Attorney Abbreviation: Atty. and Att’y

Atty. as the everyday attorney abbreviation

Atty. keeps the first letter and the key consonants of the word, then closes with a period to show letters were left out. It is the form most people recognize, and it fits short spaces like a form field labeled "Atty. name" or a column header in a case list.

Place it before the full name, like other titles: Atty. Marcus Hill. After a name, or when the word stands alone, write attorney in full: "Marcus Hill, an attorney in Dayton." In a formal letter or a story, many writers skip the abbreviation and simply use the full word, which always reads clearly.

Att'y in legal citations

Lawyers, judges and law students follow citation manuals that shorten common words in a fixed way. In those rules, attorney becomes Att'y, and attorneys becomes Att'ys. The apostrophe marks where letters were removed, the same way it does in a contraction.

You will see this form mostly in court opinions, law review articles and briefs, for example in the name of an office: "Off. of the Att'y Gen." Outside legal writing, Atty. is easier to read and more familiar.

Short forms for attorney titles

Power of attorney does not mean the person is a lawyer. It is a legal document that lets one person act for another. Read more on the POA page. The plural of attorney general is attorneys general, because general describes the attorneys.

Atty. vs Esq. and other look-alikes

Esq. is short for esquire, a courtesy title that follows a lawyer's name: Rosa Kim, Esq. It does the same job as Atty. but sits in a different place, so do not use both at once. Writing "Atty. Rosa Kim, Esq." doubles the title.

Two other short forms show up nearby. JD, juris doctor, is the law degree; see the JD page. And the word lawyer has no standard abbreviation, so people write it in full. For other job titles, browse the common abbreviations hub.

Writing the plural and possessive

• Plural: attorneys, or Attys. in tight spaces. Never write attornies.
• Singular possessive: attorney's, as in "the attorney's office."
• Plural possessive: attorneys', as in "the attorneys' fees were split."
• Attorney general possessive: attorney general's office.

Possessive forms of the abbreviation, such as Atty.'s, look awkward. In that case, spell out the word.

Quick tips

1. Use Atty. on forms, directories and business cards.
2. Use Att'y only if you follow a legal citation guide.
3. Put the abbreviation before a name and spell the word out everywhere else.
4. Choose either Atty. before the name or Esq. after it, not both.