Florida law firm redefines client service with eSignLive’ online electronic signature service
. Gunster has begun using Silanis’ e-SignLiveTM electronic signature service to give its clients the ability to electronically sign documents at any time and from any location in the world. Moving signing processes to the web enhances Gunster’s already innovative extranet site, which gives clients easy, instant access to key business files. Based on initial client reaction, the law firm predicts that electronic signatures will be a technology its clients and 165+ attorneys will not be able to live without. “Given the current economic climate, our clients have become more value conscious,” says Robert Arzonetti, Gunster attorney. “By using Silanis’ e-SignLiveTM with our extranet site, our clients can sign important business agreements quickly and securely, giving them an important competitive edge in today’s economy.” Subscribing to Silanis’ e-SignLiveTM will also help Gunster eliminate the costs and long wait-times associated with hand signing by eliminating the need to ship large volumes of paper back and forth to clients who can be scattered throughout the world. Gunster has 18 practice areas, spanning from construction to immigration to private wealth services with 165+ attorneys across 8 offices in Florida. Its corporate group recently ran a pilot of e-SignLiveTM with its end-user agreements, which give Gunster permission to post their clients’ documents online. Within days, Gunster clients themselves were recognizing the tremendous potential for Silanis’ cloud-based software. “The first client who used e-SignLiveTM is already requesting that we set it up so they can use it to sign their company minutes,” says Arzonetti. “Instead of having to use email and wait for directors, who are often in different time zones, to print, sign, scan and resend the documents, it would be more efficient to just put the minutes in the e-SignRoom and have everyone sign them there.” In the future, Gunster hopes to roll out Silanis e-SignLiveTM across all its practice areas, using it for a wide variety of legal applications. Currently, agreements such as documents of incorporation and M&A documentation can literally take up shelves and shelves of space. By moving documents and signing processes online, the firm can eliminate the need for expensive office space. And by archiving legal documents electronically, Gunster will be able to retrieve them faster in the future.
Arzonetti noted that Gunster brought the same level of due diligence to its selection of Silanis’ e-SignLive as it does to its well regarded law practice.
“We approached our selection of an e-signature software with intense scrutiny,” says Arzonetti. “The fact that Silanis has partnered with IBM for its e-SignLive online signature service gave us a lot of confidence in the solution. We were also very impressed with how easy it was for our clients to use and the fact that it records all web pages and documents as part of the e-signing process.”
Silanis’ e-SignLiveTMrecords the entire web process from start to finish, including all web pages and documents that were presented to users, how long signers spent reviewing information, and all actions that were taken, creating an audit trail that provides much stronger legal evidence than is possible with traditional pen and paper processes.
About Gunster Established in 1925, Gunster is one of Florida’s oldest law firms. Today it is a vibrant, forward-thinking firm of 165+ attorneys working within 18 networked practice areas, and operating in eight offices around the state. Gunster’s 18 practices address the many facets of business: Banking and Financial Services; Business Litigation; Corporate; Environmental and Land Use; Immigration; International; Labor and Employment; Leisure and Resorts; Private Wealth Services; Probate, Trust and Guardianship Litigation; Real Estate; Securities; Tax; and Technology and Entrepreneurial Companies.
True to its mission to be Florida’s law firm for business, Gunter keeps its finger on the pulse of Florida’s business climate, and continually strives to provide its clients with cutting edge, practical solutions that will add maximum value to their businesses.
About e-SignLive Silanis’ e-SignLiveTMis a subscription-based cloud service, which is integrated with the IBM LotusLive platform to combine electronic signature capabilities with online collaboration and business networking. Its e-SignRoom component enables multiple documents to be reviewed and signed electronically by multiple people, while also giving business process owners real-time visibility into time-sensitive e-signing activities in order to monitor who has signed what documents and when.About SilanisSilanis' solutions have processed hundreds of millions of e-signatures since the company was founded in 1992 (50 million in 2010 alone), making it the most widely used e-signature solution. The world’s largest insurance and financial services companies, government agencies, and service providers depend on Silanis to accelerate business transactions and reduce costs while improving compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. The company’s on-premise, cloud and SaaS e-signature solutions eliminate manual, paper-based processing to enable e-commerce and e-government transactions to be executed fully electronically from start to finish.