Privacy Policy 2023
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.
We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so we are subject to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). We are also subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) in relation to services we offer to individuals in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Key terms
It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:
We, us, our
Athi Law LLP
Our data protection officer
Mr Hem Athi, Partner
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 data
Biometric data (where used for identification purposes)
Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation
Data subject
The individual who the personal data relates to
Personal data we collect about you
Personal data we will collect
Your name, address, and telephone number
Information 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
Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, eg the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction
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 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 on a pension matter or 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, 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 a discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union.
Personal identifying information, such as your eye colour or your parents’ names, eg if you instruct us to incorporate a company for you.
Your medical records, eg if we are acting for you in a personal injury claim.
We collect and use this personal data to provide legal services. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing those services.
How your personal data is collected
We collect most of this information from you, direct. However, we may also collect information:
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from publicly accessible sources, eg Companies House or HM Land Registry;
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directly from a third party, eg:
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sanctions screening providers;
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credit reference agencies;
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client due diligence providers;
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from a third party with your consent, eg:
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your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
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consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
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your employer and/or trade union, professional body, or pension administrators;
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your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
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via our website—we use cookies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see our website cookie policy
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via our information technology (IT) systems, eg:
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via our case management, document management and time recording systems;
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from door entry systems and reception logs;
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through automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, CCTV and access control systems, communications systems, email, and instant messaging systems;
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How and why we use personal data
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason, eg:
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where you have given consent;
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to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
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for the performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
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for our legitimate interests or those of a third party.
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal data, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We will carry out an assessment when relying on legitimate interests, to balance our interests against your own.
What we use your personal data for
Providing services to you
Preventing and detecting fraud against you or us
Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity
Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes
Other activities necessary to comply with professional, legal, and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, eg
under health and safety law or rules issued by our professional regulator
To enforce legal rights or defend or undertake legal proceedings
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries, or investigations by regulatory bodies
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, eg policies covering security and internet use
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training, and quality control
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information
Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, eg in relation to our financial performance, client base, services range, or other efficiency measures
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems
Protecting the security of systems and data used to provide services
Updating and enhancing client records
Statutory returns
Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments
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
Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies
External audits and quality checks, eg for ISO, Lexcel or Investors in People accreditation and the audit of our accounts.
To share your personal data with members of our group and third parties that will or may take control or ownership of some or all of our business (and professional advisors acting on our or their behalf) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale or in the event of our insolvency
In such cases information will be anonymised where possible and only shared where necessary
Our reasons
To perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
For our legitimate interest, ie to minimise fraud that could be damaging for you and/or us
Depending on the circumstances:
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
—for our legitimate interests
Depending on the circumstances:
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
—in other cases, for our legitimate interests, ie to protect our business, interests, and rights
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
For our legitimate interests, ie to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you
For our legitimate interests, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price
Depending on the circumstances:
—for our legitimate interests, ie to protect trade secrets and other commercially valuable information;
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
For our legitimate interests, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price
Depending on the circumstances:
—for our legitimate interests, ie to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us;
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
We may also use your personal data to ensure the security of systems and data to a standard that goes beyond our legal obligations, and in those cases our reasons are for our legitimate interests, ie to protect systems and data and to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us
Depending on the circumstances:
—to perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
—for our legitimate interests, eg making sure we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Depending on the circumstances:
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
—for our legitimate interests, eg to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you
For our legitimate interests, ie to promote our business to existing and former clients
For our legitimate interests, ie to ensure our clients are likely to be able to pay for our services
Depending on the circumstances:
—for our legitimate interests, ie to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards;
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Depending on the circumstances:
—to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
—in other cases, for our legitimate interests, ie to protect, realise or grow the value in our business and assets
How and why we use your personal data—Special category personal data
Certain personal data we collect is treated as a special category to which additional protections apply under data protection law including:
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personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership;
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genetic data;
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biometric data (when used to uniquely identify an individual);
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data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation.
Where we process special category personal data, we will also ensure we are permitted to do so under data protection laws, eg:
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we have your explicit consent;
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the processing is necessary to protect your (or someone else’s) vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent; or
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the processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
How and why we use your personal data—sharing
See ‘Who we share your personal data with’ for more information on the steps we will take to protect your personal data where we need to share it with others.
Marketing
We will use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone, or post) about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions, or new services.
We have a legitimate interest in using 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 marketing information. If we change our marketing approach in the future so that consent is needed, we will ask for this separately and clearly.
You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by:
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contacting us at infor@athilaw.co.uk
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.
We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell or share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.
Who we share your personal data with?
