Privacy notices

Privacy policy

At Trowers & Hamlins LLP we take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

Activities which we undertake where we use your personal data are regulated under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as ‘Controller’ of that personal data for the purposes of the GDPR.

Key terms

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:

We, us, our  

Refers to each Trowers & Hamlins entity, as defined in the Legal notices section of this website.

Controller  

Under the GDPR, this is generally defined as the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data. Legislation specifies the identity of the controller in certain limited situations.

Processor 

For the purposes of the GDPR, the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.

Data Privacy Partner 

Lucy James

Personal data  

Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual

Special category personal data 

Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, genetic and biometric data, data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation

Personal data we will collect about you:

• Your name, address and telephone number
• Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, such as your date of birth or passport details
• Electronic contact details, such as your email address and mobile phone number
• Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation
• Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you
• Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, e.g. the source of your funds if we are acting on a transaction for you

Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us:

• Your National Insurance and tax details
• Your bank and/or building society details
• Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, for example if you instruct us on a family matter or a will
• Details of your pension arrangements, for example if you instruct us on a pension matter
• Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, for example if you instruct us on a matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant
• Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category  personal data), for example if you instruct us on a matter related to your employment or in which your employment records are relevant
• Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs, e.g. if you  instruct us on a discrimination claim
• Your trade union membership, for example if you instruct us on a discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union
• Your medical records, for example if we are acting for you in a personal injury claim

This personal data is required to enable us to provide our service to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.

Special Category Data

Depending on the context of your matter and instructions, we may need to collect special category data (which is also known as sensitive personal data). We shall treat any such information with extra care and security measures. 

How your personal data is collected

Our primary source of information shall be from you directly, but we may also collect information from the following sources, if it is necessary for us to do so in the context of your instructions or in order to meet our legal and regulatory duties.

• from publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry
• directly from a third party, e.g. sanctions screening providers or online identity checking services
• from a third party with your consent, e.g.:
  • your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor
  • consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter
  • your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators
  • your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals
• via our website we use cookies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see the Notices and accessibility section of our website).
• via our information technology (IT) systems, e.g. case management, document management and time recording system.

How and why we use your personal data

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so.

Below explains what we use your personal data for (processing) and our reasons for doing so.

To perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract

• We will need to process your personal data in order to carry out your instructions for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or when you have given your consent for us to do so.
• This also includes maintaining and updating your personal data within our client records.

Compliance with our legal and regulatory obligations

• This includes using your personal data to comply with our obligations under the anti-money laundering legislation and to conduct checks to identify our clients and verify their identity.
• We may also use your personal data in order to screen for financial and other sanctions or embargoes.
• Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies.
• Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety regulation or rules issued by our professional regulator

For our legitimate interests

• A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.
• Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control, so that we can be as efficient as we can so that we can deliver the best service for you at the best price.
• Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information
• Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, e.g. in relation to our financial performance, client base, and work types to ensure delivery of service.
• Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you.
• Marketing our services to both existing and former clients and third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services.

Please note this does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.

Marketing communications

We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about legal developments or events that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services.

We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for marketing purposes (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.

We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never share it with other organisations outside of the Trowers & Hamlins entities for marketing purposes.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:

• contacting us
• using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails (where applicable)

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

Who we share your personal data with

We share personal data with:

• professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts
• other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, e.g. your mortgage provider or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction or Companies House
• If you require advice from lawyers in any of our International offices
• our insurers and brokers
• external auditors in relation to our ISO or Lexcel accreditations, and the audit of our accounts
• on certain occasions, if required with our bank
• We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Where your personal data is held

Information may be held at our offices where the lawyer(s) who is/are dealing with your matter is/are based.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will keep your personal data, in accordance with the time periods allowed the applicable legislation, after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:

• to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf
• to show that we treated you fairly
• to keep records required by law

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary or legally required. Different retention periods apply for different types of data.

Personal data supplied for the purpose of due diligence checks is only used for that purpose and is destroyed five years after the termination of the business relationship between us.

Please contact us if you would like any further information around the retention periods of our data.

Transferring your personal data out of the EEA

We are an international law firm and our offices work collaboratively with each other. In order to deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data to our other offices which are located outside the European Economic Area (EEA). The level of data privacy protection in countries outside the EEA may be less than offered within the EEA. We have robust data transfer agreements between our offices and where third parties sometimes process our data for us outside of the EEA, we take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal data is protected and secure.

Your rights

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

• The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data through making a 'Data Subject Access Request'

• The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data
• The right to require us to delete your personal data, in certain situations under the right to be forgotten
• The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data
• The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party in certain situations
• The right to object at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing and in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us or see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please email riskandcompliance@trowers.com or see below our 'How to Contact Us' section of the website.

Please ensure you include enough information to identify you (your full name, address and client or matter number, if you have it), and let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

Keeping your personal data secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully or unlawfully modified. Any access by our employees and partners to personal data is done so only in an authorised manner and subject to our duty of confidentiality.

This firm is accredited with Cyber Essentials Plus and is Lexcel accredited.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

How to complain about the use of your data

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone 0303 123 1113.

Other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites outside our control and which are not covered by this Privacy Notice. If you access other sites using the links provided, the operators of these sites may collect information from you which will be used by them in accordance with their privacy notice, which may differ from ours.

Changes to this privacy policy

This privacy policy was published in July 2019.

We may change this privacy policy from time to time, as required.