In light of ongoing lockdowns and work from home arrangements
making it impractical for legal documents to be signed and
witnessed in 'wet' ink, the Federal and State Governments
have passed temporary laws for signing documents electronically.
The initial temporary measures have been extended through to
2022.
However, this article will focus on the Federal laws as to
execution of documents by companies, and the laws in Queensland as
to execution of deeds. The information in this article is current
as at 24 September 2021.
Execution by a Company under s127 of the Corporations
Act
The default requirements for execution of documents by a
company, being for execution by two directors, or one director and
one secretary (or a sole director if the company only has one
director), is governed across Australia by section 127(1)
of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (s127
Execution). There are other ways a company can execute a
document (ie. by a power of attorney or another
