Privacy Policy

RT Coopers Notice

RT Coopers Solicitors takes your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

RT Coopers Solicitors is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal data we collect and process on behalf of our clients.

This Privacy Notice (“Notice“), together with our website terms and conditions and any other related documents, set out the types of personal data we collect, how we collect such data, how we process personal data, who we may share personal data with in connection with the legal services we provide and your rights.

Regulation

When we use your personal data we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and we are responsible for personal data for the purposes of the GDPR as ‘controller’. Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the GDPR, other relevant UK and EU legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.

Who we are

RT Coopers Solicitors owns and operates these sites www.rtcoopers.com , www.rtcoopersiplaw.com, www.employmentlawyersinlondon.com and the blog http://www.adviceoncompromiseagreements.com .

Controller

RT Coopers Solicitors is responsible for your personal data. For the purposes of the GDPR RT Coopers Solicitors is the controller and in some cases data processor.

Key terms

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:

The firm, we, us, our	RT Coopers Solicitors or RT Coopers.
Data protection responsible person	Due to the size of our firm, we have not specifically appointed a data protection officer. This may change in the future and this privacy policy will be updated accordingly. Rosanna Cooper is responsible for GDPR in the firm.
Personal data	Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.
Special category personal data	Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership Genetic and biometric data Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation

Personal data we collect about you

The table below sets out the personal data we will or may collect in the course of advising and/or acting for you.

Personal data we will collect	Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us
Your name, address and telephone number Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth, passport details or driving licence Electronic contact details, eg your email address and mobile phone number Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, eg the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction, on a complex matter or from outside of the UK. Information about your use of our IT, communication and other systems, and other monitoring information, eg if using our secure online client portal With regard to each of your visits to our website we may automatically collect the following information: Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform; Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our website (including date and time); pages you viewed; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any information used to contact us.	Your National Insurance and tax details Your bank and/or building society details Details of your professional online presence e.g. LinkedIn profile Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, eg if you instruct us on matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category personal data), eg if you instruct us on matter related to your employment or in which your employment records are relevant Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs, example, if you instruct us on discrimination claim Your trade union membership, eg if you instruct us on discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union Your medical records, eg if we are acting for you in an education case

Personal data we will collect

Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us

Your name, address and telephone number

Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth, passport details or driving licence

Electronic contact details, eg your email address and mobile phone number

Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation

Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, eg the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction, on a complex matter or from outside of the UK.

Information about your use of our IT, communication and other systems, and other monitoring information, eg if using our secure online client portal

With regard to each of your visits to our website we may automatically collect the following information:
- Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
- Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our website (including date and time); pages you viewed; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any information used to contact us.

Your National Insurance and tax details

Your bank and/or building society details

Details of your professional online presence e.g. LinkedIn profile

Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, eg if you instruct us on matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant

Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category personal data), eg if you instruct us on matter related to your employment or in which your employment records are relevant

Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs, example, if you instruct us on discrimination claim

Your trade union membership, eg if you instruct us on discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union

Your medical records, eg if we are acting for you in an education case

Your personal data is required to enable us to provide our services to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.

Personal data we collect from enquiries to us via our websites or directly by email

For all enquiries we receive whether by email or via our websites, personal data comprising email addresses, telephone numbers and/or messages about your matter will be collected by us, regardless of whether the enquiry is via our websites or direct email Your personal data will be collected, stored, used and shared in accordance with this privacy policy. When you submit your personal data via our websites or you send us a direct email you are granting us permission to contact you by one or more of these means in response to your enquiry and to process your personal data which we will do in accordance with our privacy policy. You therefore acknowledge that you have read our privacy policy and that you consent to us processing your data in accordance with our privacy policy.

How your personal data is collected

We collect most of this information from you, our websites, direct or via our secure online client portal. We may also collect information:

From publicly accessible sources e.g. Companies House
Directly from a third party e.g.:
- sanctions screening providers;
- credit reference agencies;
- client due diligence providers;
From a third party with your consent e.g.:
- your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
- consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
- your employer and/or trade union or professional body;
- your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
Via our websites
- we use cookies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see http://www.rtcoopers.com/cookie-policy.php our cookies policy)
Via our information technology (IT) systems, eg:
- case management, document management and time recording systems;
- automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, access control systems, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems;

How and why we use your personal data

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so:

To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
Where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

The table below explains what we use or process your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:

What we use your personal data for	Our reasons
To provide legal services to you	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identities Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, example, under health and safety regulation or rules issued by our professional regulator	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, example, policies covering security and internet use	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you.
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient to be able to deliver the highest quality legal services to you.
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, example, in relation to our financial performance, client base, work type or other efficiency measures.	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient to be able to deliver the highest quality legal services to you
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
Updating and enhancing client records	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, example, to ensure we can keep in touch with our clients regarding existing and new practice areas and other services we offer.
Statutory returns	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, example, to ensure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently in order to deliver the highest quality legal services to you.
Marketing our services and those of selected third parties to: existing and former clients; third parties who have previously expressed an interests in our services; third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings.	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to promote our business to existing and former clients
Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies	For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, ie for credit control
External audits and quality checks, example, Lexcel or ISO accreditation and the audit of our accounts	For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party i.e. to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.

Promotional communications

The firm may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interests to you and/or information about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services.

We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for promotional purposes (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. Where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.

We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell OR share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:

contacting us by sending an email to [email protected] to opt-out or by

using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails.

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

Who we share your personal data with

We routinely share personal data with:

Professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, example barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
Other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, example, Companies House;
Credit reference agencies;
Our insurers and brokers;
External auditors, example, in relation to ISO or Lexcel accreditation and the audit of our accounts;
Our banks;
External service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, example, back up service providers, typing services, marketing agencies, document collation or analysis suppliers;

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

Where your personal data is held

Information may be held at our offices and those of our third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see ‘Who we share your personal data with’).

Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the UK’.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:

To respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
To show that we treated you fairly;
To keep records required by law.

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. We hold client data for 7 years and then we destroy such data. Any other data for 2 years and then we destroy such data.

When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

Transferring your personal data out of the UK

To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the UK:

With associates outside the UK;
With your and our service providers located outside the UK;
If you are based outside the UK;
Where there is an international dimension to the matter in which we are advising you.

These transfers are subject to special rules under UK data protection law.

We will ensure the transfer complies with data protection law and all personal data will be secure. Our standard practice is to use standard data protection contract clauses which have been approved under UK data protection law.

If you would like further information please contact us.

Your rights

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

Access	The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data
Rectification	The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data
To be forgotten	The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations
Restriction of processing	The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances, example, if you contest the accuracy of the data
Data portability	The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situations
To object	The right to object: at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, eg processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.
Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making	The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us or see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

email, call or write to us (see below): ‘How to contact us’; and

Let us have enough information to identify you (eg your full name, address and client or matter reference number);
Let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and
Let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

Keeping your personal data secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

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

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

How to complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in the UK. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone: 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time, when we do we will inform you via email alert

How to contact us

Please contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.

Our contact details are shown below: