Electronic signature for lawyers and legal firms

Yes, without difficulty. Article 10 of the law of 31 December 1971 as amended by the Macron law requires a written agreement, but prescribes no particular form. Certyneo's advanced electronic signature (AES) fully satisfies the probative requirement, with the advantage of precisely timestamping the conclusion of the agreement before the service begins.

A legal act (Articles 66-3-1 to 66-3-3 of the law of 31 December 1971) is a private deed countersigned by one or more lawyers, which enjoys enhanced probative force and relieves the need for handwritten notation. Certyneo allows the client to sign electronically (AES), then the lawyer to countersign electronically — all archived with shared audit trail.

Advanced signature (AES), which Certyneo delivers natively, covers the vast majority of firm documents: fee agreements, engagement letters, protocols, incorporations. Qualified signature (QES) is reserved for documents where the law explicitly requires it (electronic authentic documents, certain notarial acts): in this specific case, we can direct you to a QTSP partner. Native QES integration is in our roadmap.

Yes. The audit trail embeds in the signed PDF all elements required by Article 1366 of the Civil Code: signatory identification (dual-channel OTP), qualified timestamp, document cryptographic hash, IP and geolocation. It constitutes a coherent body of evidence admissible before civil, commercial and employment courts.

Yes. Certyneo applies TLS 1.3 encryption in transit and AES-256 at rest, strict data isolation by law firm, and 100% Germany/EU hosting (IONOS) without any subcontracting outside the EU. A standard DPA is available at signup and compliant with GDPR requirements — it includes clauses specific to the confidentiality obligations of legal professions.

Yes. Certyneo natively handles sequential or parallel signatures between multiple parties and allows each lawyer to countersign the agreement on behalf of their client. The unified audit trail gathers all signatures and timestamps, facilitating archival to each law firm's file.

Our plans include 10-year archiving with probative value, which corresponds to the general civil statute of limitations (Article 2224 of the Civil Code). For documents requiring longer retention (estate, succession matters), extended archiving is available on request. Documents remain downloadable at any time by the law firm.

No, Certyneo is complementary: the RPVA covers exchanges with the courts (procedural acts), while Certyneo covers the lawyer-client relationship and exchanges between lawyers (fee agreements, protocols, settlement agreements). Both coexist without conflict and Certyneo stores no RPVA data.