Data Protection

INTRODUCTION

In the course of our acting for you, we may receive information relating to you, your directors, shareholders, beneficial owners, employees, agents, associates and family members. In this Policy, we refer to this information as "personal information".

This Policy sets out the basis on which we will process this personal information. Please read the Policy carefully to understand our practices regarding personal information and how we will use it.

ABOUT KIBBE & ORBE LLP

The data controller in respect of personal information is Kibbe & Orbe LLP, a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under number OC314284. Our registered office is at Dashwood House, 17th Floor 69 Old Broad Street, London, EC2M 1QS.

Kibbe & Orbe LLP is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 with registration number Z9282548.

Kibbe & Orbe LLP is authorised and regulated by The Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Kibbe & Orbe LLP is affiliated with the US law firm by the same name, Kibbe & Orbe LLP, a limited liability partnership established under the laws of the State of New York with DOS ID number 2850676 and having its principal offices at 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003, USA.

References in this Policy to "K&O”, “we”, “our” and “us” are references to Kibbe & Orbe LLP, the UK data controller and its affiliated US law firm.

CONTACTING US

We are not required to appoint a formal data protection officer under data protection laws. However, K&O’s Data Protection Contact is Matthew Hughes.

If you have any questions about this policy or your information, or to exercise any of your rights as described in this policy or under applicable data protection laws, you can contact us as follows:

Data Protection Contact
Kibbe & Orbe LLP
17th Floor, Dashwood House
69 Old Broad Street
London EC2M 1QS

By email: mhughes@kibbeorbe.com

By telephone: +44 (0) 20 7382 4880

DATA protection principles

Anyone processing personal data must comply with the principles of processing personal data as follows:

• Lawfulness, fairness and transparency – data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.
• Purpose limitation - data must be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes.
• Data minimization - data must be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed.
• Accuracy - data must be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
• Storage limitation - data must be kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed.
• Integrity and confidentiality - data must be processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage by using appropriate technical or organizational measures.

This Policy describes the personal information that we collect and explains how we comply with these principles.

Information we collect

We collect the personal information as necessary to enable us to carry out your instructions and to manage and operate our business, and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

The personal information that we collect includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Your name;
• Home and business address;
• Contact details (such as telephone numbers and email address);
• Date of birth;
• Gender;
• Marital status;
• Copies of passport, national identity card, driving license, utility bills, bank statements and similar documents;
• Immigration status and work permits;
• Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation;
• Other personal information contained in correspondence and documents which you may provide to us; and
• Information we obtain from our IT and communications monitoring.

You confirm that you are authorized to provide to us the personal information which we shall process on your behalf.

Where the personal information relates to your directors, shareholders, beneficial owners, employees, agents, associates or family members it is not reasonably practicable for us to provide to them the information set out in this Policy.  Accordingly, where appropriate you are responsible for providing this information to any such person.

How your information is collected

We collect most of this information from you directly, however, we may also collect information:

• From publicly accessible sources (for example, Companies House);
• Directly from a third party (for example, client due diligence providers);
• From a third party with your consent (for example, another professional you or we may engage in relation to your matter);
• Via our information technology systems (for example, case management, document management and time recording systems).

Legal Basis for Processing

We process personal information on the basis of one or more of the following:

• Processing is necessary for the performance of our contractual engagement with you: this relates to all personal data we reasonably need to process to carry out your instructions.
• Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject: this relates to our legal obligations in relation to, for example, anti-money laundering.
• Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data: this relates to our processing for our legitimate marketing purposes, for our management, accounting and administration purposes and for data security.

Special Categories of ("Sensitive") Personal Data

You may also supply us with, or we may receive, special categories of (or “sensitive”) personal data. This is defined by data protection laws to include personal data revealing a person’s racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or data concerning health.

We process these special categories of personal data on the basis of one or more of the following:

• Where the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of the personal data for one or more specified purposes;
• Where the processing relates to personal data which are manifestly made public by the data subject;
• Where the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims;
• Where the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, in accordance with applicable law. Such reasons include where the processing is necessary:
  • For the purposes of the prevention or detection of an unlawful act or for preventing fraud;
  • For the provision of confidential advice.

DATA RELATING TO CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS & OFFENCES

We may also collect and store personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences (including the alleged commission of offences).

This data is only processed where it is necessary for the purposes of:

• The prevention or detection of an unlawful act and is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest;
• Providing or obtaining legal advice; or
• Establishing, exercising or defending legal rights.

How we use your information

K&O shall use personal information and any other information which we may collect for the purpose of:

• Our provision of legal professional services to you in connection with your matters as reasonably necessary in order to carry out your instructions, including associated administration and accounting;
• Marketing our services (for our legitimate interest of promoting our services to clients);
• Compliance with our anti-money laundering requirements and any other law or regulation and the rules of any applicable governmental, regulatory authority or professional body; and
• Any dealings with any governmental, regulatory authority or professional body, in order to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Where we request personal information to identify you for compliance with anti-money laundering regulations, we shall process such information only for the purposes of preventing money laundering or terrorist financing, or as otherwise set out in this Policy or permitted by law.

K&O acts as a data controller in relation to the processing of personal information as set in this Policy. However, in some circumstances we may process personal data on your behalf as a data processor for the purposes of data protection laws. Where we process any personal information on your behalf as your data processor, the terms set out in our data processing addendum, a copy of which is available on request from our Data Protection Contact, shall apply.

MARKETING

We may use personal information to notify you about important legal developments and services which we think you may find valuable, for sending you newsletters, invitations to seminars and similar marketing.

In this connection we may disclose personal data to our affiliated international offices or to third parties providing marketing services to us, or with whom we are conducting joint marketing exercises.

