Legal Question in Business Law in California

This is a bit unusual, and you might want to have the contents (terms) of the contract reviewed by your own attorney before signing it. Notaries perform in two different capacities, one involving acknowledgment of your signature, and a more formal one involving your attesting to the truth of an instrument, which I think is called a "jurat" (this is not a very good description, apologies to any notaries that read this). On the other hand, whether a contract is notarized or not has little if any effect on its validity and interpretation. Even an un-notarized deed is valid between the parties to it and others with knowledge of its existence; it simply cannot be recorded without notarization.

I'd look for provisions in the contract requiring notarization, such as a power of attorney clause. Some caution is advised, or at least ask for an explanation.

Signing a contract with a notarized signature does not add anything legal to the contract. A contract is in effect and enforceable once it is signed by all parties. There is no requirement that a signature be notarized. Under the terms of the contract itself the parties could place a requirement on one or more parties that their signature be notarized, but barring that specific written requirement, the signatures do not have to be notarized. Therefore, when a party requests another party to have their signature notarized, it is not so much a requirement of the contract, it is more a wish to have some additional assurances that the party's signature is authentic, and that there is a legal witness (the notary public) to that fact.

Therefore, to answer your specific question, no, both signatures do not need to be notarized to make the contact valid and enforceable. The company apparently wants to make sure your signature is authentic (probably so that in the future you couldn't claim that you didn't really sign it). If you wished to, you could request that the company's signature be notarized as well, but realistically, it wouldn't give you much, if any, additional protection - and the very small amount of additional protection that it would give you, would only relate to whether the company's signature was authentic or not.

Good luck with your new job! If you need additional legal help, feel free to call me.

Susan Adler, Esq.

310 295 0055