Rethink Ink: Digital Signatures Are Faster & Safer

Rethink Ink: Digital Signatures Are Faster & Safer

Pen and paper signatures? Such madness must cease!

By D. Casey Flaherty All Articles 

Law Technology News

June 3, 2013

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Pen and paper is an inferior option for executing legally binding agreements. Yet a recent study commissioned by Adobe Systems Inc. found that 98 percent of surveyed managers "still rely on hard copy in the 'last mile' to deliver contracts to get clients and customers to sign on the dotted line." Such madness needs to cease. Electronic signatures are an idea whose time has long since come.

First, a confession of bias: I lose physical objects. At this point, family members gift me key finders for sport. They wager on how long it will take me to misplace both my keys (weekly) and the finder (immediately to three months). Paper, in particular, seems to vanish into thin air despite the fact that I use so little of it — the 20 pages currently in my office are conspicuous and easy enough to sift through.

Serial mislaying of physical objects is an unfortunate trait for a lawyer. I find solace in having company. Porous paper trails plague even the largest, most sophisticated organizations. Consider some recent legal events:

• Missing and unauthenticated documents were at the heart of mortgage lenders' $25 billion settlement with the Department of Justice.



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