Privacy policy

Personal data is information about you and information from which you could be identified.

In this policy is set out the personal data we collect about you, how we use the information, and who is responsible for it.

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. You should check this policy occasionally to ensure you are aware of the most recent version which will apply each time you access this website.

Who we are

We are Harcus Parker Limited, a firm of solicitors authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Our address is 80 Strand, London ,WC2R 0DT.

Data protection legislation in the United Kingdom applies to people and entities who are ‘controllers’ and ‘processors’ of personal data. We are the controller of any copies of your personal data where we make the decisions about how it is collected and used.

To contact us about how we process your personal information, please email privacy@harcusparker.co.uk.

How we collect data

We may collect and store information about you, when you:

1. talk to us over the telephone or in person;
2. write to us by email or post;
3. fill out a form on our website; and / or
4. use one of our websites.

We may collect and store information about you in connection with providing services to you, your provision of services to us, in connection with a recruitment application, or otherwise where we have a legitimate interest in doing so.

For example, if you talk to us or write to us, we may keep a copy of the correspondence or a note of the call, as well as metadata (that is data about data, such as the date and time of the conversation).

Our websites and analytical tools automatically collect technical information about visits to our websites.

The data we collect

We will ensure that any data we store is accurate, adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary for the purposes for which we are collecting it.

Depending on the circumstances, we may collect and process:

1. contact information, such as your name and address;
2. identity information, such as your passport and date of birth;
3. biographical information, such as your investment or employment history;
4. financial information, such as your account details and bank statements;
5. information generated in the course of our provision of legal services, such as your instructions and attendance notes of conversations with you, and other material relevant to your case;
6. technical and analytical information, such as how long you spend on our website and your IP address; and
7. marketing information, such as whether you wish to be invited to our events or contacted with updates from us on market or case developments.

From time to time, in carrying out our legal services we may need to process information about criminal convictions and offences or special data. ‘Special’ category data includes data relating to race and ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, trade union memberships, and health. We recognise that this data is especially sensitive, and may need additional protection.

What we use your data for

We process your personal information:

1. to provide our legal services to you;
2. to complete any request you may make in relation to your marketing preferences;
3. to promote our services and to contact you with communications about legal updates, news and event invitations;
4. to conduct customer research and analysis, which we may in turn use to improve our website and services;
5. to carry out recruitment, administrative and billing operations;
6. complying with our legal, regulatory and risk management obligations;
7. fraud prevention and detection;
8. considering and exercising our legal rights; and
9. notifying you of any changes to this website or to our services which may affect you.

From time to time we may aggregate your information with that of other clients or prospective clients to produce statistical information about our client base. This is an important part of monitoring our business. We will take care to anonymise your data where appropriate.

Marketing

You have a legal right to opt out of our marketing communications at any time. You can do this by following the unsubscribe link in an email we have sent to you, or contacting us at privacy@harcusparker.co.uk.

Legal basis for processing your data

We process your personal information on these grounds:performance of a contract (in connection with our provision of legal services to you, or in connection with your provision of services to us); compliance with the law; our and others’ (including our clients’) legitimate business interests; or you have given us clear consent to do so. If we process special categories of personal data, we will do so on one of the following bases:

1. you have given us explicit consent;
2. it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or
3. it is necessary for carrying out obligations and exercising specific rights (yours or ours) in the field of employment.

Security

We will process your personal data in a manner that ensures it is appropriately secure. This includes protecting your personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

Sharing

We may share your personal information with trusted third parties both within and outside the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) pursuant to contractual arrangements or regulatory obligations we have with or owe to them, including:

1. Our agents and service providers (for example, our bank, auditors, providers of web hosting or CRM services);
2. Law enforcement agencies in connection with any investigation to help prevent unlawful activity;
3. Third parties (such as barristers and experts).

If you are a prospective client, we may perform identity checks on you with your permission using electronic tools. This will involve cross-checking your details against a range of verified databases and credit reference agencies. It will not affect your credit rating.

If we share your personal data with parties outside of the EEA, we will ensure that it is protected in a way that satisfies all data protection rules and legislation in the UK.

Your rights

You have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, for free. This is known as a subject access request. We will comply with your subject access request within one month. If necessary we will seek clarification from you about the information you need. If your request is complex or one of several requests from you we may take a further two months to provide access to the information, but we will let you know within the first month.

We may need to ask you for information to confirm your identity before we comply with your request. Please bear in mind that we may not be able to comply with your request if the information is subject to legal privilege.

You may also have the right:

• to request rectification or deletion of the personal information we hold about you;
• to object to our processing of your personal data (if we have a legitimate interest in processing it but you have a good reason to object), or request a restriction on the way we are processing data in certain circumstances;
• to request the transfer of personal data you have provided to us to another party in a machine-readable, commonly-used format; and
• to opt out of your data being used for marketing purposes.

This is a short introduction to your data privacy rights and is not comprehensive. For more information, you may wish to visit the Information Commissioner’s Office website.