Privacy Policy

The kinds of personal information we collect

The kinds of personal information that we collect include:

• contact details such as name, role or position, address, email address, mobile number, landline number and fax number;
• information relating to your circumstances and affairs relevant to the matter or matters in which we are instructed;
• information about your legal interests and requirements, and the legal services that you may require;
• information regarding our communications with you and your attendance at seminars and promotional events held by us;
• any other information provided by you through our website or online presence, or otherwise reasonably required by us.

How we collect personal information

Where practicable, we collect personal information about you directly from you. However, we may collect information about you from a third party such as a client, a third party information provider, the courts or a person responding to our questions or inquiries.

We may be required to collect, verify, use and disclose personal information in order to comply with our professional, legal and regulatory obligations, including under the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW), the Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014 (NSW), the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) and associated rules, and our duties to the courts.

This may include collecting and verifying information relating to your identity, address, date of birth, beneficial ownership and, where required, your source of funds or source of wealth. We may also retain records for client identification, conflict checks, trust accounting, record keeping and other regulatory purposes.

If you are a client and do not provide the information reasonably required for identification, verification and regulatory compliance, we may not be able to act for you.

If you do not provide us with accurate personal information, we may not be able to carry out your instructions or achieve the purpose for which the information has been sought.

The purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

The parties to whom your personal information is disclosed

We will also disclose your information if required by law or in circumstances permitted by the Privacy Act, including where we have reasonable grounds to suspect unlawful activity or serious misconduct relating to our functions or activities, or in response to a subpoena, discovery request or court order.

Disclosure of information outside Australia

We may disclose personal information to overseas recipients where reasonably necessary for the operation of our website, online services, technology systems, email marketing or other services used in support of our legal practice.

Some of our website, technology and cloud service providers may store or process personal information outside Australia.

Where we disclose personal information to overseas recipients, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the disclosure is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles, unless an exception applies under the Privacy Act.

Opting out of marketing communications

We may, from time to time, send you newsletters, invitations and legal updates about our services. You may opt out of receiving these communications at any time by contacting us using the contact details listed on our website or by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any marketing email from us.

Security

We take reasonable physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

You may contact us to access, correct or update your personal information. Unless we are subject to confidentiality obligations or some other restriction on giving access to the information and we are permitted to refuse you access under the Privacy Act, we will endeavour to make your information available to you within thirty (30) days. Examples of circumstances where we may refuse to give you access to your personal information include where:

• giving access would be unlawful;
• we reasonably believe that giving you access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual or to public health or public safety;
• giving access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
• giving access would reveal the intentions of a party in negotiations;
• giving access would prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to unlawful activity;
• giving access would reveal evaluative information in a commercially sensitive decision-making process.

If you request that we correct your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to correct it if we are satisfied that it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. If we refuse your request, we will provide written reasons for the refusal and explain the available complaint mechanisms. You may also ask us to attach to your personal information a statement that you believe the information is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

We will not charge you for making a request to access your personal information. However, we may charge a reasonable fee for providing access, depending on the costs involved in locating and providing the information.

You may make an access or correction request by contacting us using the contact details listed on our website.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The most recent version of our Privacy Policy will be available on our website.

Complaints and contact details

If you have a complaint about how we have handled your personal information or complied with this Privacy Policy, you may contact us using the mailing address or email address listed on our website.

We will endeavour to respond to your complaint within thirty (30) days. If you are not satisfied with our response, or if we do not respond within that period, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Information about making a privacy complaint is available on the OAIC website.