"Dear colleagues" was voted the preferred salutation for general correspondences on a recent survey by FICPI's Practice Management Committee (PMC).
The survey wanted to identify how firms should address correspondences when the name, gender or status of the person you are writing to is not known in advance - such as when addressing a law firm department or docketing group of another firm.
Over 160 FICPI members from 45 different countries contributed their impressions to the survey. "Dear colleagues" was preferred by about 75% of respondents, followed by "Dear Sir/Madam" with about 45% of preferences for correspondences within the IP Community. These were also preferred across geographies, with informal greetings such as “Hi” and “Hello” finding limited acceptance only in the US/Canada and Australia/NZ markets.
Of note, the survey results showed that “Dear colleagues” is preferred only within our community of IP firms, when writing to each other, and “Dear Sir/Madam” is preferred when talking to the clients and the outside world in general.