Privacy Notice - Clerksroom Direct

Welcome to Clerksroom Direct's Data Protection Privacy Notice. The purpose of this notice is to provide you with information the type of personal data we collect, how we use it, how we ensure security and comply with the GDPR.

Our full provisions on privacy can be found in our Privacy Policy which is available on request using the contact details below.

1. Introduction

The companies operating under the "Clerksroom" brand include: European Administration Limited (a company incorporated in England and Wales with company number 04207276) ("EAL") who operate Clerksroom, a website through which you can book the services of member barristers and mediators; Clerksroom Direct Ltd (a company incorporated in England and Wales with company number 09338685) ("CDL") who operate a directory of barristers; and Clerksroom Mediation Limited (a company incorporated in England and Wales with company number 14025764) ("CML") who arrange mediation services. These companies are collectively referred to as “Clerksroom”, "we", "us" and "our".

The companies operating under the “Clerksroom" brands respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy will inform you as to how they look after your personal data when you visit their websites (each a "Website" and together the "Websites") (regardless of where you visit from), express an interest in the services, use their services and/or otherwise contact them and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Any reference to "you" or "your", means you as a customer of our services, as a user of each Website and/or as an individual who otherwise contacts us (either on behalf of yourself, your business or another individual or organisation).

a. Status

Clerksroom takes data privacy seriously, we want you to trust us with your information and be assured that your rights and privacy are protected. This privacy notice describes the information we collect about you, how it is used and shared and your rights regarding it.

Clerksroom is bound by applicable data protection laws in respect of the handling and collection of your personal data. For the purposes of data protection laws, each of the companies trading under the "Clerksroom" brand are a controller and responsible for your personal data:

EAL is registered as a controller with the Information Commissioner's Office under number Z5553847;
CDL is registered as a controller with the Information Commissioner's Office under number ZA708518;
CML is registered as a controller with the Information Commissioner's Office under number ZB387909.

Individual barrister and mediator members of Chambers (or any that you may come into contact with through our services) are data controllers in their own right operating independently of us, and each member has their own Privacy Notice which applies to their handling of personal data set out on their profile page which can be found here. They have a contractual arrangement with Clerksroom to act as their data processor.

b. Changes

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated on 1/11/22. Accordingly, please continue to review the privacy notice whenever accessing or using the Websites and/or our services to ensure you are happy with any and all changes.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

2. When and how we collect your personal information

Information is usually provided to us by the instructing party for the purposes of the delivery of legal services. Most personal data is used as required for a case in which a member of Chambers is instructed.

We may collect data from you in the below instances;

You have submitted your contact details through an online form, request or email
You have contacted us via email, telephone or on our website
You have visited our website
You have used our online services
You are a current or former employee, member, associate, mediator, or supplier
You have submitted an application for employment, membership or pupillage
You sign up to an event we are hosting or promoting
We may also obtain data through third parties or publicly available services; for example, when we need to verify information given to us or as part of the delivery of services. However, we do not purchase “lists” containing data.

3. What data we process about you

The type of information we may collect from you includes:

Personal details such as your name, address, date of birth, email address, phone number and other contact information
Payment or bank details
Next of kin and family details
Curriculum vitae, details on education, employment history and professional or regulatory arrangements
Financial information
Identification documents including photographic data
Technical data
Interests and preferences

Where relevant, we may also process special categories of data as defined by the UK GDPR, this includes personal data that reveals:

Racial or ethnic origin
Political opinions
Religious and philosophical beliefs
Trade union membership
Genetic data
Biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person
Data concerning health
Data concerning sex life or sexual orientation
Criminal offence data

When we do process such data, the legal basis will either be because it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity or because of a legal obligation.

