in the High Court. “It’s to be welcomed, but it is pretty basic stuff which we should all be doing really. âThe updated wording in NEC4 is straightforward, and does not alter the meaning of either of these clauses.â. Use proper punctuation and capitalization if you are going to use it anyways, âDear Sir or Madam,â or âDear Sir ⦠If they are an individual then it depends on their gender and title. âSo if you are using unnecessarily gendered language you are going to be upsetting a large chunk of your workforce.â. Second, this greeting may not be reflective of the recipient's gender. While the British usage of the term stays âDear Sir or Madamâ. For example, Ladies and Gentlemen makes it sound as if one is writing to a group of individuals. Iâve been in practice since October (4 months) and have already received at least 10 correspondences addressed to âMr. What now for the legal profession? But these terms are not defined, leaving firms to decide how â and if â to apply them to staff who define as non-binary or are trans, but do not have a gender-recognition certificate. Try hard to find the hiring managerâs name, as thatâs the ideal way to address a cover letter. The Office of the Parliamentary Counselâs drafting guidance includes three techniques for avoiding gender-specific pronouns: Repeat the noun or substitute it with a letter: âEarnings, in relation to a person, means sums payable to the person in connection with the personâs employment.â, âIf a person (âPâ) who is registered in respect of a regulated activity carries on that activity while Pâs registration is suspended, P is guilty of an offence.â. âThe lazy and insulting â to me â use of âheâ to include both genders as is the âconventionâ simply perpetuates unconscious bias in a very obvious way,â she says. It would be very unkind,â says Reese. The law is going to have to catch up,â says Reese. However, this greeting is not gender-neutral and was mostly used when men dominated management positions. Some firms have added the title âMxâ to their systems to recognise people who do not wish to be identified by a particular gender. Dear Sir or Madam implies that you have one specific person in mind for this letter, but do not know their name, title, or gender. âThe gendered terms âmotherâ and âfatherâ may not make any sense any more.â. The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel offers drafting guidance including three techniques for avoiding gender-specific pronouns. Thatâs going to upset someone who is trans or non-binary so why not just ask for their name and use that?â But some law firms have âkicked backâ on that. Elsewhere things are starting to change, though the pace is slow. If the reply is not acceptance, the Project Manager states the reasonsâ¦, âThere was no need for the use of âhimâ âheâ and âhisâ in NEC3, which makes an assumption that the relevant person â the contractor or project manager â is male,â says Drummond. Harry Small, a partner at Baker McKenzie, says: âWe do not recommend the use of âLadies and Gentlemenâ because it implies that gender is binary.â Instead, his firm would start a letter to Freshfields âDear Freshfieldsâ.
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