Introduction
Woodroffes respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This privacy notice will let you know how we look after your personal information generally and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
This notice aims to give you information on how Woodroffes collects and processes your personal data. It is intended to cover all of your rights and information required under data laws (GDPR) effective from 25th May 2018. We are continually working towards improving our processes and systems and will keep this notice updated as necessary..
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.
Who are we?
Woodroffes is the controller and is responsible for your personal data (referred to as “Woodroffes” “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).
Woodroffes is a partnership and our business address is 7 Beeston Place, London, SW1W 0JJ.
What data do we collect about you?
We collect and process a range of personal information, which is used solely for the purposes of our core business of providing legal services to our clients. We do not use personal information for direct marketing or for any other purposes.
We will collect your full name and contact details (such as phone number, email address and postal address) from you whenever you deal with us.
When we provide our services to you, or on your behalf, where we are required to do so by law, we will collect information relating to your identity, which will be at least one form of photographic identification (such as a passport, a driving licence or an identification card) and one form of documentation with proof of your place of residence (such as a recent utility bill).
We may need to collect information from third party sources (for example, to verify your identity). The third party is responsible for your information and its disclosure to us and you should always check that privacy notices and statements from any entity that makes available information about you.
The types of personal information we collect about you usually falls into the following categories:
Identity and contact information from our direct interaction with clients and contacts in order to provide our professional legal services
Financial information which may include bank account details and sources of funds information for any transaction
Such other personal information we may require from you that you or others may provide to us in order to supply our legal services to you
For the above purposes, a client includes any organisation or individual who is identified as a client on Woodroffes’ systems (regardless of whether we charge any fees) and a contact includes any individual who is a contact of the firm whether a representative of a client or a former or prospective client, any supplier, consultant, another professional adviser, intermediary or agent.
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with legal services). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have requested from us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
We do not automatically collect technical information via our web site by using cookies or any other mechanisms.
How do we use your personal information?
The law requires us to ensure we have a lawful basis for processing your personal information. This is usually because it is necessary for:
the performance of a contract that you enter in to with us; and/or
our legitimate interests or those of a third party; and/or
compliance with a legal obligation.
Sometimes, we may ask you to consent to our collection and use of certain of your personal information. Where this is the case, you can change your mind and withdraw your consent at any time by e-mailing us at enquiries@woodroffes.com.
Why do we use your personal information?
We use your personal information for the purposes listed below.
delivering our legal services to our clients in relation to our professional services and fulfilling our contractual obligations in this regard
undertaking our client checks and assessing whether to do business with a client or contact
managing activities related to your services
fulfilling and responding to requests from you or made on your behalf
for our internal business management and operational purposes including managing our professional, regulatory and legal obligations in relation to the business we do with and for you
analysis to help us improve our services.
Who do we share your personal information with?
We may need to share your details with others in order to perform our services to you. For example, we may need to deal with professional advisers, solicitors acting for other parties in a transaction, expert witnesses, agents, brokers, lenders and other parties on your behalf and in connection with our services, depending on the nature of the services you would like us to deliver.
A small number of third party consultants and service providers are engaged by Woodroffes to assist in the delivery of our services, operation of our business and the running and maintenance of our systems. When we use such consultants and third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service. We take reasonable steps to ensure we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own purposes.
We may release your information to third parties beyond the above only if we are required to do so by law (e.g. by a court order or to comply with applicable legal obligations) or in connection with the prevention of fraud or other crime.
In connection with our professional compliance and regulation we are required to submit aspects of our systems including a selection of client files to audits or quality checks conducted by external firms which themselves will be subject to duties of confidentiality.
As solicitors we may be required by statute to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency if we know or suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing. If we make a disclosure in relation to your legal services, we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made. We may have to stop working on your services for a period of time and may not be able to tell you why.
We may release your information to third parties beyond the above only if we are required to do so by law (e.g. by a court order) or in connection with the prevention of fraud or other crime.
How do we protect the personal information you provide to us?
Of course, we try to ensure we have appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.
We have internal 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.
How long will you keep my information?
We will not to keep your personally identifiable information in a form that allows you to be identified for any longer than is reasonably necessary for achieving the permitted purposes.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider a number of factors including any applicable legal requirements.
The applicable legal requirements mean that we have to keep certain information about our clients and contacts and their transactions for a minimum of six years after they cease being clients. Where we have acted for others (such as lenders) on your behalf we may be obliged to keep information for much longer than this.
Naturally there are circumstances where the firm has acted for companies or families over very long periods of times and we are proud to have represented four and five generations of families and some corporate clients for more than a century. Moreover, clients frequently entrust us with the retention of original documentations, wills and trust papers which contain personal data and which we shall retain indefinitely. As such the appropriate period for retention of data and records will vary with clients and matters and may often be an extended period of time. Naturally you are welcome to discuss this matter with us either before or after the delivery of services.
Will you transfer my information overseas?
Personally identifiable information may be transferred outside of the UK to other third parties where this is necessary in connection with the legal services we are delivering (for example, where we are dealing with international parties or indeed where our client is resident abroad or dealing with shares or businesses registered overseas). We will take reasonable steps to try to ensure that adequate protection is provided for that data in accordance with any obligations we have under applicable data protection laws.
What happens to your personal information on a change of control of our business?
In the event of a business change in control resulting from, for example, a change in partners or merger with another entity, we may transfer your personally identifiable information to the new party in control.
What rights do I have in relation to my personal information?
In certain circumstances, you have the right to:
Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
Request 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.
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those 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.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the certain limited scenarios
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. 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 contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
Note, however, that we may not always be able to or obliged to comply your requests. For example, there may be specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request and, in some cases, we may have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
If you wish to make a formal request for information we hold about you or to make changes to the data we hold about you then you can contact us at enquiries@woodroffes.com.
Changes and updates to this privacy notice
This notice was last updated in May 2018.
We may change or update the content of this notice from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you are happy with any changes. If we make significant and material changes we will endeavour to notify clients and contacts directly affected.
How can you contact us and/or complain?
Please contact us with any queries in relation to your personal information and how we use it.
Our full details are:
Name: Woodroffes Solicitors
Partner with responsibility
for data privacy: Philip Gordon-Smith
Email address: pgordonsmith@woodroffes.com
Postal address: Woodroffes, 7 Beeston Place, London, SW1W 0JJ
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us first.