Introduction

This Privacy Notice describes the ways in which DeVetter Law (“we” and “us”) collect, manage, store and dispose of data relating to individuals. We may amend or update it. We encourage you to read this Privacy Notice.

What Personal Information We Collect

 

For purposes of this Privacy Notice, “Personal Information” means any information that, by itself or in combination with other information, identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or can reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, to an individual, a device, or a household.  Personal Information does not include information that is anonymized, publicly available information from government records, deidentified or aggregated data subject information, information excluded from relevant data protection law by preemption by sector-specific privacy laws.  The Personal Information we collect may include, but is not limited to: Contact Information, Applicant Information, Employment Information, Client Service Data, Marketing Information, Technological Information, Special Categories of Personal Information, and Other Data.  

How and Why We Collect Personal Information

 

We collect Personal Information from many sources. It may come directly from individuals (data subjects), indirectly from individuals (i.e. interactions with the website), or from clients, colleagues and publicly available sources.

As a law firm, we regularly receive Personal Information in connection with the provision of our services and as part of our professional activities. For example, we may collect Personal Information:

• As part of our business intake procedures;
• When clients and prospective clients seek legal advice;
• When providing legal services to our clients;
• That is publicly available (e.g. social media);
• When it is required for the provision of services from our vendors;
• When individuals browse or interact with our website or use any of our online services, including registration details when you use, or register to use, any of our sites or services;
• From third parties who provide it to us;
• In carrying out our business, including records of interactions or correspondence with us, including your attendance and participation at events or meetings we hold (including when we record such events or meetings, of which you will be provided notification, where applicable);
• In connection with any application for employment or interviews if you apply for a role with us and take part in an interview or selection process; and
• When individuals email us or provide Personal Information to us in other circumstances, such as requesting details about or attending and participating in a firm sponsored event.

We collect Personal Information, among other reasons, for:

1. Providing legal services and responding to requests for legal services;
2. Managing our business relationships, including billing, accounting, collection and support services;
3. Providing information relating to our services either in response to specific requests or generally to develop our business;
4. Processing employment applications;
5. Invoicing for our services and obtaining payment;
6. Responding to complaints;
7. Meeting our legal and regulatory obligations;
8. Making appropriate business development plans to better support our clients’ needs for legal services;
9. Preventing, detecting and responding to fraud or potential fraud or other illegal activities;
10. Improving the functionality of our website and other IT services; and
11. Leveraging communications data from our Exchange server to run analytics which advance our business development initiatives.

How We Use Personal Information

We use Personal Information only as set out in this Privacy Notice, as well as other purposes for which you give your consent. We will not collect additional categories of Personal Information or use the Personal Information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice. 

Whom We Disclose Personal Information To

We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to Personal Information to perform the functions for which they have been retained. Our agreements with these third parties will describe the purpose of the processing, will not permit them to use Personal Information for any purposes other than as is required to perform the function for which they have been retained and will commit them to comply with applicable data privacy standards. We also enter into data processing agreements and model clauses with our vendors and clients whenever required and appropriate. 

Third parties may include, but are not limited to: 

• Providers of data services such as website hosting, data hosting, and SaaS tools;
• Outsourced IT service providers;
• Financial institutions;
• Benefits and Human Resources service providers;
• Professional services providers;
• Building and facilities services;
• Shipping or direct mail organization;
• Event partners and sponsors;
• Paper-based service providers (i.e., storage, shredding, courier, printer, etc.);
• Parties assisting us in recruitment and staffing, including contractors;
• Our auditors and professional advisers;
• Our professional indemnity insurers;
• Travel service providers;
• Our clients, as it relates to our professional services offering;
• Other people in your organization; and
• Regulators and public bodies, including in connection with tax and VAT payments, compliance with obligations relating to the prevention and reporting of financial crime and compliance with other applicable laws.

We may also disclose any information, including Personal Information, as we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with a subpoena, any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request.

How We Protect Personal Information

We have appropriate physical, technical, and administrative safeguards in place designed to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. You should keep in mind, however, that no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. In particular, email sent to or from our website may not be secure, and you should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via email. Please also read our Disclaimer before sending any information to us.

How Long We Retain Personal Information

Personal Information will be retained by us for as long as the information is required to fulfill our legitimate business needs or the purposes for which the information was collected, or for as long as is required by law.

International Data Transfers

Please note that in countries outside your own country, standards of data protection might apply which are different from those which apply in your own country. By sharing Personal Information with us, including via our website, you acknowledge and consent that your data may be transferred across national borders. 

Your Rights

We are committed to keeping the Personal Information you provide accurate and up to date. Please assist us with this commitment by informing us of any changes to your Personal Information.  

You have control regarding our use of your Personal Information for direct marketing. You can choose to not receive such communications at any time. If you no longer wish to receive any marketing communications, remain on a mailing list to which you previously subscribed, or receive any other marketing communication, please follow the unsubscribe link in the relevant communication.  We will note the rights of individuals to unsubscribe from mailings and/or manage their preferences in all our mailings, and requests to unsubscribe may also be made by clicking on the link in our newsletter.

Children’s Rights

Our website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may provide any Personal Information to us through our website. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not access, use, or provide any information on the website or on or through any of its features. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any Personal Information from or about a child under 13, please contact us.

Web Tracking

Cookies

A “cookie” is an element of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then be stored on your system. We use different kinds of cookies on the Site. 

Do-Not-Track Signals

Your browser may allow you to send “do-not-track” requests to websites you visit. If you enable this feature and your browser sends a “do-not-track” request, the Site will respond by deactivating all nonessential cookies set on the Site.

Google Services

We use several services provided by Google:

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

This Site uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”).

Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Please note that, for the Site, we activated the IP anonymization, i.e., Google will truncate/anonymize the last octet of your IP address to ensure an anonymized collection of IP addresses (IP Anonymization). In exceptional cases only, the full IP address is sent to and shortened by Google servers in the USA.

On behalf of the website provider, Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the Site, compiling analytics, demographics and interest reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website provider. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. Furthermore, you can prevent Google’s collection and use of data (cookies and IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available here.

Further information about how Google uses advertising cookies can be found here.

GOOGLE MAPS

Additionally, because we use visual mapping services on the Site, please be aware that the Google Maps/Earth Terms of Service, including the Google Privacy Notice also applies.

Third Party Sites

Our Site may contain links to other third-party sites. When you click on one of these links you are visiting a website operated by someone other than us, and the operator of that website may have a different privacy notice. We are not responsible for their individual privacy practices. We encourage you to investigate the privacy notices of these third-party operators.

Revisions to This Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Notice at our discretion and at any time. Please check this Privacy Notice regularly. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will post the updated notice on the Website and update the notice’s effective date. Your continued use of our Website following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.