We routinely share personal data with:
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third parties we use to help deliver our services to you, eg payment service providers, warehouses, and delivery companies;
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other third parties we use to help us run our business, eg marketing agencies or website hosts;
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third parties approved by you, eg social media sites you choose to link your account to or third-party payment providers;
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our insurers and brokers;
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our bank[s];
We only allow those organisations to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on them to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.
We or the third parties mentioned above occasionally also share personal data with:
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our external auditors, eg in relation to the audit of our accounts, in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
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our and their professional advisors (such as lawyers and other advisors), in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
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law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals, and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
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other parties that have or may acquire control or ownership of our business (and our or their professional advisers) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, or asset sale or in the event of our insolvency—usually, information will be anonymised, but this may not always be possible. The recipient of any of your personal data will be bound by confidentiality obligations
Who we share your personal data with—further information?
If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
Where your personal data is held
Personal data 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’).
How long your personal data will be kept
We will not keep your personal data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it is used.
As a general rule, if we are no longer providing services to you, we will delete or anonymise your account data after 6 years. However, different retention periods apply for different types of personal data and for different services.
Following the end of the of the relevant retention period, we will delete or anonymise your personal data.
Transferring your personal data out of the UK and EEA
The EEA, UK and other countries outside the EEA and the UK have differing data protection laws, some of which may provide lower levels of protection of privacy.
We do not generally transfer your personal data to countries outside the UK and EEA.
Under data protection laws, we can only transfer your personal data to a country outside the UK/EEA]where:
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the UK government has decided the particular country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘adequacy regulation’) further to Article 45 of the UK GDPR. A list of countries the UK currently has adequacy regulations in relation to is available here.
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in the case of transfers subject to EEA data protection laws, the European Commission has decided that the particular country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘adequacy decision’) further to Article 45 of the EU GDPR. A list of countries the European Commission has currently made adequacy decisions in relation to is available here.
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there are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you; or
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a specific exception applies under relevant data protection law.
Where we transfer your personal data outside the UK, we do so on the basis of an adequacy regulation or (where this is not available) legally approved standard data protection clauses recognised or issued further to Article 46(2) of the UK GDPR. In the event we cannot or choose not to continue to rely on either of those mechanisms at any time, we will not transfer your personal data outside the UK unless we can do so on the basis of an alternative mechanism or exception provided by UK data protection law and reflected in an update to this policy.
Where we transfer your personal data outside the EEA we do so on the basis of an adequacy decision or (where this is not available) eg legally approved standard data protection clauses issued further to Article 46(2) of the EU GDPR. In the event we cannot or choose not to continue to rely on either of those mechanisms at any time, we will not transfer your personal data outside the EEA unless we can do so on the basis of an alternative mechanism or exception provided by applicable data protection law and reflected in an update to this policy.
Any changes to the destinations to which we send personal data or in the transfer mechanisms we rely on to transfer personal data internationally will be notified to you in accordance with the section on ‘Changes to this privacy policy’ below.
Your rights
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
Erasure (also known as the right 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 situations, 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 unless there are compelling legitimate grounds for the processing to continue or the processing is required for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.
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
The right to withdraw consent
If you have provided us with a consent to use your personal data you have a right to withdraw that consent easily at any time
You may withdraw consents by contacting info@athilaw.co.uk
Withdrawing a consent will not affect the lawfulness of our use of your personal data in reliance on that consent before it was withdrawn
For more information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below) 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:
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complete a data subject request form or
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email, call or write to us—see below: ‘How to contact us’; and
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provide enough information to identify yourself (eg your full name, address and client or matter reference number) and any additional identity information we may reasonably request from you;
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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. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your personal data will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have procedures 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 personal data and other 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
Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal data (see below ‘How to contact us’). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with:
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the Information Commissioner in the UK;
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a relevant data protection supervisory authority in the EEA state of your habitual residence, place of work or of an alleged infringement of data protection laws in the EEA.
The UK’s Information Commissioner may be contacted using the details at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by telephone: 0303 123 1113.
For a list of EEA data protection supervisory authorities and their contact details see here.
Changes to this privacy policy
This privacy policy was published in January 2023.
We may change this privacy policy from time to time when we do we will inform you in writing.
How to contact us
You can contact us and/or Data Protection Officer by post, email, or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you, to exercise a right under data protection law or to make a complaint.
Our contact details are shown below:
Our contact details
Athi Law LLP
388 High Street
West Bromwich
West Midlands B70 9LB
Tel: 0121 5535555
Email: info@athilaw.co.uk
Our Data Protection Officer’s contact details
Mr Hem Kumar Athi
388 High Street
West Bromwich
West Midlands B70 9LB
Tel: 0121 5535555
Email: [insert email]