Why we have this policy
Archer, Evrard & Sigurdsson (referred to as ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ in this policy) take your privacy very seriously and we are committed to handling and protecting your data in accordance with the highest standards and applicable laws.
This policy sets out how and why we may collect, use, store and share your personal data in the course of acting for you.
It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements any such other privacy notices and does override them.
Data controller
Under the data protection legislation, the data controller exercises overall control over what and why data is collected and what is done with it.
Archer, Evrard & Sigurdsson is the data controller of your data when we act for you. We are responsible for the ways in which we collect, store, use and share your personal data
Our Data Protection Officer
We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for this privacy policy and all questions that may relate to it.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact our DPO by post at: Data Protection Officer, Archer, Evrard & Sigurdsson LLP, Forfar House, 97 Balham Park Road, London SW12 8EB or by email at: dpo@aeslawyers.com.
If you have any concern about this privacy policy or about the way in which we handle your data, please let us know. You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the UK regulator for data protection issues, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) - www.ico.org.uk.
What is personal data
Personal data means any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
There are special category data that include information revealing or concerning racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic and biometric data, information concerning a person’s health, sex life or sexual orientation. This does not include data about criminal allegations, proceedings or convictions.
What data do we collect about you
We may collect the following personal data about you in the course of advising you:
How we collect your data
We will collect most of this information from you directly, through direct interactions with you, either orally or via email.
We may also collect information in the following manners:
How we use your personal data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Under those laws, we must identify to you the lawful basis on which we collect and use your data.
Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the lawful bases we rely on to do so.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful basis, depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please let us know if you need details about the specific lawful basis we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
Purpose
Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
To provide legal services to you
Performance of a contract with you or to enable us to take actions at your request before entering into an agreement with you
To set you up as a client of our firm on our systems
(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To undertake anti-money laundering checks
Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To undertake credit reference checks via external third party agencies
For our legitimate interests (to ensure that you have satisfactory credit standing)
To gather and provide information required by external parties to comply with our professional, legal and regulatory obligations, including requests and enquiries by our auditors
Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To manage our relationship with you, including:
(a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy
(b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey
(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
(c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records up to date and to understand how clients use our services)
To administer and protect our business and our website including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data
(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)
(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To send you updates and newsletters (via email and post) about legal issues and developments that might be of interest to you and information about our services, including promotions or new services we offer.
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our services and grow our business)
Marketing
We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.
You can opt out of receiving promotional communications from us at any time by using ‘unsubscribe’ link in the emails you receive.
Change of purpose
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 get 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.
Who we share your personal data with
We may share your personal data with:
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.
Where your personal data is held
Your personal data may be held at our offices or those of third parties described above, as well as on our electronic systems.
Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring that we use specific contracts approved for use in the UK which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK.
Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.
Data security
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. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
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.
Data retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. By law we have to keep basic information about our clients for six years. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
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, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.
Your legal rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Those rights are:
What we may need from you if you want to exercise your rights
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.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could 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.
Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes
We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated on 28 May 2021.
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.