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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:
Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us:
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.
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
Compliance with our legal and regulatory obligations
For our legitimate interests
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:
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:
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:
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:
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 RiskandComplianceenquiries@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.