Canadian Lawyers

[Darsa]

Hi all!

I am at work, and an interesting question came up. I just got off the phone with a lawyer from Canada, and will be sending him a piece of mail. When addressing the envelope, in America, I would add ", Esquire" to the end of his name. Since this attorney is from Canada, is that not done? Or is there something else that is used?

I feel really stupid asking this question, but I googled it without luck and even reined in my pride and asked around the office, but nobody is sure of an answer. Barrister and Solicitor were mentioned, but didn't know if it is attached the same way, or if Esquire is in fact used...

I figured if anyone knows, it would be someone on the DIS!

Thanks!

 

[Cookees68]

I have a couple of cases in Canada, and we generally just put "Mr. Mickey Mouse" on the correspondence. No other suffix is used. I looked through my case file, and the canadian lawyer's correspondence addressed to other canadian lawyers was addressed the same way.

I did notice that they always use a "Mr./Mrs." before the full name, then the complete firm name, and under the firm name, listed Barristers & Solicitors, then the address.

For example:

Mr. Mickey Mouse
Daisy, Duck, Pluto & Goofy LLP
Barristers & Solicitors
20 Queen Castle Lane
Suite 8200
Toronto, ON M5H 3R3

Hope this helps,

Michele

 

[Gigi22]

My late father, who was a lawyer, always referred to himself as a Barrister because he argued cases in court. A Solicitor does not do so. This may have changed, my father passed away about 20 years ago. He was following the English model to distinguish between barristers and solicitors. Law firms frequently are referred to collectively as both barristers and solicitors.
It is not wrong to use Esquire as a qualifier for a lawyer in Canada. If an individual lawyer is qualified as a Q.C. which means Queen's Counsel, he or she would probably prefer to see Q.C. following his/her name, rather than the more generic Esquire. A Q.C. is earned, Esquire is an honorary addition to a name.
So assuming for the moment that the lawyer is male, one can address that Canadian lawyer as:
Mr. John Smith, or,
Mr. John Smith, Esquire
but only if the lawyer is entitled to be called Q.C. can he be called:
Mr. John Smith, Q.C.
of course a woman lawyer can be a Q.C. too.
And yes, to mickaholic4077, once the current Queen passes away and is succeeded by Charles (presumably), the initialism will change to K.C.

 

[mickaholic4077]

I would imagine that once Chuckles becomes king,it'll be KC.