Counsel sign-off by emailed link

When to use it

Use sign-off by email when the attorney will not take a client login: it is the same counsel sign-off, recorded from a link instead of an account.

The company admin (or a seated counsel) sends the attorney a link; the attorney reviews and signs off on a page that needs no TakePublic account. The report reads Signed off exactly as after the in-app ceremony, and the submission gate accepts either.

1. While the report is in Counsel review, open Reviews and signatures and press Sign off by email on the Counsel sign-off by emailed link card.
2. Enter the attorney's full name, law firm and email; a US mobile, bar number and state are optional. The mobile lets the attorney have the one-time code texted if the code email does not arrive; the attorney can add bar details when signing.
3. Press Send sign-off link. The card lists the link with its state (Link sent, Signed off by emailed link, Link expired, Filing changed since sent, Link revoked) and a Revoke.

What the attorney does

The attorney verifies the inbox with a one-time code, reads the exact document, and presses Confirm sign-off.

1. Open the link; it is a public page for that filing. A 6-digit code goes to the invited address (ten minutes, five tries, then a new code).
2. Once the code is entered, read the review brief generated when the link was sent, the document exactly as the workspace shows it, the document and frozen package hashes, and for a 10-K or 10-Q the recorded tag review.
3. Read the attestation, tick I agree to sign electronically, type your name as the invitation names you, and press Confirm sign-off.
4. Not ready to sign? Under the sign step, Request changes sends the filing back to the company with a note saying what to change (the note is required). The report returns to Changes requested with your name and reason as its status line ("Changes requested by Priya Raman · Correct the price in Table I"), and the link closes; the company sends a new link once the filing is updated.

• The one-time code and the link both go to the same address, so the signature is bound to that inbox; the code works once and is never stored in the browser.
• For a 10-K or 10-Q, the company or in-app counsel records the tag review of the frozen package first; the public page shows it read-only and holds the sign-off until it exists.
• After signing, the attorney can download a copy of what they signed (the document plus a signing certificate) from the same link for 30 days, and a confirmation email carries the document hash.

An account instead of the link

Counsel with a TakePublic account can fix a value on a Form 3, 4 or 5 in place during counsel review; counsel on a link reads, requests and signs off. Once the code is entered, the link page offers Create your account, and the company approves it.

1. The attorney presses Create your account and signs up with the address the link was sent to; the code already confirmed it, so sign-up asks only for a name and a password.
2. The company's admins see the request, such as "Priya Raman (priya@example.com) asked for a counsel account", under Needs you on Home and on Settings › People › Team, with Approve and Decline.
3. Approve makes the attorney a counsel seat on the company and, while the filing is still in counsel review, its named counsel; the emailed link closes. Make Priya Raman default counsel for new filings, in the attorney's name, is ticked unless the admin unticks it.

• Decline closes the request; the attorney keeps reviewing and signing off through the link.
• The attorney hears the answer by email. The person who sent the filing to counsel still cannot sign it off, and the attorney adds bar details when signing, as before.

Taking the filing back

A company admin can always recall a filing from counsel review: Back to draft in the step card's menu returns it to draft for your team to edit, revokes the attorney's link (or a pending counsel invitation) so it stops working, and tells a seated counsel by name. Counsel signs off again after you send it back.

If the named counsel loses the seat while the filing waits on them (removed from Team, re-roled, or the firm's engagement ended), the step card reads Counsel seat ended with the name instead of Waiting on them, the company's admins are told to choose who signs off, and Choose who signs off names the next counsel.

Only the counsel the filing names can sign off or request changes; any other counsel seat on the company reads it. Change who signs off in the step card's menu sends it to someone else in one step: the previous attorney's link or invitation stops working, their Needs you row goes, reminders reach only the new counsel, and the previous attorney gets one email saying the filing went to another attorney.

If the code does not arrive

Look in Spam, Trash and the Promotions or Updates tabs first, and search all mail for the sender: every code comes from noreply@mail.takepublic.com with a subject that names the form and the word "code". Mail servers sometimes accept a message and then file or delete it by a rule you never see; TakePublic keeps the mail provider's delivery record for every code, so the company can confirm that your mail server accepted it.

1. Search all mail (including Trash) for noreply@mail.takepublic.com. If the code is there, enter it; a code you already received still works until it expires.
2. Add noreply@mail.takepublic.com to your contacts or safe senders, then request a new code: Gmail and Outlook stop filtering a sender you have saved.
3. If nothing arrives, ask your IT team to allowlist the domain mail.takepublic.com (Google Workspace: Apps › Gmail › Spam, phishing and malware › Email allowlist, or a Content compliance rule that bypasses the spam folder; Microsoft 365: the allowed senders list in Defender, or a mail flow rule) and to check for a rule that deletes or quarantines mail from it.
4. If the invitation carried your mobile number, press Text me the code on the page and the code arrives by text instead. If it did not, ask the company to send a new invitation with your mobile, or to a different email address; the link is bound to the address it was sent to, so the company must send it, not you.

What is recorded

The sign-off is the same record as the in-app ceremony, with method emailed link: the attestation, the typed signature, the law firm and bar details, the document hash and where applicable the frozen package hash. It also carries the E-SIGN evidence the ceremony collects: the verified email and when the code proved it, the consent statement and its version, the signing time in Eastern Time and UTC, and the signer's IP address and browser.

• Every step, from the link sent and the code checked to the sign-off, a request for changes, a revocation or a recall, is on the company's audit chain.
• The workspace's sign-off line names the attorney, their firm and the date and says it came by emailed link, with the same weight as an in-app sign-off; the evidence binder exports the record with its method.
• A link can be revoked by the company admin or counsel at any time before it is used; a used link (signed or returned with changes requested) cannot sign again.