St John’s Buildings Ltd (‘SJB’) and the barrister members of St John’s Buildings Chambers are committed to being responsible custodians of the information you provide us and the information we collect in the course of operating our business.
This Privacy Policy describes how SJB, as a data controller, and the barrister members of SJB, as individual data controllers, may collect, use, and share information, particularly in association with the instructions we receive to represent clients and in the operation of our main website and HTML-formatted emails that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, “Digital Services”).
The types of information we collect
We collect your personal information when you or your solicitor or legal representative provide it to us or personal information provided to us for the legitimate purpose of receiving legal advice and representation or in pursuing the legitimate goals of St John’s Buildings Ltd. “Personal information” is any information that can be used to identify you or that we can link to you. We may automatically collect certain information when you use, access, or interact with our Digital Services. And we may collect information from other sources, such as social media platforms that may share information about how you interact with our social media content.
Information you provide to us
You generally can use our Digital Services without providing us with personal information. We collect information that you voluntarily provide to us, including when you communicate with us via email or other channels; when you sign up for or request that we send you newsletters, alerts, or other materials; when you submit an application for a position with us; when you sign up for a webinar or event; and when you respond to our communications or requests for information. The information you provide may include your name, contact information, title, and information about the organisation with which you are affiliated. Some of our Digital Services may require that you enter a password or other information in order to access certain features, and we collect such credentials when you enter them.
We also collect information provided to us by you or your legal representative in order to receive legal advice and representation.
Information we may collect automatically
We use browser cookies and similar technologies (collectively, “Cookies”) to collect and store certain information when you use, access, or interact with our Digital Services. We may, for example, collect information about the type of device you use to access the Digital Services, the operating system and version, your IP address, your general geographic location as indicated by your IP address, your browser type, the content you view and features you access on the Digital Services, the web pages you view immediately before and after you access the Digital Services, whether and how you interact with content available on the Digital Services, and the search terms you enter on the Digital Services.
Should you wish to deny or block the use and saving of cookies from our website onto your computer’s hard drive, you should take steps within your web browser’s security settings to block cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.
Information we collect from other sources
We may receive information about you from other sources. Although this will most commonly be because they are your legal representative and have instructed one of our barristers to represent you or because you are in a legal dispute with a 3rd party who has instructed one of our barristers to represent them in legal action involving or against you, it may also including third parties that help us update, expand, and analyse our records; identify new customers; or prevent or detect fraud. We may also receive information about you from social media platforms including but not limited to when you interact with us on those platforms or access our social media content. The information we may receive is governed by the privacy settings, policies, and/or procedures of the applicable social media platform, and we encourage you to review them.
How we use the information we collect
We may use the information we collect:
- To respond to your inquiries;
- To provide you with legal and other services that you request;
- To provide a 3rd party with legal and other services that they request in relation to a legal matter in which you are involved, either as another party, an interested party, a witness, a member of court staff, an employee within the legal sector or any other legitimately interested party in a legal action or anticipated legal action or proceedings;
- To operate, troubleshoot, and improve the Digital Services;
- To send you newsletters, legal updates, marketing communications, and other information or materials that may interest you;
- To maintain our list of contacts;
- To understand how people use our Digital Services, including by generating and analysing statistics;
- For St John’s Buildings’ business purposes, including data analysis; submitting invoices; detecting, preventing, and responding to actual or potential fraud, illegal activities, or intellectual property infringement;
- To precure goods and services;
- To assess the effectiveness of our events, promotional campaigns, and publications;
- To evaluate, recruit, and hire personnel; and
- As we believe reasonably necessary or appropriate to comply with our legal obligations; respond to legal process or requests for information issued by government authorities or other third parties; or protector your, our, or others’ rights.
Who will we share your personal information with?
If you are a client, some of the information you provide will be protected by legal professional privilege unless and until the information becomes public in the course of any proceedings or otherwise. We have an obligation to keep your information confidential, except where it otherwise becomes public or is disclosed as part of the case or proceedings.
It may be necessary to share your information with the following:
- data processors, such as St John’s Buildings’ staff, IT support staff, email providers, data storage providers
- other legal professionals
- experts and other witnesses
- prosecution authorities
- courts and tribunals
- trainee barristers
- lay clients
- family and associates of the person whose personal information we are processing
- in the event of complaints, the Head of Chambers, other members of Chambers who deal with complaints, the Bar Standards Board, and the Legal Ombudsman
- other regulatory authorities
- current, past or prospective employers
- education and examining bodies
- business associates, professional advisers and trade bodies, e.g. the Bar Council
- the intended recipient, where you have asked Chambers to provide a reference.
- the general public in relation to the publication of legal judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals
We may be required to provide your information to regulators, such as the Bar Standards Board, the Financial Conduct Authority or the Information Commissioner’s Office. In the case of the Information Commissioner’s Office, there is a risk that your information may lawfully be disclosed by them for the purpose of any other civil or criminal proceedings, without Chambers’ consent or your consent, which includes privileged information.
