# Proper Address for Female Attorney in a Business Letter

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-address-for-female-attorney-in-a-business-letter/331231>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 15, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-address-for-female-attorney-in-a-business-letter/331231 "2005-11-15T23:07:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-address-for-female-attorney-in-a-business-letter/331231/21 "2005-11-18T22:01:58Z")

</div>

> [@Raja Raja Chola](#):
>
> I was thinking “Dear Sir:” might be a generic covering both genders, rather than a gender specific way of address. The way you used to be able to use “he” as a generic reference to either gender.

Miss Manners once dealt with a complaint from several employees who took issue with their boss’s insistence that the proper salutation for a businessletter, even one written to a businesswoman, was “Gentlemen:”.

Her answer began, “Well, if he can’t get either her gender or her number correct…”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-address-for-female-attorney-in-a-business-letter/331231/22 "2005-11-18T22:22:34Z")

</div>

> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#):
>
> I feel odd disagreeing with a lawyer on this, but… I’ve heard “Attorney” used as a form of address plenty of times. I worked for a lawyer, and I would say a majority of the clients who called for him asked for “Attorney X” (most of the rest just asked for him by his first name). Oddly, at another law firm, the attorney there insisted that all his staff refer to him as “Attorney Y”, as opposed to his first name, which was how we addressed our boss. This was in Connecticut, don’t know if it’s a regional thing or not.

Weird.

Another attorney here chiming in to say that the only time I see this used is in the poorer segments of the black community, sometimes poor rural whites use it is well, but it’s much more common in the black community. It is ABSOLUTELY NOT widely accepted.

The only times I here “counselor” used, it is not coupled with a surname and it is bellowed by a judge (or another lawyer pretending to be a judge).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-address-for-female-attorney-in-a-business-letter/331231/23 "2005-11-18T22:30:38Z")

</div>

> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#):
>
> Oddly, at another law firm, the attorney there insisted that all his staff refer to him as “Attorney Y”, as opposed to his first name, which was how we addressed our boss. This was in Connecticut, don’t know if it’s a regional thing or not.

Insisting others call you “Attorney so-n-so?” That’s downright freaky. “Counselor,” okay, “Mr. pravnik,” okey-dokey, “ol’ pravvy boy,” fine, but insisting that people call me “Attorney pravnik?” Wow. I bet they’ll be calling me something else when I’m not around!

- The Invincible Lord High pravnik, conquerer of Asia and the outer planets

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-address-for-female-attorney-in-a-business-letter/331231.md?page=1)