Cooley, Fenwick Ask SEC to End Manual Paper Signing Due to Virus (1)

The SEC should let companies do away with “wet” signatures for quarterly reports and other filings because of the coronavirus, three Silicon Valley-based law firms said.

Securities and Exchange Commission rules allowing companies to submit electronically signed documents but requiring them to keep manually signed pages on file remain burdensome to follow during the pandemic despite recent agency guidance, Cooley LLP, Fenwick & West LLP, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC said in an April 15 petition.

SEC staff issued the guidance March 24 in response to the outbreak. Signatories previously couldn’t retain the manually signed pages on ...