I think that Phoenix is the sort of person who would refer to himself as “Esquire” only as a joke, to the point that he sometimes forgets it genuinely applies to him. On the other hand, I think Miles is the sort of person who actually does use “Esq.” as part of his title in professional emails, even if he rolls his eyes a bit at it/never refers to himself that way while talking
Anyways, the entire purpose of this post was this: Phoenix making fun of Miles because he signed something as “Miles Edgeworth, Esq.” only for Miles to turn around and go, “The title applies to you as well.” And the smile slipping off of Phoenix’s face as he realizes that he only ever referred to himself as “Esquire” as a joke because he never thought of himself as being an actual lawyer (and yet Miles considered him a real lawyer anyways)
Plus: if this happens during the trilogy, you get the bonus of Phoenix feeling like he’s still just a rookie vs. Miles thinking of him as someone who saved his life; if this happens during the 7yg, it’s Miles slipping up and forgetting that Phoenix is disbarred; and if it happens post-AJ, it’s Phoenix realizing that oh right, he is a lawyer again