Dear Sirs

[Suzanne12]

Is this an acceptable way to start an email that will be received by either a man or a woman? Would you say something if a colleague used this term to send an email to a generic inbox?

Yabu - it's fine
Yanbu - it's not acceptable anymore

The legal profession needs to haul itself into the 21st century. I think most lawyers are intelligent enough to cope with a minor change like this.

The legal profession needs to haul itself into the 21st century

What minor change would you suggest?Dear Sirs is used to address the business which is really an "it" rather than male or female.

How long before people start saying that Mrs is sexist because it's Mr with the afterthought of an 's' put on the end? Or is that already a thing? Is that why some use 'Ms'?

I wonder what will be the next 'in' thing to be offended about...

It’s weird how threatened people are by women wanting equality.

How long before people start saying that Mrs is sexist because it's Mr with the afterthought of an 's' put on the end?

Que? 'Mrs', 'Miss' and 'Ms' are all abbreviations for the same word. Mistress. Granted, so the 'ess' at the end IS a diminutive in comparison with the 'er' of 'Master', (ie Mr), and in that case might be seen to be sexist, but we'll leave that little pedantic point to one side for now.

Aside from in the sexual sense, a mistress is a woman with some authority: i.e. the mistress of the house. Ergo, if Miss, Mrs and Ms are abbreviations for the same word, there is zero distinction between them, and making a big song and dance about any such distinction is pretty much beside the point. Call me 'Mx', however, and I do reserve the right to be pissed off.

I don't understand why titles are necessary to identify a person in any case. Surely in this day and age they're pretty much obsolete. A name will suffice perfectly well, and a stranger's marital status is nobody's business but their own.

Can’t believe there are people claiming ‘Sir’ is gender neutral. Wonder if they’d say the same if we all addressed mixed groups as ‘Madams’!

In a work context I do use that, if not sure of the sex. I prefer it to the alternatives, being:

Dear Sirs/Mesdames
Dear Colleagues

Can understand why others don’t like it though.

Wonder if they’d say the same if we all addressed mixed groups as ‘Madams’!

That would be an interesting little experiment to try! The sad thing though is the sexual connotations associated with such female descriptives as 'Madam' and 'Mistress', which simply don't exist for their masculine equivalents. Sadly, addressing 'Madams' in the collective gives the impression that you're writing to of a regulatory body of brothel-owners. I make the point flippantly, but it IS a shame that sexist language is so often simply internalized without question.

Would never say “Dear Sirs” in an email tho - only letters. Which are then scanned and attached to an email. It is sexist but haven’t found a better alternative. Yet.

I'm a lawyer and I hate it. Unfortunately I don't work in one of the firms that has ditched it. I plan to work on them. There is no place for it in 2020.

Work in legal too. I would use "Dear Sirs" on a formal letter (to court, other solicitors firm) as it addresses the entity rather than an individual recipient.

I wouldn't use it in an email unless it was a generic email address ( i.e. issues@courtname) for the same reason as above.

If I was sending a formal letter directly to another solicitor or secretary by email, I would address the email "Dear Persons First Name" if we have corresponded before or "Dear Mr/ Ms Persons Last Name" if corresponding for the first time. But the attached letter would be addressed "Dear Sirs"

There are a lot of examples of sexism in the legal profession but this isn't one of them in my opinion. It's archaic, but much of the legal profession is.

I don't see what arguments one has not to ditch it.

Is it archaic and a relic from times when your addressee would have been male? yes
Does it irritate many of the people you are addressing? Yes.
Are there alternatives that do not piss off the person reading your letter? Again, yes.

So why insist on on?

The argument for not ditching it is nobody can come up with a better alternative.
Dear Bloggs Ltd, Dear It?

To whom it may concern? that’s what I’d use.

Dear Sirs is completely and utterly standard in my industry - which is law. Good morning / Good afternoon is far too casual. Dear Sir / Madam is very unusual although we do see it.

@BreastedBoobilyToTheStairs - what do you say if not Dear Sirs?

I would only use Dear Sirs if I don't know the name of who I'm writing to i.e. before I find out who the solicitor is dealing.

Seriously you'd start a letter with To whom it may concern no Dear anyone or thing?

Dear Madam/Sir?

The original example was an internal email so addressing colleagues not 'the firm'.
In the case of communicating with a legal entity rather than a person or persons, 'Dear' is nonsensical, so start by scrapping that. Then, if you don't like 'To Whom it may concern', just something like
'To Bloggs & Co:'

Dear Colleagues?

Dear Sirs is ambiguous as to whether your missive is to the firm or to (Male);people within it.

Even if I did know the person I'd mark it FAO Wendy Bloggs, but the formal letter is still to Bloggs Ltd so should be address as Dear Sirs.

If you write it to Dear Wendy, what happens if Wendy is unable/ not the right person to deal with it. You don't want to get into a bun fight with Wendy, your grip is with Bloggs Ltd.

So direct it to Bloggs ltd and cut out the nonsense of calling a legal entity 'Dear'.
It's less ambiguous, surely lawyers don't like ambiguity?

“To whom it may concern” would look ridiculous... why use five words when you can use two?

Dear Colleagues doesn’t really work as people at another firm are not my colleagues.

But each to their own!!

FWIW I’ve received letters (in a work context) addressed to “Dear Sirs” and wasn’t bothered, as it is just convention (albeit a sexist one).