4. Why we process your personal information

We use the information you have given to us for the following purposes:

Provision of legal services and representation
Management and administration of Chambers
Direct enquiries to an appropriate member of staff or member
Investigation and resolution of complaints or concerns
Communication about products, services, surveys, news, updates and events
Maintenance of internal records and contracts
For billing services including making statutory returns, providing quotations and invoicing
Activities relating to recruitment and employment of staff, members and our pupillage application process.
To meet our legal and regulatory obligations
For marketing purposes
To monitor and improve the use of our website
To conduct anti money laundering, terrorist financing or conflict of interest checks

We will not use your information for purposes that are not clear when you provide your details. If a different legal basis to process your personal data becomes necessary, we will consider whether this secondary purpose is consistent with the original purpose and contact you if we consider this appropriate.

a. Marketing data

We process personal data in order to provide appropriate information about services, seminars and events for existing and prospective clients.

If you attend an event, we will only share your personal information once we have obtained prior consent from you.

We will not send out unsolicited commercial e-mail unless you have given your prior consent. Where you have given us consent to send you marketing, you have the right to withdraw this at any time.

All marketing emails give the recipient the opportunity to unsubscribe. You can also unsubscribe by contacting Kylie Cureton by email using cureton@clerksroom.com or by telephone on 01823 247 247 or by post at Equity House, Blackbrook Park Ave, Taunton, TA1 2PX.

5. Sharing your information

Clerksroom has contractual arrangements with a number of data processors, who in turn may use sub-processors.

We may share your information with:

instructing solicitors or other lawyers involved in your case;
members of Clerksroom including barristers, trainee barristers and mediators;
our IT service providers;
our Chambers’ management staff and suppliers who provide administrative services for our practice;
accounting and banking providers and officials;
third party contractors and suppliers necessary for the administration of chambers;
members of the Judiciary and court officials;
legal advisors in the event of a dispute, complaint, or other legal matter;
regulators or arbitrators, where complaints or disputes arise;
law enforcement officials, government authorities, regulatory bodies or other third parties, to meet any legal obligations; and
any other party where you have consented to the sharing of your personal information.
Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy or the prospective buyer may use the same to evaluate their possible purchase.

We may be required to disclose your information to the Police or Intelligence Services where required or permitted by law.

We may transfer your personal information to suppliers, service providers and lawyers based outside of the UK or European Economic Area (EEA) for the purposes described in this privacy notice. The transfer will be subject to one or more appropriate safeguards including an approved adequacy decision and/or a contract with the recipient that means they must protect it to the same standards as the UK.

Where we transfer personal information outside of the UK or EEA, we will conduct a risk assessment to ensure the level of protection is equivalent to that guaranteed under the UK GDPR. This includes assessing the data protection laws and practices of the third country, potential access by public authorities of the third country and the rights and remedies available to data subjects. Where necessary, we will adopt supplementary measures to bring the level of protection of the transferred data up to the required standard by the UK GDPR.

6. Our lawful bases for processing

We will only use the information we collect about you lawfully. Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are;

When we have a contractual obligation including the provision of services, employment contracts where Clerksroom and relevant data subjects are parties
To comply with legal obligations such as for tax declaration purposes and to comply with other legal or regulatory obligations.
We have a legitimate interest, including:

a. the provision of legal services and advice;

b. administration purposes such as management, accounting, fee collection, banking and debt recovery;

c. fraud prevention;

d. ensuring our network and security are secure;

e. reporting threats to public security.

f. Where we have obtained your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting Kylie Cureton by email using cureton@clerksroom.com or by telephone on 01823 247 247 or by post at Equity House, Blackbrook Park Ave, Taunton, TA1 2PX.

a. Consent

By using and/or registering on our websites or contacting us by email or through our websites, you consent to the collection, use and transfer of your information under the terms of this privacy notice.

b. Special category processing

We may process special category data as defined by the UK GDPR only where can rely on the below exemptions:

Where we have obtained explicit consent;
It is necessary for the purposes of carrying out our obligations under employment and social security and social protection law;
It is necessary for the exercise or defence of legal claims or judicial acts; and
For reasons of substantial public interest, this includes collecting equality and diversity data from members, staff, and applicants to meet our regulatory obligations.

Special category data is stored and processed under robust security conditions and anonymised where possible.

7. Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites you visit. Cookies help make our websites work and provide information to us about how users interact with our site. We use this information to improve our websites.

