A lawyer's or notary's email signature accompanies professional communications, sometimes privileged ones: it deserves more care than a contact block pasted once and forgotten. This guide summarizes the mentions to include, the ones that stay optional, and what the applicable Quebec regulations actually require. For a firm that wants to standardize these signatures for everyone, see ATOM Signatures for legal practices.
Professional mentions to include
Neither the Code of ethics of advocates (CQLR c. B-1, r. 3.1) nor the Code of ethics of notaries (CQLR c. N-3, r. 2) requires a specific mention in an email signature. The following good practices still help correspondents identify you correctly:
- Full name, as it appears in the Order's register.
- Title — “lawyer” or “notary” — to avoid confusion with another role at the firm.
- Bar or notary membership number, which lets a correspondent or a court verify it quickly.
- Firm name, with your direct professional contact details.
Confidentiality notice: what actually works
Many firms add a short confidentiality notice at the bottom of the email signature. The Barreau du Québec's IT guide offers a useful nuance: notices automatically appended at the bottom of a message are “of no help”, because they arrive after the confidential content and are generally ignored by recipients.
The Barreau recommends instead flagging confidentiality right in the email subject line (for example “Confidential” or “Protected by professional secrecy”), before the message is even opened. A short signature notice remains a common and harmless practice, but it should not be your only safeguard for genuinely privileged information — encryption or a secure delivery method are still needed for that content.
Sample signature
This model groups the mentions described above, with fictitious data:
Marianne Leclerc, lawyer
Barreau du Québec, No. 245789
Leclerc & Associates
514 555-0148 · marianne.leclerc@example.com
This email may contain confidential information or material protected by professional secrecy.
Frequently asked questions
Does the code of ethics require lawyers or notaries to state their title in an email signature?
No. Neither the Code of ethics of advocates (CQLR c. B-1, r. 3.1) nor the Code of ethics of notaries (CQLR c. N-3, r. 2) requires a specific mention in an email signature. Stating your title and membership number remains good practice for identification, not a formal obligation.
Does a confidentiality notice at the bottom of my signature actually protect privileged information?
Not by itself. The Barreau du Québec's IT guide notes that notices automatically appended to the bottom of an email arrive after the confidential content and are generally ignored by recipients. The Barreau recommends instead flagging confidentiality in the email subject line (e.g. “Confidential” or “Protected by professional secrecy”), in addition to a short signature notice if you want one.
How do you standardize the email signature across a whole law firm or notary office?
When each person repastes their own signature on every device, non-compliant variants show up sooner or later: a wrong title, a missing notice, an outdated membership number. A signature deployed directly in Outlook from the Microsoft 365 directory stays consistent for the whole firm, partners and support staff included, mobile too.
Deploy this signature to the whole firm. Instead of asking every lawyer or notary to repaste their signature, ATOM Signatures deploys it directly in Outlook from your Microsoft 365 directory — desktop, web, Mac and mobile — with the same template, the same mentions and the same confidentiality notice for everyone.
To go further: email signatures for law firms and notaries and professional email signature templates.
Sources
- Code of ethics of advocates (CQLR c. B-1, r. 3.1) — LégisQuébec
- Code of ethics of notaries (CQLR c. N-3, r. 2) — LégisQuébec
- IT guide, Barreau du Québec — barreau.qc.ca
This article is provided for information purposes only and is not legal or ethical advice. For questions specific to your practice, consult the Barreau du Québec, the Chambre des notaires du Québec, or a legal advisor.