Dear cryptica-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
A female attorney can, and some do indeed use the title “Esquire”.
This same question was posed to the Illinois Bar Association. Here is
an excerpt of their answer:
“In 14th century England, when the title Esquire (Esq.) was first
recorded, it meant "shield-bearer," and referred to a county gentleman
aspiring to knighthood, who could gain that rank by apprenticeship to
a knight. But the original esquires were probably biblical, the title
having been used in 1 Samuel 14, when Saul's son Jonathan called the
young man who bore his armour his "armour-bearer."
But when Esquire crossed the ocean, it encountered an American society
that disdained honorifics indicating social rank. Article I, Section
9(8) of the United States Constitution forbades such titles: "No title
of nobility shall be granted...." So Esquire came to indicate
occupation, not social status. In the 19th century it designated a
justice of the peace or an associate judge, and finally was expanded
to include lawyers, who were always male. When female lawyers began to
practice, it included them-despite some protest. One American lawyer,
writing from England, said that it never applies to women there. He
added that he had heard "certain ribald comments on the receipt of
letters addressed to women when the name was followed by the title
Esq."
“In this country, however, only a small minority of letter-writers
disapproved of using the title for both sexes…”
ILLINOIS BAR ASSOCIATION
http://www.illinoisbar.org/Association/009-15f.htm
As for authoritative sources, assuming the quote above is not enough,
there is actually a legal opinion on the question from the New York
Bar Association. I am leaving out the discussion which you can read at
your leisure, but the gist of the legal opinion is that not only can
both male and female attorneys use the title “Esquire” in their
professional endeavors, but they may use the title outside the
professional arena as well in much the same was we presume as a
physician may uses the title ‘Dr.”, or a scholar uses the title “PhD”:
TOPIC: Name; use of title "Esquire"
DIGEST: Attorney may ethically use the title "Esq." after his or her
name, even when acting in a non-legal capacity.
QUESTION: May an attorney properly append the suffix "Esq." to his or
her name when not acting in a legal capacity?
CONCLUSION: For the foregoing reasons, the question presented is
answered in the affirmative.
THE ASSOCIATION OF THE BAR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
FORMAL OPINION 1994-5
COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL AND JUDICIAL ETHICS
May 5, 1994
ACTION: FORMAL OPINION
http://www.abcny.org/reports/show_html.php?rid=177
In more recent times the term has become a bit antiquated regardless
of gender. It would be just as correct, and perhaps grammatically
safer, to address the attorney in correspondence as Mr., Mrs. or Ms.
as appropriate, or to follow their name with the generic descriptor,
“Attorney at law”. The Constitution OF the United States, in Article,
I Section 9, clause 8 states: "No title of nobility shall be granted
by the united States…” so the term is NEVER used in verbal greeting or
as an introductory title as part of one’s name and rarely if ever does
someone describe themselves using the term “Esquire”. Since we do not
use titles in the United States, the term “Esquire” is indicative of
occupation rather than social status and therefore applies equally to
anyone in that occupation regardless of their gender. However, in our
present culture it is strongly recommended that we endeavor to use
terms that are not inclusive terms whenever possible thereby avoiding
misunderstandings and/or uncomfortable situations:
EXAMPLES OF DE-GENDERED LANGUAGE
http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/hurley/eng209w/principles/sexist_language.htm
DO’S AND DONT’S OF INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE
http://libweb.hawaii.edu/uhmlib/staffonly/inclusive.html
I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
OUTLAWS LEGAL SERVICE – ESQUIRE
http://www.outlawslegal.com/answers/esquire.htm
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
TITLE ESQUIRE FEMALE LAWYER
PROPER USE TITLE ESQUIRE |
Clarification of Answer by
tutuzdad-ga
on
23 Oct 2003 13:30 PDT
Sure, there are many examples. There are 15 or so attorney’s seen here
who are readily identifiable as female who are using the term
“Esquire” (and this was found only on my first search attempt):
NORTH CAROLINA ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN ATTORNEYS
http://www.ncawa.org/community_outreach.htm
In fact, Attorney Patricia A. Comeford, Esq. is the President and
Founder of THE ESQUIRE GROUP
http://www.esquiregroup.com/about_bios_pat.cfm a national recruiting
and consulting firm made of of men AND women, headquartered in
Minneapolis.
The Women’s Law Center of Maryland is loaded with women who freely use
this title with their names:
http://www.wlcmd.org/aboutus.html
One only needs to search using this search term to find and abundance
of female attorneys who use the title Equire with their names:
GOOGLE
"Women Attorneys Association" esq
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=%22Women+Attorneys+Association%22+esq
As for the alterative names (which I found no references to) or the
title “handmaiden”, I can only assume that your colleagues are
referring to the usage of the terms in the antiquated past and applied
their own modern (albeit it incorrect) logic to come up with such an
explanation. In olden days an armed male who acted as an escort was
called an “esquire”; one who was employed in service or bound by
conscription to protected his charge:
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/esquire
Presumably these strikingly clever fellows (read sarcasm) assumed that
the female equivalent to a male escort was a handmaiden, a subordinate
female attendant who accompanied, chaperoned and often escorted a
female.
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/handmaiden
While you and I know this is nonsense, it serves well to prove how the
truth can become so skewed over the years that researchers like us
eventually become employed to unravel what the speculators have spent
years tangling up. I don’t think your friends were trying to pull one
over on you, they probably really believed it. I can even see how they
might have come to this “handmaiden” conclusion and applied it to
modern day female attorneys. The truth is however that their
conclusion is a fairly goofy one and likely to generate a large (but
brief) round of laughter at the local "Women Attorneys Association"
meeting. But I wouldn't want to be the one who takes the podium to
tell it.
Regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
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Request for Answer Clarification by
cryptica-ga
on
24 Oct 2003 08:13 PDT
This is so funny! I deliberately didn't tell you who the 2
"Handmaiden" lawyers were because I didn't want you feel at all
self-conscious in how you worded your answer. #1 is my own father and
#2 one of his law partners. I printed out your answer for my Dad, who
solemnly read every word and conceded defeat. (The clincher was your
link to Patricia A. Comeford, Esq., based in MINNEAPOLIS --which is
where our "Handmaiden" guys live!) Oooh, Victory tastes so sweet!
And Pinkfreud's "Mary Jo" Esquire addition got a huge reaction as
well.
I need another day to post your rating, because while #1 admits it is
a 5 star answer, and particularly creatively written, #2 hasn't seen
it yet. I agreed to wait for his reaction. He may not want to go
down without a fight.
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