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.
When we use your personal data we are regulated under the 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. Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the GDPR, other relevant UK and EU legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.
Our privacy policy must be read together with any other legal notices, terms of business and Retainer Letter provided to you or available on our website.
It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:
We, us, our | Mackrell. |
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 membershipGenetic and biometric data Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation |
The table below sets out the personal data we will or may collect in the course of advising and/or acting for you.
Personal data we will collect | Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us |
Your name, address and telephone numberInformation to enable us to check and verify your identity, eg your date of birth or passport details Electronic contact details, eg 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, eg the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction | Your National Insurance and tax detailsYour bank and/or building society details Details of your professional online presence, eg LinkedIn profile Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, eg if you instruct us on a family matter or a will Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, eg if you instruct us on matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant Your nationality and immigration status and information from related documents, such as your passport or other identification, and immigration information, eg if you instruct us on an immigration matter Details of your pension arrangements, eg if you instruct us in relation to financial arrangements following breakdown of a relationship Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category personal data), eg if you instruct us on 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, eg if you instruct us on discrimination claim Your trade union membership, eg if you instruct us on discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union Personal identifying information, such as your hair or eye colour or your parents’ names, eg if you instruct us to incorporate a company for you Your signature for the purposes of executing any documents relevant to your matter and our relationship with you |
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.
We collect most of this information from you. However, we may also collect information:
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, eg:
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.
The table below explains what we use (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:
What we use your personal data for | Our reasons |
To provide legal services to you | For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identityScreening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, eg under health and safety regulation or rules issued by our professional regulator | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, eg policies covering security and internet use | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you |
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can delivery the best service for you at the best price |
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable informationTo comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, eg in relation to our financial performance, client base, work type or other efficiency measures | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you |
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for youTo comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Updating and enhancing client records | For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contractTo comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, eg making sure that we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services |
Statutory returns | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligationsFor our legitimate interests or those of a third party, eg to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you |
Marketing our services to:—existing and former clients; —third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services; —third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings. | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to promote our business to existing and former clients |
Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies | For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, ie for credit control and to ensure our clients are likely to be able to pay for our services |
External audits and quality checks, eg for accreditations and the audit of our accounts | For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, ie to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standardsTo comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including new services.
We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for promotional 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 sell or share it with other organisations for their 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.
We routinely share personal data with:
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.
We may also need to share some personal data with other parties. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
Information may be held at our offices and those of our third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see ‘Who we share your personal data with’).
Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the EEA’.
We will keep your personal data 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 for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data.
To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), eg:
These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.
We will only transfer your personal data outside of the EEA:
If you would like further information please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
Access | The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data |
Rectification | The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data |
To be forgotten | The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations |
Restriction of processing | The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances, eg if you contest the accuracy of the data |
Data portability | 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 |
To object | The right to object:—at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); —in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, eg processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests. |
Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making | The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you |
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:
We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
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.
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.
This privacy policy was published on 23/05/2018 and last updated on 23/05/2018.
We may change this privacy policy from time to time.
Please contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.
Our contact details are shown below:
Our contact details |
Mackrell., Savoy Hill House, Savoy Hill, London, WC2R 0BU info@mackrell.com 020 7240 0521 |
If you would like this policy in another format (for example audio, large print, braille) please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ above).