We may contact you by post, email, telephone or SMS.

You can tell us if you do not wish to receive direct marketing by writing to us or by notifying the Data Protection Contact whose details are set out above.

If you would like to unsubscribe from any email newsletter or other email marketing, you can also click on the ‘unsubscribe’ button at the bottom of the email.  It may take a few days for this to take effect.

EMAIL MONITORING

Email which you send to us or which we send to you may be monitored by us to ensure compliance with professional standards and our internal compliance policies. Monitoring is not continuous or routine but may be undertaken on the instruction of a partner where there are reasonable grounds for doing so.

Third Party Processors

Our information technology systems are operated by us but some data processing is carried out on our behalf by third parties. Details regarding these third-party data processors can be obtained from our Data Protection Contact whose details are given above.

Where processing of personal data is carried out by a third-party data processor on our behalf we endeavor to ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to prevent unauthorized access to or use of your data.

Disclosure of personal information

Personal information will be retained by us and will not be shared, transferred or otherwise disclosed to any third party, except as set out in this Policy.

If we are working with other professional advisers on your behalf we shall assume that we may disclose your information to them, unless you instruct us otherwise.

We may disclose and share personal information

• With K&O partners, staff and consultants;
• To other professional advisers and third parties in accordance with your instructions;
• To our professional indemnity insurers, brokers or advisers, and auditors, lawyers or risk managers who we or they may appoint;
• If we, acting in good faith, consider disclosure to be required by law or the rules of any applicable governmental, regulatory or professional body.

Should we be requested by certain authorities to provide them with access to your information in connection with the work we have done, or are doing, for you, we will comply with that request only to the extent that we are bound by law to do so and, in so far as it is allowed, we will notify you of that request or provision of information.

In certain circumstances, solicitors are required by statute to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency where they know or suspect that a transaction may involve a crime including money laundering, drug trafficking or terrorist financing.  If we make a disclosure in relation to your matter(s), we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made.

We may transfer personal information to a successor firm or company which acquires the legal practice carried on by us. If this happens, we shall ensure that you are notified of the transfer and we shall secure a commitment from the firm or company to which we transfer personal information to comply with applicable data protection laws.

Your Rights

Access to your information and updating your information

• You have the right to access information which we hold about you. If you so request, we shall provide you with a copy of your personal information which we are processing (“subject access request”);
• You also have the right to receive your personal information in a structured and commonly used format so that it can be transferred to another data controller ("data portability").
• We endeavor to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date and you may ask us to correct or remove any information you think is inaccurate.

Right to object

You have the right to object at any time to our processing of your personal information used for direct marketing purposes.

Where we process your information based on our legitimate interests

You also have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time, to processing of your personal information which is based on our legitimate interests. Where you object on this ground, we shall no longer process your personal information unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

Your other rights

You also have the following rights under data protection laws to request that we rectify your personal information which is inaccurate or incomplete.

In certain circumstances, you have the right to:

• request the erasure of your personal information (“right to be forgotten”);
• restrict the processing of your personal information to which you have given us your consent or used for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims or used for the protection of the rights of others.

Please note that the above rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests, wholly or partly, where exceptions under applicable law apply.

Exercising your rights

You can exercise any of your rights as described in this policy and under data protection laws by contacting the Data Protection Contact.

Except as described in this policy or provided for under applicable data protection laws, there is no charge for the exercise of your legal rights. However, if your requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular because of their repetitive character, we may either: (a) charge a reasonable fee taking into account the administrative costs of providing the information or taking the action requested; or (b) refuse to act on the request.

Where we have reasonable doubts concerning the identity of the person making the request, we may request additional information necessary to confirm their identity.

Security of your information

We store your information in hard copy and in electronic format. We use industry standard technical and organizational measures to protect information from the point of collection to the point of destruction. For example:

• Hard copy information files are restricted to authorized individuals
• We use, as appropriate, encryption, firewalls, access controls, policies and other procedures to protect information from unauthorized access.
• Where appropriate, we use pseudonymisation and / or encryption to protect your information.

We will only transfer personal data to a third party if they agree to comply with those procedures and policies, or if they put in place adequate measures themselves.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will endeavor to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted over the internet. In most, if not all instances, we would expect to use a secure transfer site for this purpose.

International Transfers

K&O is an international organization with offices in the UK and the USA. Authorized personnel may access your information in any country in which we operate. Therefore, it may be necessary to transfer your information to our affiliated firm in the USA.

The USA is not currently subject to a decision of the European Commission on the adequacy of the protection of personal data. However, we shall take appropriate or suitable safeguards with respect to the transfer of your data to the USA by implementing standard data protection clauses adopted by the European Commission. Details regarding these safeguards can be obtained from our Data Protection Contact whose details are given above.

INFORMATION RETENTION PERIODS

Personal information received by us will only be retained for as long as necessary to fulfil our engagement. Following the end of our engagement we will retain your information for as long as necessary and permitted for legal, regulatory, fraud and other financial crime prevention and legitimate business purposes. After this period, your personal data will be securely destroyed in accordance with our Data Retention Policy.  Further details regarding our data retention policy can be obtained from our Data Protection Contact whose details are given above.

COMPLAINTS

The Data Protection Contact is Matthew Hughes who can be contacted at mhughes@kibbeorbe.com and to whom complaints should be addressed.

In addition, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk/) about our data processing activities in relation to your personal information if you think they infringe applicable data protection laws (ICO helpline on +44 (0) 303 123 1113).

Changes to this policy

The current version will always be available from us in hard copy or on our website.

We may change this Policy from time to time. We will post a prominent notice on our website to notify you of any significant changes to this Policy or update you by other appropriate means.

This Policy was last updated on January 1, 2021.