Privacy Policy

Introduction

In order to provide legal advice and representation, we need to collect and hold personal information. This means that steps have to be taken by us to protect this data under data protection legislation known as UK GDPR. This may be your personal data or information relating to other parties involved in the matter. We will take all possible steps to protect personal information. We will ensure that we do not do anything that may infringe your rights or undermine your trust. This privacy notice describes the information which the self-employed barristers collect about you, how it is used and shared, and your rights regarding it.

Changes/updates
This notice may change from time to time.  Please review it periodically. Further information about data privacy may be found in the Terms of Engagement sent to all clients at the outset of their contract.

The last update was May 2022.

Status

The individual members of chambers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board (“BSB”) to undertake work as barristers. Personal information is processed in accordance with UK GDPR and in line with obligations imposed under the BSB Code of Conduct as amended from time to time.

• Data controller

Cloth Fair Chambers is a barrister’s chambers made up of self-employed barristers. For the purposes of data protection matters in the UK under UK GDPR, those individual barristers are registered individually as data controllers with the Information Commissioners Office (“ICO”). You can find each barrister’s registration number on the individual member’s profile: Member profiles

As a service company, Cloth Fair Chambers Limited is a data controller in its own right for certain matters and its registration number is ZA124638; otherwise, it acts as a data processor for its members.

The registered address is Cloth Fair Chambers, 39-40 Cloth Fair, London EC1A 7NT.

We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer; however, Cloth Fair Chambers have appointed a Data Protection Lead, Annaleen Stephens who can be contacted on +44 (0)20 7710 6444.

Data collection

The vast majority of the information that we hold about you is provided to, or gathered by, us in the course of your case and/or proceedings. Either we or your solicitor will tell you why we need the information and how we will use it. In addition to the information you may provide to us or your solicitor, we also obtain information from other sources as follows:

• Information that is available publicly in registers, searches or in the media
• Other legal professionals including solicitors and barristers and their associates, trainees and staff
• Chambers staff
• Expert witnesses
• Prosecution bodies
• Regulatory, public or administrative bodies
• Court staff & officials
• Clients References

Whose personal data do we process?

We process personal data about our lay and professional clients, potential clients, about individuals who feature in the matters in respect of which we are asked to provide legal services, witnesses and experts, opponents, other lawyers with whom we are working, court staff and members of the judiciary and others connected to the matters we are working on.

What data do we process about you?

Depending on the type of work, we collect and process both personal data and special categories of personal data as defined in the UK GDPR. This may include:

• Name, email address, phone number, address
• Payment or bank details
• Date of birth
• Next of kin and family details
• Details pertaining to education,  employment and professional or regulatory arrangements
• Information on your background & current circumstances
• Financial information
• Identification documents including photographic data
• Interests and preferences

Where relevant, we may also need to process special category personal data that reveals your:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Political opinions
• Religious and philosophical beliefs
• Trade union membership
• Genetic data
• Biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person
• Data concerning health, both physical and mental
• Sex life and sexual orientation.

We also process personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences.

Our lawful basis for processing your information

In order that we can provide legal services and representation for you, we must process your personal data. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (the UK GDPR) requires that where we process personal data, we must have a lawful basis for doing so. The lawful bases identified in the UK GDPR that we seek to rely upon are as follows:

Contractual necessity

We will process your personal data on the basis that it is necessary to enable us to fulfil our contractual duties to you or to take steps to enter into a contract with you.

Compliance with a legal obligation

We process personal data to enable us to comply with applicable laws. These include

• To make statutory VAT and tax returns to HMRC
• To comply with various regulatory and professional obligations governing the work we do

Legitimate interests

We process personal data for our legitimate business interests which include but are not limited to:

• Provision of legal services and advice
• For purposes of practice administration and management, accounting, fee collection, banking and debt recovery.
• For completion of professional regulatory requirements.
• Processing for marketing purposes.
• Processing to prevent fraud.
• To ensure our network and systems are secure.
• Reporting threats to public security.

Consent

Where this is our lawful reason for processing, we will ensure that we have your specific consent for processing your data for the specified purposes. You will also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Where you do so this will not affect the legality of data processing which had taken place prior to your withdrawal of consent.

Special category processing

The UK GDPR specifies that where we process special category data, we must rely upon certain exemptions in order to do so lawfully. The following exemptions are applicable in our practice

• We have your explicit consent to do so;
• It is necessary for the exercise or defence of legal claims or judicial acts; and
• For reasons of substantial public interest.

Criminal data processing

When we process data relating to criminal offences  it is necessary for:

• The purpose of, or in connection with, any legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings);
• The purpose of obtaining legal advice;
• The purposes of establishing, exercising or defending legal rights;
• Complying with regulatory requirements relating to unlawful acts and dishonesty;
• Suspicion of terrorist financing or money laundering;
• Publication of legal judgements; and/or
• Where we have your explicit consent to do so.

