INTRODUCTION
Hewlett Swanson Limited t/a Hewlett Swanson (Hewlett Swanson, we, us or our) is a law firm registered in England and Wales with company number 07841081 and registered office at Centurion House, 129 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WR. We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) with registration number 566530.
Hewlett Swanson is a “data controller” registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) with registration number ZA068350. This means that we collect, hold and are responsible for certain personal data. We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and personal data.
HOW TO CONTACT US
Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Notice should be addressed to our Compliance Officer as follows:
By post at: Hewlett Swanson, Centurion House, 129 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WR;
By email at: info@hewlettswanson.com; and
By telephone: +44 (0)161 312 5000
Please quote “data protection” in the subject line of any correspondence or when telephoning.
This Privacy Notice is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below.
INDEX
- What is the purpose of this Privacy Notice?
- Who does this Privacy Notice apply to?
- Third party links
- What types of personal data will we collect from you?
- How is your personal data collected?
- On what basis do we process your data?
- Change of purpose
- Marketing communications
- Cookies
- Who do we share your personal data with?
- Information we collect about you from others
- International transfers
- Information collected from you about others
- What measures do we have in place to keep your data secure?
- How long will we use your personal data for?
- What are your rights in connection with the data that we hold?
- How can you exercise your rights?
1. What is the purpose of this Privacy Notice?
1.1 This Privacy Notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect about you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us and informs you of your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
1.2 It is important that you read this Privacy Notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Privacy Notice supplements the other policies and notices and is not intended to override them.
2. Who does this Privacy Notice apply to?
2.1 This Privacy Notice applies to all data subjects whose personal information we collect and use to include users of this website, our clients, prospective clients, business contacts, other professionals, job candidates, vacation placement students, suppliers and service providers.
2.2 This Privacy Notice does not apply to our employees or consultants, as the way we collect and use their personal information is governed by the privacy policy in our staff handbook.
2.3 This website and the services that we provide are not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.
3. Third party links
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website that you visit.
YOUR PERSONAL DATA
4. What types of personal data will we collect from you?
4.1 Personal data means any information about a living individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
4.2 We may collect personal data from you in the course of our business, including through your use of our website, when you contact or request information from us and when you engage us to provide you with our legal services and enter into a retainer with us.
4.3 The types of personal data we may collect from you will depend on the nature of our relationship with you, the work that we are carrying out for you and the context in which we obtain and use it. We have grouped together and summarised the types of personal data that we may collect from you (which is not exhaustive) as follows:
Type of data: Identity Data
Description and examples: Data used to personally identify you such as your full name (including name prefix or title) or similar identifier, date of birth, title, maiden name, passport number and driving licence number.
Type of data: Identity Data
Description and examples: Data required to communicate with you during the course of our relationship with you to include address(es), email address(es), telephone number(s) and mobile phone number(s) – this may include both your business/work and personal contact details.
Type of data: Professional Data
Description and examples: Data that relates to your position and profession such as job title, professional qualifications and experience, regulatory body, the entity that you work for and details of your professional online presence (LinkedIn profile and business website).
Type of data: Financial Data
Description and examples: Data necessary for processing payments (such as bank account details and billing address), fraud prevention and other related billing information.
Type of data: Financial Data
Description and examples: Data provided to us by you or on your behalf or generated by us in the course of providing services to you, which will include details about your retainer with us, information relating to the matter that we are dealing with and/or your communication preferences. The data that you provide to us will vary depending on the advice sought and the nature of the matter that we are dealing with.
Type of data: Financial Data
Description and examples: (also known as “special category data”) may be required depending on the legal advice we are providing and/or the relevant circumstances (see paragraph 6.3) but may include:
- health and medical information (including dietary requirements and details of any disability or impairment);
- information regarding your membership of a professional trade association or union;
- information regarding your racial and/or ethnic origin;
- information regarding political opinions;
- information regarding sex life and sexual orientation; and/or
- information regarding religious and philosophical beliefs.
Type of data: Technical Data
Description and examples: Internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
Type of data: Usage Data
Description and examples: Information about how you use our website and (if you are an existing client) our legal services.
