Privacy notice - for legal services
Stanley Tee LLP trading as Tees is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.
Stanley Tee LLP trading as Tees is a law firm offering legal services to businesses and individuals.
In order to provide our services and manage our business we collect and manage data from clients and others. This is likely to include personal data as we could be dealing with individuals as clients or obtain information relating to individuals within client businesses. We are committed to protecting the privacy rights of individuals. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we collect, manage, store and dispose of data relating to individuals.
Personal data we collect about you
The table below sets out the personal data we will or may collect about you.
Personal data we will collect |
Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us |
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Your name, home and business address and telephone numbers |
Your National Insurance and tax details |
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Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth or passport details |
Your bank and /or building society details |
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Electronic contact details, e.g. your email address and mobile phone number |
Details of your professional online presence, e.g. LinkedIn profile |
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Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation |
Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, e.g. if you instruct us on a family matter or a will |
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Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you |
Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, e.g. if you instruct us on a matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant |
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Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, e.g. the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction |
Your nationality and immigration status and information from related documents, such as your passport or other identification, and immigration information, e.g. if you instruct us on an immigration matter |
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Information about your use of our IT, communication and other systems, and other monitoring information, e.g. if using any secure online client portal |
Details of your pension arrangements, e.g. if you instruct us on a pension matter or in relation to financial arrangements following the breakdown of a relationship |
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Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category personal data), e.g. if you instruct us on a matter related to your employment or in which your employment records are relevant |
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Your trade union membership |
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| Personal identifying information, such as your eye colour or your parents’ names |
We may also collect sensitive information including:
- information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs;
- Your medical records and health data (relating to both physical and mental conditions and any disability).
Our website uses cookies - see further below.
How we collect your personal data
We collect most of this information from you. However, we may also collect information from other sources such as:
- publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House, HM Land Registry or open internet searches, e.g. Google;
- directly from a third party, e.g.:
o Identity and sanctions screening providers;
o credit reference agencies;
o client due diligence providers;
- from a third party with your consent, e.g.:
o your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
o consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
o your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;
o your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
- via our website—we use cookies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see our cookies policy)
- via our information technology (IT) systems, e.g.:
o case management, document management and time recording systems;
o automated monitoring of our website and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, CCTV and access control systems, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems.
Why we collect your personal data
We collect data to:
- Onboard you or your organisation as a client, including client due diligence checks;
- Provide legal services and respond to requests for legal services;
- Manage our business relationship with you or your organisation, including billing, accounting, collection and support services;
- Provide information relating to our services either in response to specific requests or generally in order to develop our business;
- Process employment applications;
- Bill for our services and obtain payment;
- Respond to complaints;
- Meet our legal and regulatory obligations;
- Make appropriate business development plans to better support our clients’ needs for legal services;
- Prevent, detect and respond to fraud or potential fraud or other illegal activities;
- Improve the functionality of our website and other IT requirements;
- Fulfil purposes ancillary to any of the above.
We may collect and process health data if it is relevant and necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or transactions.
We may collect and process data relating to racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs either because it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or transactions or, subject to explicit consent, in order to respond to requests from our regulators for statistical information.
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, e.g.:
- 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 (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:
What we use your personal data for |
Our reasons |
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To provide legal services to you and respond to requests for legal services |
For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
| To provide legal services to someone other than you |
In the case of an individual, where appropriate, our legitimate interests in entering into and performing a contract with a person, an organisation or body with which you are connected. If, for example, you are a beneficiary or executor of a trust or an estate or you are an employee, director, partner, trustee, attorney, witness or other person involved with the matter on which we are instructed, we will use this information for the performance of our contract with our client and/or on the basis that we have a legitimate interest in processing that data |
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Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety regulations, money laundering regulations 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, e.g. policies covering security and internet use | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. 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, i.e. to be as efficient and endeavour to deliver the best service for you |
| Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information
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| Billing for our services and obtaining payment | Performance of a contract and, in relation to tax and VAT, for complying with our legal obligations |
| Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient and endeavour to deliver the best service for you |
| Responding to complaints | Compliance with our professional, regulatory and legal obligations |
| Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e: 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 |
| Statutory returns |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments |
To comply with our legal regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. to make sure we are following our internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service for you |
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Processing employment applications |
Performance of a contract, including steps taken in anticipation of entering a contract, and, in the case of information which we are required to provide for tax or social security purposes, compliance with our legal obligations. We may also seek the explicit consent of applicants for employment to obtain further information. We may seek explicit consent to the collection of data relating to racial or ethnic origin to comply with requests for information from our regulators |
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Making appropriate business development plans to better support our client's needs for legal services including marketing our services (and those of selected third parties) to:
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For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to promote our business to existing and former clients. We will note the rights of individuals to unsubscribe from mailings and/or manage their preferences in our mailings and requests to unsubscribe may be made by using a link in the email or by contacting our Data Protection Officer at the contact details below |
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Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies |
For our legitimate interests |
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External audits and quality checks, e.g. for Lexcel, AML audits, ISO or Investors in People accreditation and the audit of our accounts |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
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Improving the functionality of our website and other IT requirements |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party i.e. To make a user’s experience of our website more efficient. Consent to the use of other cookies. We will note the rights of individuals to unsubscribe from mailings and/or manage their preferences in our mailings and requests to unsubscribe may be made by using a link in the email or by contacting our Data Protection Officer at the contact details below |
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Fulfilling purposes ancillary to any of the above |
Should there be an ancillary reason to process data, this will be done in a lawful, fair and transparent manner |
When we rely upon our legitimate interests we will balance any impact on you and your privacy rights and will not use your personal data where the impact on you would override our rights, unless we are otherwise permitted by law to process your personal data, for example, where you consent.