How we may share the information we collect
We do not sell, rent, or otherwise share information that reasonably identifies you or your organisation with unaffiliated entities for their independent use.
We may also disclose information we collect:
- To our third-party service providers that perform services on our behalf, such as web-hosting companies, mailing vendors, analytics providers, event hosting services, and information technology providers.
- To law enforcement, other government authorities, or third parties (within or outside the jurisdiction in which you reside) as may be permitted or required by the laws of any jurisdiction that may apply to us; as provided for under contract; or as we deem reasonably necessary to provide legal services. In these circumstances, we take reasonable efforts to notify you before we disclose information that may reasonably identify you or your organisation, unless prior notice is prohibited by applicable law or is not possible or reasonable in the circumstances.
- To service providers, advisors, potential transactional partners, or other third parties in connection with the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another company or we sell, liquidate, or transfer all or a portion of our assets.
Grounds for using your personal information
We rely on the following legal grounds to process your personal information, namely:
- Performance of a contract – We may need to collect and use your personal information to enter into a contract or to perform a contract that you have with us. For example, when you or your solicitor instructs one of our barristers to represent you or when you use our Digital Services we will use your personal information to respond to your requests and provide you with such services.
- Consent – We may use personal information to contact you about your case or developments in the law. To withdraw your consent to such use, you can contact us via our Contact Us page, or some communications will include “opt-out” buttons. Where required by applicable laws, we may rely on your consent for direct marketing and/or to collect information from your device or computer.
- Legitimate interests – We may use your personal information for our legitimate interests to improve our products and services and the content on our Digital Services. Consistent with our legitimate interests and any choices that we offer or consents that may be required under applicable laws, we may use technical information as described in this Privacy Policy and use personal information for our marketing purposes.
Third-party services & content
Our Digital Services may include integrated content or links to content provided by third parties (such as video materials). This Privacy Policy does not address the privacy, security, or other practices of the third parties that provide such content.
We engage third parties that support the operation of our Digital Services, such as analytics providers. These third parties may use technologies to track your online activities over time and across different websites and online platforms. Please see our Cookies Policy for more information
Protection & storage of the information we collect
We deploy administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to comply with applicable legal requirements and safeguard the information that we collect. This includes, when required or appropriate and feasible, obtaining written assurances from third parties that may access your data that they will protect the data with safeguards designed to provide a level of protection equivalent to that adopted by SJB.
However, no information system can be 100% secure. So, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information. Moreover, we are not responsible for the security of information you transmit to us over networks that we do not control, including the Internet and wireless networks.
We will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary to reasonably fulfil the purposes for which we collect the information and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
How long will Chambers store your personal information?
We will normally store all your information:
- Until at least 1 year after the expiry of any relevant limitation period, from for example the date on which your employment terminates, the date of the last provision of service or goods, the date of the last payment made or received or the date on which all outstanding payments are written off (whichever is the latest). This is because it may be needed for potential legal proceedings. At this point any further retention will be reviewed and the information will be marked for deletion or marked for retention for a further period. The latter retention period is likely to occur only where the information is needed for legal proceedings, regulatory matters or active complaints. Deletion will be carried out as soon as reasonably practicable after the information is marked for deletion.
- We will store some of your information which we need to carry out conflict checks indefinitely. However, this is likely to be limited to your name and contact details/ the name of the case.
- Information related to anti-money laundering checks will be retained until five years after the completion of the transaction or the end of the business relationship, whichever is the later;
- Names and contact details held for marketing purposes will be stored indefinitely or until we become aware or are informed that the individual has ceased to be a potential client.
Your choices & rights
Subject to local law, you may have certain rights regarding information that we have collected and that is related to you. We encourage you to contact us to update or correct your information if it changes or if you believe that any information that we have collected about you is inaccurate. You can also ask us to see what personal information we hold about you, to erase your personal information and you may tell us if you object to our use of your personal information. In some jurisdictions, you may have a right to complain to your local data protection authority. If you would like to discuss or exercise the rights you may have, send us an email via our Contact Us page.
If you no longer wish to receive marketing communications from us, you can let us know by sending us an email via our Contact Us page. And the electronic marketing communications we send you may contain opt-out mechanisms that allow you to register your marketing preferences.
How to contact us
We welcome your inquiries and comments. But please note that if you are not a client, we may not be able to treat the information you send us as confidential or privileged. If you wish to contact us regarding legal or other services, please contact one of our Chambers near you. You can find a list of our Chambers offices on our Contact page.
If you would like to contact us with questions about our privacy or data protection practices, please send us an email via our Contact page.
If you have a complaint regarding any aspect of your personal data or this Notice please email us on clerk@stjohnsbuildings.co.uk, telephone 0161 214 1500, or write to:
Data Protection Manager
St John’s Buildings
24a-28 St John Street
Manchester M3 4DJ
If you wish to complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office you can contact them via their website or at the following address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Changes to this privacy policy
We constantly review and refine how we process and protect data. This policy will be amended and updated in line with any improvements to our process and publicised on our website.