5. How is your personal data collected?
5.1 We collect personal data for a variety of reasons and through different media to include:
5.1.1 if you are our client, when you enter into a client retainer with us to enable us to carry out legal services for you or an entity that you are involved in;
5.1.2 if you are one of our suppliers, when we enter into a contract for the supply of your goods and/or services to ensure that the contractual arrangements between us can be properly implemented and performed;
5.1.3 if you apply for a job and/or a vacation placement with us to assess your suitability for the role; and/or
5.1.4 if you make a complaint against us to enable us to deal with that complaint via our complaints process.
5.2 We collect personal via a variety of different sources including:
5.2.1. through your use of this website, including when you email us with an enquiry at info@hewlettswanson.com. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data and Usage Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please see our Cookie Policy for further details;
5.2.2 we collect personal data from our clients and electronic identity check providers as part of our business acceptance processes;
5.2.3 direct from a third party such as from your employees, colleagues or other parties involved in a matter that we are dealing with (such as the solicitor acting on the other side); and/or
5.2.4 publicly accessible sources such as Companies House, the Insolvency Service and/or HM Land Registry.
6. On what basis do we process your data?
6.1 We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
6.1.1 if it is necessary for our performance of a contract with you, or for us to take steps prior to entering into a contract with you;
6.1.2 if it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. To determine this we make sure that we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted by law); and/or
6.1.3 where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
6.2 We may also issue you with a separate privacy notice giving more detail as to how the data you provide (and/or we obtain) may be processed.
6.3 Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data. If your consent is required, we will notify you separately and if you provide your consent, you will be able to withdraw it at any time by contacting us.
6.4 We may collect and process Sensitive Data in the following circumstances:
6.4.1 from identity documents that you provide to us and checks that we carry out in accordance with anti-money laundering requirements;
6.4.2 where it is necessary when advising you on your rights and/or obligations under employment law during the performance of our retainer (such as in relation to potential discrimination claims); and
6.4.3 making arrangements for you to attend a meeting and/or interview and ensuring accessibility and catering for your dietary requirements.
6.5 We may obtain personal data even if you are not our client in the course of providing legal advice to our clients. If you are not our client your personal data may be processed to enable us to provide legal advice, to deal with a transaction and/or may also be used in legal proceedings. We are permitted to use such information because it is in the legitimate interests of our client to do so. We may also have to use your personal data to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. However, usually information detailing such data will be subject to legal privilege and so not discloseable to the data subject(s).
6.6 We have set out in the Appendix to this Privacy Notice, a more detailed description of the ways we may use your personal data and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are, where appropriate.
6.7 Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.
6.8 We do not use your information for automated decision making.
7. Change of purpose
7.1 We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. It may not always be apparent at the outset of the matter what data we may require, who we may need to obtain it from and/or share it with as this will depend on the nature of the work and how the matter progresses.
7.2 If you wish to have an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
7.3 If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
7.4 Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
8. Marketing communications
8.1 As part of the services we provide to our clients, we may use personal data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. In particular, if there is a change in the law that may affect your business or if whilst performing our retainer, we discover ways to add value to your business, for example, in terms of structure and/or operations.
8.2 We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data and information for our business development. We will only send marketing communications to you if you have requested information from us and you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.
8.3 We will only share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes with your express consent and you can withdraw that consent (if provided) at any time by contacting us.
9. Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookies Policy.
DATA SHARING
10. Who do we share your personal data with?
10.1 We may (depending on the nature of the matter and the work involved) have to share your personal data with other third parties and they may also share the personal data they hold about you with us. This may include:
10.1.1 legal counsel, counsel’s clerks and/or other experts (such as accountants and IT forensics) to obtain advice and/or assistance on your matter;
10.1.2 the other parties (including their legal representatives) involved in your matter;
10.1.3 other professionals (such as insurance brokers, where you wish to take out an insurance policy as part of a transaction);
10.1.4 our bank and any bank, building society and/or financial institution providing finance for your transaction;
10.1.5 organisations involved in any merger, acquisition and/or business reorganisation/restructuring that we are advising you on;
10.1.6 courts, tribunals, arbitrators and/or mediators where we are acting for you in a dispute and/or litigation;
10.1.7 analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website;
10.1.8 if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, to protect the rights, property, or safety of Hewlett Swanson, our clients, or others;
10.1.9 our IT and telecommunications systems providers acting as data processors as a consequence of them providing support to us to include our IT service provider, our document management and time recording system provider, our telecommunications provider;
10.1.10 our third party service providers to include external consultants, couriers, process servers, tracing agents and suppliers;
10.1.11 if in our reasonable opinion disclosure is required in relation to any criminal investigation or prosecution;
10.1.12 disclosures to the police, tax authorities, the National Crime Agency or other public or government authorities or to our regulators (including the SRA and legal ombudsman), in all cases where in our reasonable opinion the disclosure is required or permitted by law or applicable regulation;
10.1.13 our professional indemnity insurer in the event a notifiable circumstance arises and/or a claim is made or threatened against us, in order to comply with our obligations under our professional indemnity insurance and/or defend ourselves;
10.1.14 when carrying out electronic identity checks in accordance with our business acceptance processes and anti-money laundering obligations;
10.1.15 our external auditors who carry out independent checks of your file as required by the SRA; and/or
10.1.16 in the event that Hewlett Swanson sell or buy any business or assets, with the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets. If a change happens to the ownership of our business, then the new owners may use your data in the same way as set out in this Privacy Notice.
