Privacy Policy

Introduction

Key terms
Personal data we collect about you
How your personal data is collected
How and why we use your personal data
Promotional communications
Who we share your personal data with
Where your personal data is held
How long your personal data will be kept
Transferring your personal data out of the UK or EEA
Your rights
Keeping your personal data secure
How to complain
Changes to this Privacy Policy
How to contact us

We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important infor- mation on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also ex- plains 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 UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal data for the purposes of the UK GDPR/DPA. Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the UK GDPR/DPA, other relevant UK legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.

1. Key terms

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:

We, us, our	Law Lane Solicitors
Our Data Privacy Manager	Ghulam Mustafa compliance@lawlanesolictors.com
Personal data	Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual
Special category personal data	Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, politi- cal opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership Genetic and biometric data Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation

2. Personal data we collect about you

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 number Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth or passport details Electronic contact details, e.g. 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 in- structions, e.g. the source of your funds if you are in- structing on a purchase transaction

Your National Insurance and tax details Your bank and/or building society details

Details of your professional online presence, e.g. LinkedIn profile

[Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, e.g. if you instruct us on a family matter or a will]

Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, e.g. 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 infor- mation from related documents, such as your pass- port or other identification, and immigration infor- mation, e.g. if you instruct us on an immigration matter

Details of your pension arrangements, e.g. if you in- struct us on a pension matter or in relation to finan- cial arrangements following breakdown of a rela- tionship

Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, perfor- mance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (includ- ing relevant special category personal data), e.g. if you instruct us on matter related to your employ- ment or in which your employment records are rele- vant

Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orien- tation, religious or similar beliefs, e.g. if you instruct us on discrimination claim

Your trade union membership, e.g. if you instruct us on discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union

Personal identifying information, such as your eye colour or your parents’ names, e.g. if you instruct us to incorporate a company for you

Your medical records, e.g. if we are acting for you in a personal injury claim

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.

3. How your personal data is collected

We collect most of this information from you, direct or via our secure online client portal. However, we may also collect information:

from publicly accessible sources, g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;
directly from a third party, e.g.:
- sanctions screening providers;
- credit reference agencies;
- client due diligence providers;

from a third party with your consent, e.g.:
- your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
- consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
- your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;
- your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;

via our website—we use cookies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see our privacy and cookies policy on our website. (http://www.lawlanesolicitors.co.uk/privacy- policy/)

via our information technology (IT) systems, e.g.:
- case management, document management and time recording systems;
- door entry systems and reception logs;
- automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our com- puter networks and connections, CCTV and access control systems, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems;

4. 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, e.g.:

to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
where you have given

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 identity Screening for financial and other sanctions or em- bargoes Other processing necessary to comply with profes- sional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. 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 reg- ulatory bodies	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g. poli- cies covering security and internet use	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. 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, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensi- tive information	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, e.g. in relation to, e.g. our financial performance, cli- ent base, work type or other efficiency measures.	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Updating client records	For the performance of 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 or those of a third party, e.g. 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 obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you

What we use your personal data for	Our reasons
Marketing our services and those of selected third parties to: – existing and former clients; – third parties who have previously expressed an in- terest in our services; – third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings.	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. 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, i.e. for credit control and to ensure our clients are likely to be able to pay for our services
External audits and quality checks, e.g. for Lexcel, Le- gal Aid Agency accreditation and the audit of our ac- counts	For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e. to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards To 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 ex- plicit consent.

5. Promotional communications

We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about le- gal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including exclu- sive offers, promotions or 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 promo- tional 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 organ- isations for marketing purposes.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by contacting us at compliance@lawlanesolicitors.com

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further ser- vices in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

6. Who we share your personal data with

We routinely share personal data with:

professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, e.g. your mortgage pro- vider or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction or Companies House;
credit reference agencies;
our insurers and brokers;
external auditors, e.g. in relation to Lexcel accreditation, the Legal Aid Agency and the audit of our accounts;
our bank;
external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g. typing services, marketing agencies, document collation or analysis suppliers;

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 relating 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, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised, but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

7. Where your personal data is held

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your Data is treated securely and in accordance with UK Data Protection law.

Information may be held at our offices and those of our third-party agencies, service providers, representa- tives 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, in- cluding on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the EEA’.

8. How long your personal data will be kept

We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:

to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
to show that we treated you fairly;
to keep records required by law

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. Further details on this can be provided on request. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

9. Transferring your personal data out of the UK or EEA

To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA), e.g.:

with your and our service providers located outside the EEA;
if you are based outside the EEA;
where there is an international dimension to the matter in which we are advising These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.

The following countries to which we may transfer personal data have been assessed by the European Com- mission as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data:

The EEA countries consist of the EU member states and the EFTA States.

The EU member states are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Nether- lands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The EEA states are Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. The EEA Joint Committee has made a decision that the GDPR applies to those countries and transfers to those countries are not restricted.

Non – EEA countries do not have the same data protection laws as the United Kingdom and EEA. We will, however, ensure the transfer complies with data protection law and all personal data will be secure. Our standard practice is to use standard data protection contract clauses which have been approved by the Eu- ropean Commission and UK GDPR. To obtain a copy of those clauses see the Guidance from the UK Infor mation Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like further information, please contact our Data Protection Manager at compliance@lawlanesolicitors.com.

10. 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 (Your right to be forgotten)	The right to require us to delete (or minimise) your personal data in certain situations
Restriction of processing	The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, e.g. 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, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.
Not to be subject to automated individual decision- making	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. NOTE: We do not do automated profiling).

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:

complete a data subject request form—
email, call or write to us see below: ‘How to contact us’; and
let us have enough information to identify you (e.g. your full name, address and client or matter reference number);
let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a re- cent utility or credit card bill); and
let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request

11. 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 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.

12. How to complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information. If you are concerned about our use of your information, please contact either the person dealing with your mat- ter or our Customer Care Director.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory author- ity, in particular in the UK or the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, nor- mally 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 tele- phone: [0303 123 1113].

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy

This privacy policy was last updated in April 2024.

We may change this privacy policy from time to time, if when we do the changes will have any effect on you, we will inform you by post or email.

14. How to contact us

Please contact us 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:

Law Lane Solicitors 43-45 Broadway, London, E15 4BL
info@lawlanesolicitors.com Tel: 020 7870 4870

Law Lane Solicitors Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales. Registered number 09595157. Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under registration numbers 625031 (Head Office),