Why do Lawyers Like to use the title "Esquire"?

Rebelbase ^ | 11/14/01 | Rebelbase

[Rebelbase]

I have noticed lawyers use the title "Esquire" more then any other professional. Is there a particular reason?

Cheese flamers are appreciated.

[Rebelbase]

I have been pondering this one today so that tells you how exciting my life has been lately.

Whats up with these guys. Is it an ego thing?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Caused they never got the E+MCsquared thing.

[DoughtyOne]

I think it's kindof a pig-latin thing shortened for personal reasons. Nobody wants to see squirrel on their paperwork.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Nor did I. E+MCsquared should read E=MCsquared, dagnabbit.

[anniegetyourgun]

ROFSAGL! (Rolling on floor splitting a gut laughing)

[KC Burke]

...use the title "Esquire" more then any other professional. Is there a particular reason?

They do that because we Contractors have the rights to the title "Playboy" and they are trying to compete.

[StoneColdGOP]

Sounds kinda sissyfied to me.

You'd probably get your butt whooped using that in any other line of work.

[N. Theknow]

It's Latin for "You're screwed".

[Rebelbase]

ROTFLMAO!!!#3 IS THE WINNER!....Thats like hitting 21 on the first deal.

[Rebelbase]

#9 post is recinded....#8 takes the lead!!!!!!!LMAO!!!!!!

[dirtboy]

[the bottle let me down]

I have noticed lawyers use the title "Esquire" more then any other professional. Is there a particular reason?

I don't know where the practice started, but I'm glad it continued. Use of the Esq. tag is very helpful. In a big corporate litigation, attorneys and paralegals have to examine tens of thousands of pages of paper for documents so that attorney-cleint communications aren't turned over to the other side. by putting the label in after their name, it becomes easier to flag documents for closer review. Of course, all of the pages have to be reviewed, but every little bit helps.

I'm sure that most of them do it as an ego thing, but I'll take the beneficial side effect.

[Rebelbase]

Can the RoterRooter man use the title "Esquire"? Or is it reserved for "White Collar" folk?...if so who makes the rules?

[nicmarlo]

For what it's worth, I work at a law firm; Esq. (or esquire), is routinely placed after the lawyers name and generally only used in letters/envelopes addressed to them. Esquire comes from the Latin scutarius, or "shield bearer." They used to be thought of as a protector, I believe, from the 1400's or so.

[Cachelot]

Whats up with these guys. Is it an ego thing?

Who knows? There was one esquire eschoir who was a little esquirrely. Apart from that, here's the definition:

Esquires are the younger sons of peers, the heirs male of knights, esquires of the body, and officials such as judges, sheriffs, and officers of the royal household. Esquire is not actually a title, although it may be used after a gentleman's surname; as, William More, Esquire.

Beats me why it has become a lawyers title, though. Probably connected with the judges/sheriffs thing.

[Rebelbase]

Riley, can you ping one particluar harbor...I can't get the syntax of his name right.

[Alex Murphy]

I was always under the impression that "esquire" was latin for "gelding"

[MindBender26]

"Esquire" is an Old English term/title for a "man who does not work with his hands," not a laborer, (back in days when most men did work with hands, farmers, etc.) .

Rather pompus these days.

[shempy]

I think they go with "esquire" because "rat-bastard" was already taken.

[Diogenesis]

It seems to mean that they can lie endlessly, and never have to pay the price for perjury.

[dep]

webster's unabridged, 1913:

Esquire \Es*quire"\, n. [OF. escuyer, escuier, properly, a shield-bearer, F. ['e]cuyer shield-bearer, armor-bearer, squire of a knight, esquire, equerry, rider, horseman, LL. scutarius shield-bearer, fr. L. scutum shield, akin to Gr. ? skin, hide, from a root meaning to cover; prob. akin to E. hide to cover. See Hide to cover, and cf. Equerry, Escutcheon.] Originally, a shield-bearer or armor-bearer, an attendant on a knight; in modern times, a title of dignity next in degree below knight and above gentleman; also, a title of office and courtesy; -- often shortened to squire.

Note: In England, the title of esquire belongs by right of birth to the eldest sons of knights and their eldest sons in perpetual succession; to the eldest sons of younger sons of peers and their eldest sons in perpetual succession. It is also given to sheriffs, to justices of the peace while in commission, to those who bear special office in the royal household, to counselors at law, bachelors of divinity, law, or physic, and to others. In the United States the title is commonly given in courtesy to lawyers and justices of the peace, and is often used in the superscription of letters instead of Mr.

it is interesting that it apparently has a common root with the word "scrotum." about which i shall, exercising self control far beyond any i have ever exercised before, not comment.

dep

[Alex Murphy]

it is interesting that it apparently has a common root with the word "scrotum." about which i shall, exercising self control far beyond any i have ever exercised before, not comment.

So my comment about geldings wasn't so far off the mark, after all?

