Privacy Notice
Introduction
This Privacy Notice takes effect from 17 September 2018. It sets out the information summarised in the table of contents below:
Who we are;
Categories of personal data we collect;
How that personal data is collected;
Our basis for processing your personal data and how we use that personal data;
Who we may share your data with;
Transfer and processing of your personal data outside the European Economic Area;
How long we will hold your personal data for;
Your rights;
Our communications, the Website and cookies;
Changes to the Privacy Notice; and
How to contact us.
Who we are
Julie West Solicitors, (“Julie West Solicitors”, “we” or “us”) is a company which provides English Law professional services in the UK to UK and overseas clients.
We are:
authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 399695. Our office is at The Courtyard, Thorncroft Manor, Thorncroft Drive, Leatherhead, KT22 8JB;
responsible for the www.juliewestsolicitors.co.uk (“Website”);
for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation EU 2016/679 (“GDPR”) and UK data protection, Julie West is the controller in respect of the processing described in this Privacy Notice; and
registered with the UK Information Commissioners Office (Registration Number Z8548873).
Categories of personal data we collect
We may collect the following categories of personal data about you:
Your name as well and other contact information for example your home and/or business address, email address and telephone number.
Identity and biographical information including your nationality, date of birth, tax status, passport/national identity card details and country of domicile, your employment and employment history, job title and role, educational profile, interests and other information relevant to our provision of professional services.
Information in relation to your financial situation such as income, expenditure, assets, liabilities, sources of wealth, as well as your bank account details and other information required for processing payments and/or fraud prevention purposes.
An understanding of your goals and objectives and other information provided to us in connection with our provision of professional services.
Details of your interaction with us via telephone or in person e.g. notes from our conversations with you, details of any complaints or comments you make etc.
Limited usage data relating to your viewing and accessing of our email marketing materials, and your marketing preferences (see Our communications, the Website and cookies below).
Our provision of professional services may also require us to process special category data (including data relating to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, health and sexual orientation) and/or data relating to criminal convictions and offences (together “sensitive personal data”).
How that personal data is collected
We may collect your personal data or you may provide it to us through various means including from information:
you provide to us at a meeting or physical exchange;
about you provided to us by your organisation, agents, advisers, intermediaries or custodians of your assets;
provided to us by our clients;
you communicate to us by telephone, post, email or other forms of electronic communication. In this respect, we may monitor, record and store any such communication;
collected when you complete (or we may complete on your behalf) client engagements formalities or register for an event;
drawn from publicly available sources or from third parties, for example when we are required to conduct background checks about you;
collected via closed circuit television monitored in and around our office;
collected when you view or access our email marketing materials (see our communications, the Website and cookies below); and/or
collected otherwise in the normal course of providing professional services.
Our basis for processing your personal data and how we use that personal data
How we use your personal data will depend on whether you are a client, a representative of a client, a business contact, someone whose personal data we necessarily process as part of our provision of professional services, or otherwise. We may process your personal data for the following purposes:
Providing a proposal to you or your organisation in relation to the professional services we offer and for client engagement purposes (including the carrying out of background checks);
Providing professional services to you and/or our clients (including legal research and advice, and associated advisory services);
Managing our relationship with you and/or our clients (including billing and financial management), for record-keeping purposes and more generally for the proper operation of Julie West Solicitors;
Dealing with any complaints or feedback you may have;
Monitoring and improving the performance and effectiveness of our services, including by training our staff;
Any other purpose for which you provide with us your personal data; the purposes set out in Our communications, the Website and cookies below;
seeking advice on our rights and obligations, such as anti-money laundering laws (which may include the carrying out of background checks and retention of a record of such checks), data protection laws and tax reporting requirements, and/or to assist with investigations by police and/or other competent authorities (where such investigation complies with relevant law) and to comply with Court orders;
Safeguarding the security of our systems and communications; and/or
For security purposes generally and to ensure the safety of our employees and visitors.
We may process your personal data for any of the purposes set out above if we have a legal ground for doing so such as the processing is necessary:
to perform a contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract with you;
to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
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 information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights; and/or
where you have given us your consent.
In addition, we may obtain certain special categories of your data (“Special Categories of Data”). The Special Categories of Data are:
Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership; and
The processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purposes of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.
We will only process Special Category Data either with your explicit consent, where we need the information for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims on your behalf, or for reasons of substantial public interest, or where you volunteer the information to us.
Who we may share your data with
We may share your personal data with:
your organisation;
with our client in the particular matter;
third parties we engage to assist in providing our professional services, such as lawyers (including barristers), other professional service firms, IT and other consultants, public relations advisors, translators and/or couriers;
intermediaries to whom we introduce you;
third party service providers who provide business services to us, such as shared service centres, and with providers of anti-money laundering services providers and insurers, where appropriate;
our own legal and professional services providers and insurers, where appropriate;
third parties and their advisers in the event of the potential or actual sale or purchase of all or part of our business or assets (or any other business or assets), subject to appropriate obligations of confidentiality; and/or
Courts and other authorities in connection with the enforcement or defence of legal rights and provision of our professional services.
