Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
At Ahern Rudden Quigley, we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Policy explains how we collect, use, process, and disclose your information, including personal information, and how we keep it secure. The Data Controller for the purpose of this Policy is Ahern Rudden Quigley (“us“, “we” or “our“) of 5 Clare Street, Dublin 2.
Our “Site” includes this website, all our subdomains and associated websites. By using the Site or otherwise providing your personal information to us, you agree to the collection, use and sharing of your information under this Policy. This read this Privacy Policy carefully and contact us at enquiries@arqsolicitors.com if you have any questions.
2. Why we process your data and the lawful basis for processing your data
2.1 Website visitors
For people who view and interact with our Site, we may use technologies to automatically collect service usage data, device number, IP address, links you click, the previous website address from which you reached us, and Google Analytics data which shows the traffic.
We currently do not actively process technical data collected from visitors of our Site, but we may use these data in aggregated format to monitor our Site traffic and to tailor our services accordingly.
The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in the administration and operation of our legal services as well as our legitimate interest in marketing and promoting our firm’s legal services.
We will retain this data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
2.2 Clients
We may collect personal information about a potential client from a third party if that third party makes a reference to us. We will use the personal information to make contact with the potential client.
We may also directly collect, process, and disclose personal information of potential or existing clients, their counter parties, and/or other parties related to a claim/case. Personal information we process generally includes name, address, email address, phone number, account information and other relevant personal information for the following purposes:
• to provide legal advice and services for the clients and to perform our contractual obligations;
• to instruct counsel and liaise with experts;
• to collect our fees; and
• to refer clients to a different solicitor if there is a conflict of interest.
The legal basis for the processing of this data is processing necessary for the purpose of performance of our contractual obligations to our clients and protection of our legitimate interest in the operation of our legal services.
From time to time, we may also process special categories of data relating to you, e.g. health data that we may process in connection with a legal claim where we are acting on your behalf. Our legal basis for processing will be that the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
There may be limited circumstances where our legal basis for processing special categories of data is your consent (where we have sought it and you have provided it to us), in which case you can withdraw your consent at any time.
We share this data with our practice management system provider. We may also send you emails through our email service provider. They may only process this data for the purpose of providing us with their services, and no other purpose.
We will retain client files for 10 years with exceptions where files are required to be held for longer periods under guidelines set out by the Law Society of Ireland.
2.3 Solicitors, barristers, experts and consultants
For solicitors, barristers, experts and consultants that we liaise with on client matters, we process your personal data in order to liaise with you about our client matters.
The legal basis for the processing of this data is processing necessary for the purposes of our firm’s legitimate interests and fulfilling our contractual obligations to our clients.
We share the information you provide with our practice management system in order to store your contact information with our client file. We may also send you emails through our email service provider.
We will retain this data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
2.4 For job applicants to the firm, we collect and process you data:
• to arrange interview with you;
• to recruit new employees; and
• to ascertain your suitability for a specific role.
The legal basis for this processing is processing necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interests of our firm in recruiting new staff. We may also send you emails about your application through our email service provider.
We will retain unsuccessful applications for 12 months. If an applicant is successful but choose to not take the position, we will retain such applications for 24 months. If an applicant is successful and takes the positions, the application will be transferred to the individual’s HR file.
2.5 Other business contacts
In the course of our business, we may collect and process personal data of individuals through various business contacts. Such information may include name, address, email address, phone number, company name, job title, etc.
The legal basis for this processing is processing necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interests of our firm and the provision of legal services to our clients.
We will retain this data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
3. Sharing and Disclosure of Personal Data
We consider your data to be private and confidential. We may disclose your information to our third party service providers to help us provide legal services to you. For instance, we may share client information with counsels and experts who we engage with in order to fulfil our contractual obligations to you. We will disclose information only which is necessary for the provision of legal services to you.
We may also disclose your information to courts, law enforcement or governmental authorities, or authorised third parties, if and to the extent we are required or permitted to do so by law or if such disclosure is reasonably necessary: (a) to comply with our legal obligations, (b) to comply with legal process and to respond to claims asserted against us, (c) to respond to investigation of a criminal activity or an illegal activity, or (d) to protect the rights, property or personal safety of the Company, its employees, its clients, etc.
We currently do not transfer personal data outside of the EEA. If such transfer becomes necessary in the future, we will ensure that appropriate and adequate measures are taken.
4. Links to other sites and social media
Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to and from other websites and web platforms. In addition, third parties websites may also provide links to the Site. If you follow a link to any of those websites or web platforms, please note that those websites and web platforms have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for those policies. Please check those policies before you submit any personal data to those websites. We do not accept, and we disclaim, any responsibility for the privacy statements and information protection practices of any third party website (whether or not such website is linked on or to the Site). These links are provided to you for convenience purposes only, and you access them at your own risk. It is your responsibility to check the third party website’s privacy statements before you submit any personal data to their websites.
5. Your rights relating to personal data
You have the following rights under the GDPR, in certain circumstances and subject to certain exemptions, in relation to your personal data. To exercise your rights, please contact us by email at enquiries@arqsolicitors.com.
• right to access the data – you have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, together with other information about our processing of that personal data.
• right to rectification- you have the right to request that any inaccurate data that is held about you is corrected, or if we have incomplete information you may request that we update the information such that it is complete.
• right to erasure – you have the right to request us to delete personal data that we hold about you. This is sometimes referred to as the right to be forgotten.
• right to restriction of processing or to object to processing – you have the right to request that we no longer process your personal data for particular purposes, or to object to our processing of your personal data for particular purposes.
• right to data portability – you have the right to request us to provide you, or a third party, with a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used machine readable format.
In order to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at the contact details at the start of this privacy policy.
If we are processing personal data based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing which took place prior to its withdrawal.
If you are unhappy with how we process personal data, we ask you to contact us so that we can rectify the situation.
You may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The Irish supervisory authority is the Data Protection Commission.
6. Cookies and Other Technologies
We and our third-party service providers currently do not use any technologies, such as cookies or web beacons to assess how our sites are used, to personalize your experience and to deliver you advertising, including online content, tailored to your interests.
7. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We will post changes to this Privacy Policy and indicate the effective date when this Privacy Policy is updated.
Last updated: 29 June, 2018