The cookies we use help to provide us with anonymised, aggregated technical information. This is principally so that we can make sure that the websites are easy to navigate, identify the areas that are of particular interest to visitors and generally improve the sites and our services. The information that we collect in this process will not identify you as an individual. We do not seek to identify individual visitors unless they volunteer their contact details through one of the forms on the site. In some circumstances our records will identify organisations visiting our site and we may use that information in managing our relationship with those organisations, for example, in considering how to develop the services that we offer them.

By using our websites, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.

When you access our websites, our cookies are sent to your web browser and stored on your computer. If you wish to remove them, you can manage this via the settings on your browser but note that this may impact your ability to use this website. The way to clear cookies varies from one browser to another. You should look in the “help” menu of your web browser for full instructions. You can find out more information about cookies here.

a. Analytics and anonymisation

Our websites uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies (see above), to help us analyse how users use our sites. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the websites will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. We have activated IP-anonymisation, which will anonymise your IP address by cutting it short. In most cases this procedure will be carried out within the area of the European Union and other parties to the European Economic Area Agreement. In exceptional cases the whole IP address will be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and then shortened there. Google will use the information on behalf of Clerksroom for the purpose of evaluating your use of the websites, compiling reports on website activity for us and providing us with other services relating to website activity and internet usage. The IP address that your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics, will not be associated with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of these cookies via the settings in your browser as explained above. You can also opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics in the future by downloading and installing Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on for your current web browser: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en

8. Security

Clerksroom uses technical and organisational security measures to protect personal data and information against loss, destruction, alteration and any unauthorised disclosure or access by third parties.

Toby Ward has overall responsibility for data protection and security. He can be contacted by email at dataprivacy@clerksroom.com, by telephone on 01823 247 247 or by post at Equity House, Blackbrook Park Ave, Taunton, TA1 2PX.

We store most of our data electronically in a high-security private cloud, operated and located in the UK. Access to the data is protected by role-based security privileges and all logins have two-factor authentication.

Clerksroom has carefully selected 3^rd party suppliers who have robust information security management systems certified to the ISO27001 security standard.

We have further information barriers available in cases of conflict or where members of Chambers appear on more than one side of a case.

9. How long we hold your data for

We will keep your personal data in an identifiable form for only as long as necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice, or as required or permitted by applicable law. We will delete, destroy, or anonymise your personal data around 7 years after the end of processing unless:

There is an unresolved issue, such as a claim or dispute;
We are required to do retain the data to fulfil our legal, statutory or regulatory obligations; or
There are overriding legitimate business interests, including but not limited to fraud prevention and protecting an individual’s safety and security.

Most case data is retained for a period designed to cover regulatory, legislative or insurance thresholds and obligations. The default retention period for personal data associated with a case is 7 years following the end of the case, contractual arrangement or the period required by the appropriate jurisdiction if longer.

10. Telephone calls

We routinely record all telephone calls to our Taunton office switchboard for security and training purposes but the recording ends when the call is transferred onwards.

11. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

i.Your right of access – you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information

ii.Your right to rectification – you have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete

iii.Your right to erasure – you have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances

iv.Your right to restriction of processing – you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances

v.Your right to object to processing – you have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances

vi.Your right to data portability – you have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you have us to another organisation, or to you in certain circumstances.

If you wish to send us a data subject rights request, please contact us with enquiry topic “Data Privacy”, or alternatively send a signed letter addressed to Equity House, Blackbrook Park Ave, Taunton, TA1 2PX.

We endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible, and within 30 days. Any requests to exercise your rights are free of charge unless these are considered excessive or there are duplicate requests; in which case we reserve the right to charge an administrative fee for our time in dealing with the enquiry.

12. Getting in touch

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, please contact us with enquiry topic “Data Privacy”, or alternatively send a signed letter addressed to Equity House, Blackbrook Park Ave, Taunton, TA1 2PX.

13. How to complain

Whilst we aim to resolve any issues relating to the processing of your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint to the Information Commissioner. The Commissioner’s contact details are:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

Website: https://ico.org.uk/

End of Privacy Notice