The Secret Diary of A High Street Conveyancer: Dear Sirs

I have been following some discourse about how we write emails. It is an interesting discussion.

I was taught that all letters to other firms should always start with ‘Dear Sirs’ and end ‘Yours faithfully’. Letters to clients and others who were known to me would be written ‘ Dear Jane/John (insert favourite client’s name)’ and end ‘Yours sincerely’. I have to admit emails have made this a somewhat trickier area to navigate.

I like the formality of letters to other legal professionals. But I do live in the real world, and appreciate that such formality may not be what is required in this fast moving, email writing landscape.

So how would you start an email? Would it be ‘Dear (name of other conveyancer)’ – but is that assuming you know them? Would it just be ‘hello’ or ‘hi’? Does the opening change as you go through the transaction and get to know the other conveyancer? I sometimes get letters sending documents on completion from the other solicitor where the opening ‘Dear Sirs’ has had the word ‘Sirs’ crossed out and my first name written in? I take comfort in that as it makes me think that the other solicitor feels comfortable in writing to me, but then why not just write ‘Dear….’?

And then I have read how some people interpret the sign off at the end of emails. I saw one contributor had written there was a difference between ‘Kind regards’ and ‘Regards’. If the sender had just written ‘Regards’ , then the contributor felt he had annoyed the writer in some way!

There are lots of thoughts about all of this. Is it a generational view? Do younger lawyers want to write in a more personal style? Do lawyers get offended by the ‘Dear Sirs’ opening? I always struggled with the ‘Dear Madam/Mesdames’ to an all female partnered firm as it could imply that they did another type of soliciting! Does the ‘Dear Sirs’ opening offend female lawyers more than male lawyers? I have seen that there is a campaign to rid the legal world of this opening gambit.

What a minefield!

I have to admit that I am old in conveyancing land and I like formality in letters – emails well, I am still considering this one!

What do you think?

An online petition to eradicate “Dear Sirs” was launched on 1st October 2024 on the grounds the language is ‘archaic and sexist(,)does not reflect contemporary society and alienates half of us with the stroke of a pen’ and gathered nearly 1500 signatures. 

CLICK HERE to find out more

This is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. Read more in Today’s Conveyancer every week.

2 responses

  1. There are so many issues in conveyancing these days that it says everything just why those problems exist when people can bleat about “dear sirs” in communications.

    Live with it, suck it up and put your own houses in order rather than moan about something so petty. Worry about the content of the communication rather than the header?

  2. @David Weeks: “rather than moan about something so petty”. I’m not sure that the entrenched gender bias in law firm communications, implying that only men run law firms, or that firms are inherently male, is petty. But maybe that’s just me.

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