Transfer and processing of your personal data outside the European Economic Area
Our provision of professional services may require us to transfer your personal data to countries outside the European Economic Area which may not provide the same level of data protection as within it.
We ensure that any such transfer meets the requirements of GDPR, for example because it is necessary for the provision of our professional services to you or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or is otherwise subject to prescribed safeguards such as model clauses approved by the European Commission. More information is available from us on request.
How long we will hold your personal data for
We will retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice.
In many cases this will mean that we shall retain your personal data for the same period as we retain your matter files or a copy of your matter files. Usually this will not be less than 6 years from the date that the relevant matter came to an end. Details of our current typical retention periods are set out in Appendix 1 to this notice. Longer retention periods may be appropriate where, for example, specific legal or public interest archival reasons apply.
Anti-Money Laundering checks and Customer Due Diligence information - In addition, we shall retain information obtained to meet our obligations under the anti-money laundering regulations for at least 5 years following the end of our business relationship. This information will include records of documents, client and matter risk assessments and records of ongoing monitoring of our business relationship made under the Money Laundering Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017. The minimum retention period under the regulations is 5 years from the end of our business relationship. However, our general terms and conditions of business require your consent to our retaining this information for an indefinite period.
Please note, we will keep information required to perform conflict checks indefinitely in accordance with our regulatory obligations.
Your rights
Under GDPR you have the right to:
obtain access to, and copies of, the personal data we hold about you and information about how we process it;
require us to correct any inaccuracies in the personal data we hold about you;
require, in certain circumstances, erasure of your personal data; require, in certain circumstances, to restrict our data processing activities;
obtain from us the personal data you have provided to us in a reasonable format specified by you, including for the purpose of you transmitting that personal data to another data controller;
object to our use of your personal data based on our legitimate interests, or on grounds relating to your specific situation;
withdraw your consent, where our use of your personal data is based on that consent; and
complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which can investigate compliance with data protection law and has enforcement powers, if you are not satisfied with how we are processing your personal data.
Please contact us in writing using the contact details below if you would like to action any of your rights above. You should note that these rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled (or required) to refuse requests where exceptions apply.
Our communications, the Website and cookies
We may use your contact details to send you (by post or electronically) briefings, newsletters, event invitations and information about our services that we believe may be of interest to you. We do so on the basis of our legitimate interests or your consent (as appropriate to the communication in question). You can always unsubscribe from these mailings, by clicking on the link in the relevant email; or by contacting us.
We will seek your express consent to send such communications to you.
We will always treat your personal data with the utmost care and never sell it to other organisations for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving unprompted communications at any time by:
using the “unsubscribe” link in emails; or
contacting us using the contact details below.
We may ask you to confirm or update your 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 use mailing list management/marketing software to manage how we contact you as set out above. This enables us to record and manage how we contact you, and to manage your preferences and booking for our events. It also enables us (as set out in any such email) to review whether emails are opened or forwarded, and whether briefing links are clicked. This data helps us to ensure our mailing list remains up to date; it also provides us with some basic information about your interests and to personalise our communications with you.
We use cookies on our website, in accordance with our cookie policy as published on our website.
Changes to this privacy notice
We may update this privacy notice in line with changes to how we process personal data. We will publish any new version of the Privacy Notice on the Website and, where appropriate, will provide you with a copy.
How to contact us
If you have any queries about this Privacy Notice or how we process your personal data, contact us here.
Appendix 1
Category (matter files) - Typical retention period
Conveyancing (acting for Purchaser) - 12 years
Conveyancing (acting for Vendor on sale of the whole of title) - 6 years
Conveyancing (acting for Vendor who retains part of the title) - 6 years
General Advice Property/Private client law - 6 years
Probate and/or Administration - 12 years
Matrimonial conveyancing matters where no continuing obligation exists from determination of such obligations - 6 years
Company formation or similar matters - 6 years
Financial Services Act records – insurance intermediary/indemnity insurance - 6 years, subject to the provisions of the Financial Services Act 1986
Wills (files) - 16 years from date of death or indefinitely
Lasting Powers of Attorney - 12 years
Court of Protection applications - 12 years
Court of Protection - Deputy Management files - 12 years
Other matters (at discretion) - 6 years
Staff files - 6 years after employment end
Applicants - 3 years
The firm does not offer safe storage of documents facilities except for wills and lasting powers of attorney.
Original documents, such as those detailed below, will be returned to the owner for safekeeping upon conclusion of our work.
Unregistered property deeds
Mortgage deeds (including assignment of mortgage) / legal charge, where unregistered title
Abstract of title
Grave deeds
Share certificates / bonds
Deed of gift/trust
Statutory declaration
Life assurance / mortgage of life / endowment polices
Mortgage of life policy
Guarantee certificate
Personal effects/valuables
Tenancy agreement
Lease documents
The following original documents if retained and held in safe storage, will be retained for the period(s) indicated below:
Power of attorney / Court of Protection Orders - store until 6 years after death
Will / codicil - retain indefinitely until return/release authorised/requested
Lasting powers of attorney - retain indefinitely until return/release authorised/ requested
Last updated 10 January 2022