Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (the "Privacy Policy") relates to Avantia Law Limited and is located on/can be found on our website www.avantialaw.com.  We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of the personal information that is provided to us or collected by us during the course of our business as well as the personal information we receive from visitors to our website.  Avantia Law Limited is the data controller of any personal information provided to us when we agree to provide services to you as described below in section 1.

This Privacy Policy explains how we may collect and use any personal information that we obtain about you and your rights in relation to that information.  It also sets out how to contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or want to make a complaint to us about how we handle your personal information.

We may provide you with additional privacy notices where we believe that it is appropriate to do so.  Those additional notices supplement and should be read together with this Privacy Policy.

1. The scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies in the following circumstances:

• when we conduct open source searches on you in connection with our business development or business acceptance processes;

• when we agree to provide legal services to you or the organisation you work for;

• when you or the organisation you work for are a counterparty of one or more of our clients;

• when you request information from us or provide information to us;

• when you apply for a role with us;

• when you visit our website;

• if you are a lawyer that works for us or has in the past worked for us;

• when you are entered onto our mailing lists to receive publications and other marketing emails.

We use cookies on our website.  This Privacy Policy should be read alongside our Cookies Policy.

2. What information do we collect about you and how?

2.1 Business development and business acceptance

We collect personal information about prospective clients and their beneficial owners, controllers and/or directors as part of business development initiatives and our business acceptance process. The type of personal information we may collect includes name, address, nationality, business interests and employment history. We obtain this information from publicly available open sources either directly or through a third party.

2.2 Legal services and keeping you up to date with relevant marketing

The type of personal information that we may collect includes current and historical information including your name and contact details (such as your address, email address and telephone numbers) and identifiers such as your organisation, employment history and positions held.  We will also collect personal information you choose to provide to us and information about your other dealings with us and our clients, including contact we have with you in person, by telephone, letter, email or online. This information may include access or dietary requirements which may reveal information about your health or religious beliefs.  We obtain personal information from your IP address and the operating system and web browser that you use to access our website. It enables us to identify which organisations have visited our website and we use this information to compile statistical data on the use of those sites to help us to improve the user experience.

We collect personal information directly from you, from our clients or other parties to matters we work on and their authorised representatives.  We may also collect personal information from third parties such as your employer, other organisations that you have dealings with, regulators, government agencies, credit reporting agencies, publicly available records (including electronic data sources to carry out checks to enable us to comply with applicable law), information or service providers (some of whom may process your personal information on our behalf), recruitment agencies and other law firms or professional advisers.  

2.3 Recruitment

If you apply for a role at the Avantia Law Limited you may need to provide personal information including special categories of personal information (for example, details of extenuating circumstances).  Your application directly to us, or via a recruitment agency, will constitute your express consent to our use of this information. We will use this information to consider your application for a position with us (with the exception of any information provided in the “Equal Opportunity and Diversity” section of any application which will be anonymised and used for statistical purposes and to help us meet our regulatory and legal requirements only).  We may also use the information to carry out checks to verify the information provided by you (including reference, background, identity, suitability and criminal record checks).

We may use a third party service provider to store this information and also share some information with another third party to help us contextualise the information, where relevant.  We may disclose it to recruiters, screening check providers, providers of occupational personality tests, health service providers, professional associations, government and law enforcement agencies, referees and your current and previous employers.

3. How we use your information

We will only use your personal information if and to the extent that applicable law allows.  We will therefore only process your personal information if:

• it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or the organisation you work for;

• it is necessary in connection with a legal obligation;

• you have given your consent (where necessary) to such use or the organisation you work for has obtained your consent (where necessary) to share your information with us; or

• we (or a third party) have a legitimate interest which is not overridden by your interests or your rights and freedoms. Such legitimate interests include the provision of legal services, running the firm’s business and marketing relevant services directly to you.

We may use your personal information to:

• consider whether we can pursue certain business development initiatives;

• comply with our legal obligations to identify and verify the identity of our clients and their beneficial owners;

• deliver legal services to you and/or the organisation you work for, if you are a client;

• run the firm’s business (e.g. carry out administrative or operational processes, including recruitment);

• maintain and develop our business relationship with you;

• improve our services and products to you, if you or the organisation you work for are a client or prospective client;

• identify services you may be interested in;

• send you marketing and invite you to events;

• monitor and analyse our business; or

• process and respond to requests, enquiries or complaints received from you.

We will only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including for the purposes of complying with any legal, regulatory, accounting or reporting requirements.  Personal information processed in connection with our business acceptance processes and/or providing legal services will be retained in accordance with the firm’s retention and destruction policy unless we agree otherwise with you, in writing.  

4. How and why do we share your personal information?

We may share your personal information with our offices and any in-house group companies and associated partnerships due to, for example, our shared IT systems.  We use third parties who provide services on our behalf and will share your information with them, for example a technology supplier may have access to your personal information when providing software support, or a company we use for a communications campaign may process the personal information of our contacts for us.  We may also have to share your personal information with regulators, government agencies, courts and other third parties.

Your personal information may be accessed by these offices, in-house companies and associated partnerships and third parties in countries whose laws provide varying levels of protection for personal information.  In addition, some of your personal information may be stored in a cloud located within or outside of the European Economic Area (the EEA) and managed by a third party service provider. Where we transfer your personal information outside the EEA we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your information is treated securely and the means of transfer provide adequate safeguards.

We may share your personal information with third parties where:

• you have consented to us doing so (where necessary) or the organisation that you work for has obtained your consent for us to do so (where necessary);

• we are under a legal, regulatory or professional obligation to do so (for example, to comply with anti-money laundering or sanctions requirements);

• it is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, legal proceedings or in order to exercise or defend legal rights.

5. Security

We use up to date data storage and security to hold your personal information securely in electronic and physical form to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification or unlawful destruction or accidental loss.  

All our partners, staff and third party service providers who have access to confidential information (including personal information) are subject to confidentiality obligations.

However, the transmission of information via the internet, including by email, is not completely secure.  Although we take appropriate and proportionate steps to manage the risks posed, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted to our online services.

6. Your rights

You have certain rights that you can exercise under certain circumstances in relation to the personal information that we hold.  These rights are to:

• request access to your personal information (known as a subject access request) and request certain information in relation to its processing;

• request rectification of your personal information;

• request the erasure of your personal information;

• request that we restrict the processing of your personal information; and

• object to the processing of your personal information.

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time.  Once the firm has received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us in writing by emailing [email protected] or by letter to:

The Compliance Officer
Avantia Law Limited
21 Lombard Street
London EC3V 9AH

You will not, in general, have to pay a fee to exercise any of your individual rights set out in this Privacy Policy.  However, we may refuse to provide access and may charge a fee for access if the relevant data protection legislation allows us to do so, in which case we will provide reasons for our decision as required by the law.

7. Further information

The firm has appointed its Compliance Officer to oversee compliance with this Privacy Policy.  If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact them as set out above.

We hope that our Compliance Officer can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your personal information.  If you feel we have not handled your query or concern to your satisfaction you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues at ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone 0303 123 1113