Information provided by you
In certain circumstances, we are required to collect information from you or individuals within your organisation in order to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations. This may, for example, include information relating to identity and source of funds. We may also be required to collect information from you, individuals within your organisation or from others on your behalf in order to perform a contract with you. If you do not provide us with the information which we require we may be unable to act for you. Where information is required in the context of, for example, an employment application, if you do not provide the information we need, we may be unable to offer you employment.
Promotional communications
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interest 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. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.
We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:
- emailing yourprivacy@teeslaw.com
- 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.
We will note the rights of individuals to unsubscribe from mailings and/or manage their preferences in our mailings and requests to unsubscribe may be made by using a link in the email or by contacting our Data Protection Officer whose details are below.
Who do we share your personal data with
In some limited circumstances, we may share data which we collect from you with certain trusted third parties in accordance with contractual arrangements which we have in place or as required by law. These may include:
- professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;
- other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions;
- credit reference agencies;
- our insurers and insurance brokers;
- our own professional advisers and external auditors, e.g. in relation to Lexcel accreditation and the audit of our accounts;
- our bank[s];
- external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g. IT 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 we share data with a third party, the data may be stored outside the United Kingdom. Please see our section below on International transfers.
Where your personal data is held
Information may be held at our offices and third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see ‘Who we share your personal data with’).
How long we will retain your personal data
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 notice. Our standard retention period for holding your personal data is 7 years after we have finished acting for you. However, different retention periods apply for different types of data and/or depending on the nature of your matter and so some data can be held for longer. Please contact us if you have any questions on this.
Transferring your personal data out of the United Kingdom
To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the United Kingdom (UK), e.g.:
- 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;
- where we use IT applications which are hosted outside the UK.
We only transfer your personal data where regulations made under section 17A of the Data Protection Act 2018 provide that the third country in question ensures an adequate level of protection in line with UK data protection standards, or where there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect your personal data. If you would like further information please contact our Data Protection Officer (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
Your rights
The data protection legislation provides individuals with whom we are dealing with the following rights. This includes relationships between us and individual clients or others with whom we deal, or induvial within client organisations or third-party organisations. All of those individuals are referred to as ‘you’ below. You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
Rights |
Description |
| To be informed |
This privacy notice is provided to fulfil our obligation to tell you how we use your information. |
| Access | The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data that we hold about you.
This right is known as a ‘Subject Access Request’. If you wish to make a Subject Access Request you should contact our Data Protection Officer whose details are below in writing or by email or verbally. If possible, and to We will normally send you a copy of the information within one month of your request. However, that period may be extended by two further months where necessary, taking into account the complexity and number of the requests. There is usually no charge; in exceptional circumstances, we may charge but will discuss this with you if that applies. |
| Rectification | The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data. |
| To be forgotten (right of erasure) | The right to require us to delete your personal data - in certain situations: for further information, please contact our Data Protection Officer. |
| Restriction of processing | The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data - in certain circumstances, e.g. 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. If you wish to move, copy or transfer the electronic personal data that we hold about you to another organisation, please contact our Data Protection Officer whose details are below. |
| To object |
You may object to your data being used for direct marketing. You may also object to the continued use of your data in any circumstances where we rely upon consent as the legal basis for processing it. Where we rely upon legitimate interests as the legal basis for processing your personal data, you may object to us continuing to process your personal data but you must give us specific reasons for objecting. We shall consider the reasons you give us but if we consider that there are compelling legitimate grounds for us to continue to process your data we may continue to do so. In that event, we shall let you know the reasons for our decision. If you wish to exercise your right to object to the use of your data under this section of our privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer whose details are below. |
| 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, by contacting our Data Protection Officer whose details are below. |
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 UK General Data Protection Regulation.
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
- email, call or write to our Data Protection Officer—see below: ‘How to contact us’; and
- let us have enough information to identify you;
- 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.
You can get 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: visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.
Cookies
Our website uses cookies to collect information about how visitors use our website. More information can be found in our Cookies policy | Tees Law.
How to complain
If you have any questions about this privacy notice and how it affects you, please contact our Data Protection Officer whose details are below. You can also contact our Data Protection Officer if you have any complaints or concerns about how we handle your data. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.
CONTACT DETAILS
Full name of legal entity: Stanley Tee LLP
Name of Data Protection Officer: Robert Whitaker
Email address: Robert.whitaker@teeslaw.com
Postal address: Tees House, 95 London Road, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire CM23 3GW
Telephone number: 0808 303 8425
CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY NOTICE
This notice is the responsibility of the Data Protection Officer.
This version was reviewed and updated in March 2024. We may amend our notice and any changes will take effect immediately and be binding on you. If we make any change which will significantly change our use of your data, we will notify you. Otherwise, you should check this privacy notice from time to time to ensure that our notice meets your expectations.
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