• by Ray Schultz , July 26, 2021

Here is a problem that may not yet have affected your firm, but it could. The London-based law firm Norton Rose Fulbright sent emails in Australia in which personal pronouns were changed from “he/him” to “she/her” and vice versa, according to Legal Cheek and RollOnFriday. 

The law firm’s IT system reportedly caused staff pronouns to change at random.

It’s not clear whether this issue could affect marketing systems, but it’s something to consider if you operate by email and have an audience that demands accuracy in personal pronouns at a time when new terms for gender identity have been established.

A spokesperson for Norton Rose Fulbright reportedly said the regrettable software error was “immediately addressed once detected and the issue was fully resolved within 30 minutes”.

The company added: “We’re proud of initiatives such as these to support our people and have had overwhelmingly good feedback about them.”

Some pronoun errors have caused high-profile embarrassment. 

For instance, singer Halsey will no longer do press, following an alleged instance of disrespect in a cover story in Allure magazine. "First your writer made a focal point in my cover story my pronouns and you guys deliberately disrespected them by not using them in the article," Halsey tweeted earlier this month. 

Halsey announced a shift to she/they pronouns in March.