Privacy policy

Thomas Mansfield Solicitors is committed to safeguarding the privacy of information provided to us and information about visitors to our websites.

This policy, together with our cookie policy, sets out the basis on which any personal information that we collect about you will be processed. It explains how we may collect and use information that we obtain about you, and your rights in relation to that information. Your use of our online services or your provision of information to us constitutes your acceptance of the terms of this policy. Please do not send us any of your information if you do not want it to be used in the ways described in this policy.

Please read the following carefully to understand how we will treat your personal information.

Scope of policy

This privacy policy applies to your use of any of our services, including:

when you request information from us;
when you engage our legal and other services;
as a result of your relationship with one or more of our clients;
where you apply for a job or work placement; and
your use of our websites.

Information collection

We will collect personal information directly from you, from our clients or their authorised representatives.

We may also collect personal information from third parties such as regulatory authorities, your employer, other organisations with whom you have dealings, including government agencies, credit reporting agencies, recruitment agencies, information or service providers, publicly available records and the third parties.

We may collect current and historical personal information including your name, contact details, identification, organisation, employment, positions held and enquiry/complaint details. We may also collect personal information about your other dealings with us and our clients, including any contact we have with you in person, by telephone, email or online.

Online services

When you use our online services, we may collect the following:

information you provide by completing ‘Request a Call Back’ forms and application forms (including when you submit material or request further services);
information you provide to us if you contact us or raise a query or comment, and
details of visits made to our online services such as the volume of traffic received, logs (including, the internet protocol (IP) address and location of the device connecting to the online services and other identifiers about the device and the nature of the visit) and the resources accessed.

Recruitment

If you apply for a job or work placement you may need to provide information about your education and employment. Your application will constitute your express consent to our use of this information to assess your application and to allow us to carry out both recruitment analytics and any monitoring activities which may be required of us under applicable law as an employer.

We may also carry out screening checks (including reference, background, directorship, financial probity, identity, eligibility to work, vocational suitability and criminal record checks) and consider you for other positions.

We may disclose your personal information (including diversity and equal opportunities data) to academic institutions, recruiters, screening check providers, health service providers, professional and trade associations, law enforcement agencies, recruitment analytics and diversity research providers, referees and your current and previous employers.

We may also collect your personal information from these parties in some circumstances. Without your personal information we may not be able to progress considering you for positions with us.

Use of your information

We may use your personal information if:

it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or necessary in connection with a legal obligation; or
you have provided your consent to such use; or
we consider such use of your information as not detrimental to you, within your reasonable expectations, having a minimal impact on your privacy, and necessary to fulfil our legitimate interests; or
we are otherwise required or authorised by law.

We use your information to:

provide and improve our services and products to you;
maintain and develop our relationship with you;
facilitate our internal business operations;
fulfil our legal requirements (including in relation to anti-money laundering) and professional obligations;
monitor and analyse our business;
send you marketing information.

We may not be able to do these things without your personal information.

We will only retain your personal information for as long as is reasonably necessary in the circumstances. Personal information provided in connection with the provision of our legal services will be retained for no longer than seven years unless we agree otherwise with you.

Our online services may have different retention periods, which you will be notified of separately when you access those services.

Disclosure of your information

We may share your information with third parties where:

you have consented for us to do so;
we are under a legal, regulatory or professional obligation to do so (for example, in order to comply with anti-money laundering requirements);
it is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, legal proceedings, or to exercise or defend legal rights;
if, in the future, we re-organise or transfer all or part of our business, we may need to transfer your information to new entities or third parties through which our business will be carried out;
it is relevant in the circumstances to disclose the information to our clients, your employer or place of business, your professional advisers and parties with whom we have co-promotional arrangements (such as jointly sponsored events);
we provide anonymous statistical information about users of our websites and related usage information to reputable third parties, including analytics and search engine providers.

We use a third party service provider to provide services that involve data processing, for example archival, auditing, reference checking, professional advisory (including legal, accounting, financial and business consulting), mailing house, delivery, technology, website, social media, research, banking, payment, client contact, data processing, insurance, forensic, litigation support, data room, marketing and security services.

Security

We take reasonable steps to hold information securely in electronic or physical form and to prevent unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Our information security policy is supported by a number of security standards, processes and procedures and we store information in access controlled premises or in electronic databases requiring logins and passwords. We require our third party data storage providers to comply with appropriate information security industry standards.

All partners and staff and third party providers with access to confidential information are subject to confidentiality obligations.

The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our online services; any transmission is at your own risk.

Cookies

We use cookies on our online services. Please see our Cookie Policy (insert link) for details.

Third party sites

Our websites contain links to other sites which are controlled by third parties.

Visitors should consult these other sites’ privacy policies and please be aware that we do not accept responsibility for their use of information about you.

Your rights

The privacy laws of the United Kingdom give individuals the right to access, amend or delete their personal information or, in some circumstances, to restrict or object to the processing of their personal information.

If you would like to request a copy of your data or would like to take steps to exercise your rights please contact us as set out below. We may refuse to provide access and may charge a fee for access if the relevant legislation allows us to do so, in which case we will provide reasons for our decision as required by law.

Information we hold about you should be up-to-date and accurate. Please advise us of any changes to your information using the contact details at the end of this page.

If you do not want to receive marketing information from us

If you receive marketing materials relating to our services by email or post, you may withdraw your consent for us to send these to you at any time, by using the unsubscribe option included in our marketing emails or other material.

Alternatively, you can let us know your preferences by sending an email to marketing@thomasmansfield.co.uk.

Status of this policy

We review this privacy policy regularly and reserve the right to revise it or any part of it from time to time to reflect changes in the law or technology practices.

How to contact us or make a complaint

Thomas Mansfield Solicitors is the data controller of any personal information provided to us. Our registered office is at 2 Mount Ephraim Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN1 1EE.

We have appointed a data protection manager to oversee compliance with this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this policy, or how we handle your personal information, you can contact our data protection officer at:

Thomas Mansfield Solicitors

2 Mount Ephraim Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN1 1EE

e. compliance@thomasmansfield.co.uk

Alternatively, you may call our switchboard on 020 8256 1200 and ask to be put through to our client care partner in order to discuss a complaint.

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your personal information, please contact our data protection manager. If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to make a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.