Why law firms sign electronically
Legal work runs on signed paper, and most of the delay in a new matter is the paper itself. An engagement letter goes out by email as a PDF, the client prints it, signs it, scans it on a phone and sends back a crooked image with one page missing. Then the partner countersigns and someone has to send the final copy back again. Multiply that by every retainer, every NDA and every settlement and it adds up to days.
With SignPe, you upload the document, place a signature field for the client and one for the responsible partner, and send. The client receives an email with a Review & Sign Document button, signs in the browser on whatever device they have, and the partner is emailed when it is their turn. When the last signature lands, every party receives the completed PDF automatically.
On admissibility
Electronic signatures are recognised under the US ESIGN Act and UETA, the EU’s eIDAS regulation and India’s IT Act 2000. Whether a particular document can be signed electronically — wills, some property deeds and certain court filings have their own rules — is a question for your own legal judgement. SignPe supplies the signature and the evidence trail.
Legal contract management
Client agreements and retainer contracts are the most frequent documents a firm sends, and the most repetitive. A few SignPe features make them quick to prepare and easy to keep track of:
- Field types for every detail. Signature, Initials, Full Name, Email, Company, Designation and Date fields, plus Text fields for fee amounts or matter references and Checkmark fields for “I have read and agree” clauses.
- Initials on every page. Place Initials fields throughout a long retainer and the client fills them all at once with Apply to all fields of the same type.
- Drafts for documents still under review. Leave the wizard and choose Save Draft; the document waits in your Drafts folder until the terms are agreed, and a draft never uses up a document.
- One list, every status. Filter Documents by Draft, Action Required, Waiting for Others or Signed to see which client agreements are still outstanding.
Word users don’t need to convert anything: SignPe accepts DOC and DOCX as well as PDF and images, up to 20 MB per upload. See multiple file formats for the full list.
Litigation and case documents
Case paperwork tends to involve more people and tighter deadlines: witness statements, settlement agreements, consent orders that need both parties and both sets of counsel, affidavits of service and authorities to act. SignPe handles each party as a separate signer with their own fields, and unlimited signers apply on every document.
- Set signer order when the sequence matters — the claimant, then the defendant, then counsel for each. Anyone who opens the document early sees “Waiting for <name> to sign” instead of a signature box.
- Observers keep a supervising partner or opposing counsel informed of progress without asking them to sign.
- Decline gives a party a clear way to refuse (“Decline to sign?”), and you are notified straight away rather than discovering it at the hearing.
- In person Signing lets a client sign on your tablet during a meeting or at court, with the same record as a remote signature.
When a deadline is close, use Remind to email every signer who hasn’t signed yet, with a push and in-app notification for those who use the app. Automated reminders also nudge signers so agreements don’t stall — see signing reminders.
Attorney–client agreements
Engagement letters and legal service contracts are often the first thing a new client receives from your firm, so the experience matters. Clients without a SignPe account sign as guests: they open the link, accept the electronic-records consent screen and sign — no account to create, nothing to download. They can draw a signature with a smooth, ink-like pen, type one in a script font or upload an image of their own.
On the firm’s side, partners save their signature, initials and the firm’s stamp in My Signatures and apply them in a tap. When a partner is away, delegation lets them hand their signing to a colleague in the same organisation, who can sign on their behalf; the delegate is notified so nothing waits on an out-of-office reply.
For clients in India, Aadhaar eSign adds OTP verification through eMudhra and returns a PKI-signed PDF with a SHA-256 document hash and an evidence certificate — a stronger form of signer identity for agreements where that matters. The legality guide covers how e-signatures are treated under Indian law.
Following your firm’s signing policy
Most firms have rules about who may sign on the firm’s behalf, in what order, and what must be kept on file. SignPe doesn’t replace that policy, but it gives you the controls to follow it consistently:
| Typical policy rule | How SignPe supports it |
|---|---|
| Client signs before the firm countersigns | Set signer order, with the partner last |
| A supervising partner must be kept informed | Add them as an observer |
| Only authorised people sign for the firm | Assign the firm’s fields to that partner; delegation stays within your organisation |
| Superseded versions must not be signed | Void the old document — its link stops working |
| Signing evidence is kept with the matter | Download the audit trail PDF and file it |
Only the sender can void a document, and voiding is final, so a withdrawn engagement letter can’t be revived by accident. Read more on voiding documents.
A typical engagement letter workflow
Prepare the letter
Upload the engagement letter as a Word file or PDF, or import it from Google Drive, OneDrive, Box or Dropbox.
Place the fields
Add the client’s Signature, Full Name and Date fields, Initials on each page and a Checkmark for the terms. Add the partner’s Signature and Stamp fields at the end.
Order and copy
Choose Set signer order with the client first and the partner second. Add the supervising partner or a paralegal as an observer.
Send and follow up
Track the letter from Sent to Opened to Signed. If the client goes quiet, send a reminder from the document.
Countersign and file
The partner is emailed when it is their turn. Once both have signed, everyone gets the final PDF and you download the audit trail for the matter file.
Confidentiality and evidence
Client documents are privileged and should be treated that way. Only a document’s participants can open it. Every connection uses HTTPS/TLS, API request payloads are additionally encrypted with AES-256, and documents are kept in encrypted cloud object storage. The e-signature security page explains each layer.
If a signature is ever disputed, the audit trail is what you reach for. It records the document ID, when the document was sent and completed, and for every signer when they were emailed, when they viewed it and when they signed. Status changes — including declines and voids — are logged with date and time on the document’s Activity timeline.
