Privacy Notice

1. Purpose of this notice 

This notice describes how we collect and use personal data about you in accordance with United Kingdom data protection legislation.

2. About us 

Knightwood Legal is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, registration number 635351. Our principal work involves the provision of legal consultancy services and legal advice to government and public bodies in the United Kingdom and overseas.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 and this notice, we are the ‘data controller’. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. 

3. How we may collect your personal data

We obtain personal data about you, for example, when:

• you/ your employer request a proposal from us in respect of the services we provide;
• you/ your employer engage us to provide legal services and also during the provision of those services to you/your employer;
• you contact us by email, telephone, post or social media (for example when you have a query about our services); or
• from third parties and/or publicly available resources (for example, from your employer).

4. The kind of information we hold about you

Given the nature of our services, the type of personal data we hold or process primarily comprises:

• your name and/or address, including e-mail address;
• details of contact we have had with you/ your employer in relation to the provision, or the proposed provision, of services;
• details of any services you or your employer have received from us;
• our correspondence and communications with you /your employer;
• information about any complaints and enquiries you make to us;
• information we receive from other sources, such as publicly available information and information provided by your employer.

5. How we use personal data we hold about you 

We may process your personal data for purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with you/ your employer as our clients and to comply with our legal obligations.

We may process your personal data for the purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with you/ your employer as our clients. This may include processing your personal data where you are an employee, subcontractor, supplier or customer of a client.

We may process your personal data for the purposes of our own legitimate interests provided that those interests do not override any of your own protected interests, rights and freedoms. This includes processing for marketing, business development, statistical and management purposes.

Although given the nature of our work, we currently foresee no reason to do so, we may process your personal data for certain additional purposes beyond those stated above, but before doing so we will obtain your consent.  In these limited circumstances where your consent is required for the processing of your personal data then you have the right to withdraw your consent to processing for such specific purposes.

6. Situations in which we will use your personal data

We may use your personal data in order to:

• communicate with you/ your employer and provide advice in order to perform any agreements entered into between you/ your employer as our clients;
• carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between our clients and us which will most usually be for the provision of our services where you may be a subcontractor, supplier or customer of our client;
• provide you with information related to our services and activities that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, provided you have consented to be contacted for such purposes;
• seek your feedback on the services we provide; and
• notify you about any changes to our services.

If you refuse to provide us with certain information when requested, we may not be able to provide you with legal services.

We may also process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in accordance with this notice, where we are legally required or permitted to do so.

7. Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected under our agreement with you/your employer.

When assessing what retention period is appropriate for your personal data, we take into consideration:

• the requirements of our business and the services provided;
• any statutory or legal obligations;
• the purposes for which we originally collected the personal data;
• the lawful grounds on which we based our processing;
• the types of personal data we have collected;
• the amount and categories of your personal data; and
• whether the purpose of the processing could reasonably be fulfilled by other means.

In the majority of cases, we will not retain your personal data for longer than 6 years after the last date on which we provide services to you/ your employer

8. Change of purpose

Where we need to use your personal data for another reason, other than for the purpose for which we collected it, we will only use your personal data where that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

Should it be necessary to use your personal data for a new purpose, we will notify you and communicate the legal basis which allows us to do so before starting any new processing.

9. Data Sharing 

We will share your personal data with third parties where we are required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship between us or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

10. Use of third-party service providers 

In order to practise and provide services to our clients we use third-party service providers. Currently these are providers of secure cloud storage for files and emails and web hosting. Our third-party service providers are required to take commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect your personal data. Given the nature of our work, beyond names and addresses, minimal personal data will in any event be processed by these third parties.

11. Other third parties

We may also need to share your personal data with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

12. Transferring personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

Apart from the possible sharing of names and addresses in any communications sent to those with whom we are working in countries outside the EEA where necessary in order to perform our contracts and provide our advice, in the event that we collect personal data, this will not be shared outside of the EEA.

13. Data Security

Any information provided by clients is treated as confidential irrespective of any data protection duties. We have put in place commercially reasonable and 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 employees, agents, contractors 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.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

14. Rights of Personal Data Subjects 

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Should your personal information change, please notify us of any changes of which we need to be made aware by contacting us, using the contact details below.

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive details of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are processing it lawfully. Our response to such requests may be subject to duties of client confidentiality and the personal data rights of any other person.
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you.
• 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 exercised your right to object to processing (see below). This right may, though be subject to any duty we have to retain the data by 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 basis. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. Again, though, this right may be subject to any duty we have to process the data by law.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or another data controller if the processing is based on consent, carried out by automated means and this is technically feasible.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please email us at information@knightwoodlegal.com.

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 for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

15. Right to withdraw consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please email us at information@knightwoodlegal.com.

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information (personal data) for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

16. Changes to this Notice

Any changes we may make to our privacy notice in the future will be updated on our website.  This privacy notice was last updated on 24th May 2018.

17. Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding this notice or if you would like to speak to us about the manner in which we process your personal data, please email us at information@knightwoodlegal.com.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at any time. The ICO’s  details are:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745