[blutobob]

It means "shield bearer" in Latin, and attorneys defend and offer shielding to their clients. es·quire (skwr, -skwr)
n.

1. A man or boy who is a member of the gentry in England ranking directly below a knight.
2. Abbr. Esq. Used as an honorific usually in its abbreviated form, especially after the name of an attorney or a consular officer: Jane Doe, Esq.; John Doe, Esq.
3. In medieval times, a candidate for knighthood who served a knight as an attendant and a shield bearer.
4. Archaic. An English country gentleman; a squire.

---

[Middle English esquier, from Old French escuier, from Late Latin sctrius, shield bearer, from Latin sctum, shield. See skei- in Indo-European Roots.]

[Timesink]

Because there aren't enough letters in "ego" to satisfy them?

[Self Ruler]

Common usage and convenience and so others know they are lawyers.

Black's Law Dictionary:

In English law, a title of dignity next above gentleman, and below knight. Also a title of office given to sheriffs, serjeants,and barristers at law, justices of the peace, and others.

In United States, title commonly appended after name of attorney; e.g. John J. Jones, Esquire.

[Henchman]

They have a stake in a shoe polish company.

[Henchman]

Ahhh, like BUGS BUNNY, Esq.

[bfree]

Because a$$hole was taken already.

[Dacus943]

Because X42 has already taken S.O.B.!

[Clive]

From Black's Law Dictionary:

Esquire. In English law. A title of dignity next above gentleman and below knight. Also a title of office given to sheriffs, serjeants and barristers at law, justices of the peace and others.

Serjeants and barrristers are the professions able to argue cases before the Royal courts (Queen's Bench and Common Pleas) which in the US is equivalent to the Superior Courts. The history of allowing audience only to barristers goes back to Henry II having to shake up the court system and instill some professionalism, so he required that only those who had apprenticed at one of the four Inns of Court would be heard by his courts.

A journeyman lawyer was a barrister, a master lawyer was a serjeant. Solicitors were separately trained in a different educational stream

Solicitors are lawyers who do most of the research and work and perform such legal tasks as conveyancing.

In the colonies before the revolution, barristers and solicitors were in short supply and to become a barrister meant having to return to England to attend one of the Inns of Court.

Accordingly, graduates of American law schools practiced as agents (the legal term being for agent being "attorney"). American attorneys served the functions of both barrister and solicitor, a practice later adopted by Canadian lawyers who are all now called barristers and solicitors.

The use of Esquire as an honourific is gradually disappearing in most of the common law, but then honourifics in general are disappearing.

The short answer is that anyone who calls himself "Esquire" is pulling rank.

God, I get pedantic on a slow day.

[TheTopRead]

Rebel, the answer to your question lies here:

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[StoneColdGOP]

Pingzie!

[Poohbah]

30+ posts and not ONE post about how it's REALLY because they work for the British Crown, and how they have plotted to take away our rights, and how the U.S. has been bankrupt since 1812...man, the tinfoilers are slipping!

[oldironsides]

Try a a Col. airborne Army guy with 2 RVN tours using it. Oh yes a purple heart and bronze star with V. He is a conservative lawyer that earned any damn name he wants to call himself.

[Iwo Jima]

I NEVER use it. I think that it is pretentious beyond belief. I'm P.O.'d when people use it in corresponding to me (i.e., as part of MY name). If I choose not to use it in my name, what right have they to insert it for me?

[Iwo Jima]

Well, at least that's descriptive. "Esquire" really says nothing other than "I'm a pompous, self-important prick."

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Answer;

[alloysteel]

This is a term they have arrogated to themselves, since nobody else seemed to be using it. It once referred to a member of the English Gentry, just below the rank of Knight. At one time it was applied to positions of honor here in the US, as a justice of the peace, supposedly to indicate public acknowledgment as a gentleman. I suppose it is an effort to polish the image of lawyers, but they have instead sullied the meaning of yet another term of respect.

[Iwo Jima]

Speaking of pricks, there he is.

[riley1992]

Riley, can you ping one particluar harbor...I can't get the syntax of his name right.

The syntax? First let's tackle the spelling. Heehee

[StoneColdGOP]

"that lying, cheating, thieving a**hole".

Fine for your friends, but what do your enemies call you?

[StoneColdGOP]

Guess so...

[riley1992]

Boy, if that ain't the truth. I never trust anybody who uses it

Such a fine, upstanding young man you are.

[Iwo Jima]

I hear you. The hoity-toity set who are the equivalent of the powdered wig crowd in England can never get it off the dime. But you can work with a good old country lawyer who knows the law and the practical realities of the situation. You can actually use the law to resolve differences and settle disputes.

[Main Line of Mid-America]

No kidding. I don't love the law, but I like it pretty much. Don't like the practice of law, though.

Maybe that's why I'm just a lowly bank examiner.

However, every once in a while someone is impressed with the old J.D.