We are committed to ensuring that any personal data we hold about you is protected in accordance with data protection laws and is used in line with your expectations. Humphries Kerstetter LLP is responsible for your personal data. For the purposes of the applicable data protection law (in particular, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (‘the GDPR’)), your data will be controlled by Humphries Kerstetter LLP.
This privacy notice explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it and how we protect it.
‘Personal data’ is any information that can be used to identify a natural person. It includes identifiers such as your name, address or email address. Some of the information we collect may be ‘special categories’ of personal data’ such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and information about your health, including any medical condition and medical records.
In the course of our business, including your use of our website, we may collect some or all of the following from you:
We do not collect any Special Categories of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data), or information about criminal convictions and offences, unless this has been expressly agreed with you, and is necessary for the provision of our services to you.
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform our services or may have to cancel the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case we will notify you at the time.
We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through:
We only collect and/or use your personal data when the law allows us to. We will collect and/or use your personal data only for the following purposes:
We will only use your Personal Data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to obtain an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your Personal Data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.
We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing. We may use your personal information to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which services, information, and events may be relevant for you (we call this marketing). You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or if you provided us with your details when you have completed a form, answered a survey, and in each case you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.
You can ask us (or third parties acting on our behalf) to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time. Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of your use of or request to receive information regarding our other services, events, or resources.
When you use our website, you can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly.
We may share your personal data with certain trusted third parties with whom we have contractual arrangements. These third parties may include specific third party service providers to which we outsource (in full or part) services, for example archival, auditing, reference checking, professional advisory (including legal – such as barristers – accounting, financial and business consulting), IT support, mailing house, delivery, technology, website, social media, research, banking, payment, client contact, data processing, insurance, forensic, litigation support, data room, case and practice management, marketing and security services, event hosting and organisation.
Where necessary for the purposes described in this privacy notice we may also share your personal information with regulatory authorities, courts, tribunals, government agencies and other law enforcement agencies. We will use reasonable endeavours to notify you before we do this, unless we are legally restricted from doing so.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. When you leave our website, or follow a link we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website or application you visit.
Some of our external third party service providers (such as Google and Mailchimp) are based and/or transfer data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA. Whenever we are responsible for the transfer of your personal data out of the EEA, we try to ensure that an equivalent degree of protection is afforded to it.
We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission. Where we use providers based in the United States, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the United States.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so, or where we think it appropriate even in the absence of any legal requirement.
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
You can request details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data by contacting us. However, personal information provided in connection with the provision of our legal services will usually be retained for six years and in any event no longer than fifteen years unless we agree otherwise with you or there is a requirement for us to continue retaining the personal data, such as a regulatory or statutory requirement. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see ‘request erasure’ below for further information.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, including the right to do the following:
If you wish to exercise any of these rights at any time or if you have any questions, comments or concerns about this privacy notice, or how we handle your data please contact us. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
If you have continue to have concerns about the way your data is handled and remain dissatisfied after raising your concern with us you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner Office (ICO). The ICO can be contacted at Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or ico.org.uk. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance via email to reception@humphrieskerstetter.com.
We keep this notice under regular review. You will be notified of any changes where appropriate.