10.2 We require all third parties with whom your data is shared to respect the security and integrity of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you.
10.3 We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
10.4 We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes (unless you expressly consent to this).
11. Information we collect about you from others
11.1 Information about you may be passed to us by third parties and/or obtained from publicly available sources in the course of providing our legal services and/or complying with our legal obligations. Typically these sources may include:
11.1.1 other parties involved in a matter that we are dealing with (such as the solicitor acting on the other side);
11.1.2 financial institutions (such as banks involved in financing a transaction that we are dealing with);
11.1.3 other professional services firms (such as accountants and tax specialists);
11.1.4 electronic identity check providers;
11.1.5 government bodies (such as HM Land Registry, HMRC and the Insolvency Service); and/or
11.1.6 public sources where this relates to you or your organisation (for example Companies House, internet searches, your organisation’s website and public social media accounts).
12. International transfers
12.1 Some of the external parties in relation to a matter may be based outside the UK so their processing of personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK.
12.2 Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we will seek to ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring that appropriate safeguards are implemented.
12.3 In some circumstances (particularly where data is to be transferred to countries, territories and international organisations outside of the UK “adequacy regulations”), we may need your express consent to the transfer unless there is an overriding legal requirement to transfer the information.
13. Information collected from you about others
13.1 In the course of providing our professional services to you, we may need you to provide us with personal data about others (such as directors and employees in your organisation and/or your business partners or investors).
13.2 When you provide personal information to us relating to others, you must ensure that you are legally permitted to share this with us and all data disclosed should be complete, accurate and up to date. You should ensure that those individuals understand how their data may be shared and used by us.
DATA SECURITY
14. What measures do we have in place to keep your data secure?
14.1 We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those members of staff and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
14.2 We will hold your personal data on secure servers within the UK with all reasonable technological and operational measures to safeguard unauthorised access.
14.3 If we provide you with a username and password which enables you to access certain parts of our systems, you are responsible for keeping such log-in details confidential. You must not share such information with anyone.
14.4 We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
DATA RETENTION
15. How long will we use your personal data for?
15.1 We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including:
15.1.1 for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting and/or reporting requirements;
15.1.2 to carry out the legal work under our retainer;
15.1.3 to investigate and defend any complaints and/or legal claims alleged and/or made against us (such as professional negligence claims); and
15.1.4 to comply with our legal obligations (such as anti-money laundering regulations).
YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS
16. What are your rights in connection with the data that we hold?
16.1 Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You have the right to request:
16.1.1 access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive details of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it;
16.1.2 correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete, inaccurate or out-of-date data we hold about you corrected and/or updated, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data that you provide to us;
16.1.3 erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons (as explained above in relation to data retention) which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request;
16.1.4 object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or that of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms;
16.1.5 restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
(i) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy;
(ii) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
(ii) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
(iv) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it; and
16.1.6 transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a retainer with you.
17. How can you exercise your rights?
17.1 If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us by calling us on 0161 312 5000, emailing us at info@hewlettswanson.com or writing to us at Centurion House, 129 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WR. Please quote “data protection” on any correspondence and/or upon telephoning the office.
17.2 You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in those circumstances.
17.3 We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise your rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who may not have a right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
17.4 We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
17.5 Please note that if you:
(i) want us to restrict or stop processing your data;
(ii) fail to provide data that we have reasonably requested from you; or
(iii) withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data,
this may impact on our ability to provide our services to you and/or contract with you. Depending on the extent of your request and/or the importance of any information we request from you that you do not provide, we may be unable to continue acting for you and be forced to immediately cease acting. We will notify you if this is the case at the time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before your withdrawal of consent. In these situations you would remain liable for the fees and disbursements incurred to the date of your request and/or refusal to provide information.
CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE
Any changes we make to our Privacy Notice in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our Privacy Notice.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
COMPLAINTS
If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact us to have the matter investigated by writing to our Compliance Officer at Hewlett Swanson, Centurion House, 129 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WR or at info@hewlettswanson.com.
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law you can complain to the ICO, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. Further details can be found at www.ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.
Appendix – Data Processing
Purpose No 1.
New client and matter inception procedures to include:
- conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity; and
- conflict checks against our client database.
Lawful basis for processing
- Performance of a contract with our client(s) (the retainer)
- Necessary to comply with our legal obligations (to satisfy anti-money laundering requirements, detecting and preventing fraud and to comply
- with SRA Code of Conduct requirements)
Purpose No 2.
Taking instructions from you, managing the client relationship, corresponding and communicating with you to provide updates and legal advice, providing our legal services to you and responding to your enquiries.
Lawful basis for processing
- Performance of a contract with our client(s) (the retainer)
- Necessary to comply with our legal obligations (including client care obligations under the SRA Code of Conduct)
Purpose No 3.
Arranging meetings and ensuring that the needs of attendees are catered for (to include any adjustments that we need to make to accommodate attendees and their dietary requirements).
Lawful basis for processing
- Performance of a contract with our client(s) (the retainer)
- Necessary to comply with our legal obligations (including compliance with health and safety laws)
Purpose No 4.
Raising invoices and processing payments for our professional charges, fees and disbursements and managing payments made on account and/or during the course of a transaction.
Lawful basis for processing
- Performance of a contract with our client(s) or suppliers
- Necessary to comply with our legal obligations
Purpose No 5.
Process and respond to requests, enquiries or complaints received by you.
Lawful basis for processing
- Performance of a contract with our client(s) or suppliers
- Necessary to comply with our legal obligations
Purpose No 6.
To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data).
Lawful basis for processing
- Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security and to prevent fraud)
- Necessary to comply with a legal obligation.
Purpose No 7.
To use data analytics to improve our website, services, client relationships and experiences.
Lawful basis for processing
- Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of clients for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant, and to develop our business)
Purpose No 8.
To provide access to our files for audit, review or other quality assurance checks, by our regulators, auditors, and professional advisers.
Lawful basis for processing
- Necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Purpose No 9.
Ensuring that our policies, procedures and standards are adhered to (to include equal opportunities monitoring).
Lawful basis for processing
- For our legitimate interests (this includes carrying out the business of providing legal services and pursuing our general business interests)
- Necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations (such as under employment law and health and safety)
Purpose No 10.
Preserving the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information.
Lawful basis for processing
- For our legitimate interests (or those of our clients or a third party)
- Necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Purpose No 11.
Updating and maintaining client records.
Lawful basis for processing
- Performance of a contract with our clients (the retainer) or to take steps at a potential client’s request before entering into our retainer
- Necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Purpose No 12.
For the day-to-day operations of our business to include the use of third party service providers (including recruitment consultants, general office services, and IT support).
Lawful basis for processing
- For our legitimate interests (this includes carrying out the business of providing legal services and pursuing our general business interests)
Purpose No 13.
Debt recovery – collecting and recovering sums owed to us.
Lawful basis for processing
- Performance of a contract with our client(s) (the retainer)
- For our legitimate interests (this includes carrying out the business of providing legal services and pursuing our general business interests)
Purpose No 14.
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you, advising you on ways we can assist you to add value to your business, and updating you on changes to the law relevant to you.
Lawful basis for processing
- Performance of a contract with you (the retainer)
- Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our services and grow our business)
Purpose No 15.
Making disclosures to government, regulatory or other public bodies where in our reasonable opinion the disclosure is appropriate and permitted by law.
Lawful basis for processing
- Necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations (to include anti-money laundering)
Purpose No 16.
For recruitment purposes to enable us to assess the skills, qualifications, and suitability of potential candidates for a particular role, carry out background and reference checks, where applicable and communicate with the candidates about the recruitment process.
Lawful basis for processing
- It is in our legitimate interests to decide whether to appoint an individual to a particular role since it would be beneficial to our business to appoint someone to that role.
- We also need to process personal information to decide whether to enter into a contract of employment with a candidate.