Your privacy is very important to us. Please read this privacy policy carefully as It 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 are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal data for the purposes of the GDPR. Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the GDPR, other relevant UK and EU legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.
Terms used in this policy
Some of the key terms used in this policy:
We, us, our – Omnialegal Limited t/a Omnia Solicitors
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 and biometric data; data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation.
How your personal data is collected
We collect most of this information from you direct. However, we may also collect information:
- from publicly accessible sources, e.g. LinkedIn or other social media sites
- directly from one of our co-hosts when we host a joint event
- from a third party with your consent, e.g. one of your colleagues
– automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems.
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 a 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 consent.
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:
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What we use your personal data for
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Rationale |
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To provide legal services to you:
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For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
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Processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, eg under health and safety regulation or rules issued by our professional regulator:
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To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
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Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies:
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To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
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Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g. policies covering security and internet use:
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For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you
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Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control:
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For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
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Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, e.g. in relation to our client base, work type or other efficiency measures:
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For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can
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Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems:
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For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
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Updating and enhancing client records:
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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
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Statutory returns:
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To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
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Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments:
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To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
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Marketing our services to existing and former clients; third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services and third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings:
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For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to promote our business to existing and former clients
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External audits and quality checks, e.g. for professional accreditations and the audit of our accounts:
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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 and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
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The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.
Promotional communications
We may use your personal data to send you follow up information (by email) that might be of interest to you.
If you are our client 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 promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.
We will always treat your personal data with respect and never sell it to other organisations or share it outside the organisers of any events we run or participate in for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by contacting us by email.
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing 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.
Who we share your personal data with
We routinely share personal data with:
- our insurers and brokers
- external auditors, e.g. professional accreditations and the audit of our accounts
- our bank
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.
We will not share your personal data with any other third party.
Where your personal data is held
Information may be held at our offices 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 keep your personal data after the event has taken place. We will do so for one of these reasons:
- to respond to any questions raised by you
- to send you follow up material on the event’s key content.
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. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.
Your rights
You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
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Access:
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The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data
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Rectification:
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The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data
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To be forgotten:
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The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations
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Restriction of processing:
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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
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Data portability:
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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
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To object:
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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.
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Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making:
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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.
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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:
- 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 recent utility or credit card bill); and
- let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.
Keeping your personal data secure
We have security measures which strive to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We follow strict procedures as to how your personal information is stored and used, and who sees it, to help stop any unauthorised person getting hold of it. All personal information you register on our website will be located behind a firewall. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and although we do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot absolutely guarantee the security of your data. 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.
How to complain
We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.
The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally 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 telephone: 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this privacy policy
This privacy policy was published on 15th May 2018. Up until the 25 May 2018 the current DPA applies. From 25 May 2018 the GDPR applies.
We may change this privacy policy from time to time, when we do we will inform you via email.
How to contact us
Please contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you:
Nikki Smith – Data Compliance Officer
nikki.smith@omnialegal.co.uk
T: 01225 666600
How we use cookies
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Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. We advise you to check the Privacy Policy of these websites before entering any personal information.
Accessibility
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Among the techniques used to improve accessibility we have used stylesheets to control the visual appearance of the site and meaningful markup to aid navigation.
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