The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission building in Washington. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

Lawyers at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Fenwick & West and Cooley submitted a petition Thursday asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to amend its rules to allow electronic signatures in addition to manual signatures on documents filed with the agency.

Lawyers from the firms wrote that clients already use electronic signatures to execute multibillion-dollar merger deals, underwriting agreements and legal opinions.

"Our clients have indicated to us that the current COVID-19 situation has already accelerated these trends and significantly increased the difficulties associated with detaining manual 'wet' signatures," they wrote. "Moreover, we believe the massive transition to remote and disparate work environments during these unprecedented times will increase the business trends we were already witnessing and change the way commerce is conducted towards more virtual interactions, including executing transactions and agreements."

The SEC allows documents filed through its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, or EDGAR, to display an "s / name" format on the signature line. But parties must still obtain documents with manual signatures, store them for at least five years and make them available to SEC officials upon request.

Wilson Sonsini partner Richard Blake said Friday that the rule made sense initially. But document-signing software has advanced to a point now where the old wet-signature rule doesn't make sense.

"We just feel that the technology has caught up with the times," he said.

The petition, signed by six attorneys from the valley's three biggest tech law firms, includes a proposed amended rule and a request that the SEC start the formal rule-making process.

An SEC spokeswoman Friday declined to comment on the petition.

The SEC's Division of Corporation Finance on March 24 announced in a staff statement that while it expects everyone to comply with the usual manual signature requirements "to the fullest extent practicable" during the pandemic, officials will allow some flexibility. For instance, a document-signer can provide a photo or .pdf image of the manually signed document to the filer to memorialize the date and time the paper was signed.

The petition-signers wrote that while they appreciate the temporary leeway in the rules, "the staff statement could be of greater effectiveness to registrants, with no compromise to the integrity of the document signing process, if registrants were permitted to use existing, proven electronic signature processes with respect to filing documents with the commission."