Purposes

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

• Provide legal advice and representation;
• Investigate and address your concerns;
• Communicate with you about news, updates and events;
• Investigate or address legal proceedings relating to your use of our services, or as otherwise allowed by applicable law;
• maintain internal records, including about terminated contracts;
• ensure good governance, accounting, management and auditing;
• Make any required statutory returns;
• Assist in any tendering or panel membership applications; Assist in any other applications for the purpose of professional development or career progression;
• Communicate legal updates and judgments to other legal professionals;
• For marketing purposes;
• The management and administration of our practice;
• To recover debt;
• To communicate and manage complaints with regulators; and/or
• Where relevant to conduct anti money laundering, terrorist financing or conflict of interest checks.

This list is not exhaustive.

Sharing your personal data

For the purposes set out in this notice, and subject to our professional obligations of confidentiality and the legal professional privilege of our clients, we may provide your personal data to the following:

• Instructing solicitors or other lawyers involved in your case, including those with whom we are working;
• Opposing legal representatives;
• Members of the Judiciary and court official;
• Opposing lay clients;
• Our chambers’ management staff and suppliers who provide administrative services for our practice;
• Our chambers IT providers;
• Expert witnesses and other witnesses;
• Our regulator and/or legal advisors in the event of a dispute, complaint or other legal matter;
• Head of Chambers or complaints representatives within our chambers, in the event of a complaint;
• Law enforcement officials, government authorities, or other third parties, to meet any legal obligations;
• Legal directories, for the purpose of professional development;
• Any relevant panel or tendering committee, for the purpose of professional development;
• Accountants and banking officials;
• Regulators or arbitrators, where complaints or disputes arise; or
• Any other party where I ask you for consent and you consent to the sharing.

We may also be required to disclose your information to the Police or Intelligence Services where required by law or pursuant to a court order.

How long will your personal data be retained for?

We will not keep your personal data in a form that identifies you for longer than is necessary for the purposes set out in this notice or as required or permitted by applicable law. Unless specific circumstances require us to keep it (e.g. for maintaining conflict checks) we will delete, destroy or anonymise your information around 7 years after the end of processing, e.g. the conclusion of a case/matter or receipt of final payment, or writing off of fees, whichever is the latest.

Transfers of personal data outside of the UK

The nature of the matter which requires the processing may mean that it is necessary to  transfer your data to a location (for example to a secure server) outside the UK, for processing  purposes set out in this notice. This may include circumstances where we are instructed to act on a case by or involving lawyers located outside of the UK.

In such cases, to safeguard your privacy rights, transfers will be carried out with appropriate safeguards to ensure the safety and security of your information. This may include transfers to recipients to which a European Commission ‘adequacy decision’ applies or the transfers will be carried out under standard contractual clauses that have been approved by the European Commission as providing appropriate safeguards for international personal data transfers.

Your rights

The UK GDPR gives specific rights in terms of personal data:

• The right  to be informed about  the information we hold and what we use it for and the right to ask for access to the personal information we hold about you.
• A request can be made that personal data held is erased;
• A right to ask us to correct any inaccuracies with the personal data we hold.
• You can ask us to stop sending you direct mail or emails or, in some circumstances, ask us to stop processing your details;
• The right to restrict how data is processed;
• You have the right to have a decision taken by a human (however, the way in which we process data is unlikely to involve automated means to process that data particularly where the data has a legal or similarly significant effect on you);
• the right to be notified of a personal data breach if it results in a high risk to your rights and freedoms;
• the right to withdraw your consent if you have given your consent to processing of any of your personal data (please note that if you withdraw your consent, this will not affect the validity of any processing carried out prior to the withdrawal); and
• where your personal data is processed by automated means, you can ask the data to be transmitted to another data controller. If you request this, you will be informed whether this is possible, taking into account compatibility of systems of the other data controller to whom you wish the transfer to be made.

These rights are also subject to certain limitations that exist in law. This is particularly the case when the data processing relates to the pursuit or defence of legal rights.

Depending on the nature and extent of your request, the contractual relationship with you may need to end as we would be unable to continue to deliver legal services without being able to process personal data in the way needed. In this event, you will remain liable for any outstanding fees and disbursements incurred before the request was made.

You will not have to a pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if you request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.  We may, alternatively, refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

You can find out more information about your information rights from the ICO’s website:
http://ico.org.uk/for_the_public/personal_information

You may exercise any of the rights above by contacting us at the email address or telephone number set out above.

Marketing opt-outs

You may opt out of receiving emails and other messages from our practice by following the instructions in those messages.

Obligations

You are not under a statutory or contractual obligation to provide any personal data to us unless we specifically tell you and in such cases, we will explain the basis of the obligation.

Automated decision-making

The way that we process data and the systems we use does not involve any automated decision-making or profiling.

Changes to our privacy notice

When we make significant changes, we will notify you of these through email. We will also publish the updated notice on our chambers’ website.

What should you do if you have a complaint?

We hope you will be satisfied with the way in which we approach and use your personal data, however if you have a concern or complaint about the way in which we handle your personal data please contact us at the email address above.

Should you find it necessary, you have a right to raise a concern with or make a complaint to the information regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office: https://ico.org.uk

 

End of Privacy Notice