Privacy & Cookie Policy

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1. Introduction

Magara Law Limited is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy notice is designed to provide information about our practices concerning the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in the course of providing legal, advisory and/or consultancy services and carrying out marketing activities. This privacy notice sets out how we use and protect your personal information.

2. Who are we?

Magara Law Limited (“we”), are the Data Controller for the purposes of data protection law in relation to any personal information we hold about you.

Magara Law Limited is a private limited company registered in England and Wales with registration number 12656617 and our registered address is Eco Business Centre, Charlotte Avenue, Bicester, OX27 8BL. We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (Reg. No. 803067)

We are committed to maintaining high standards of confidentiality in relation to the information provided to us in the course of our business.

Please read this notice carefully and should you have any questions please contact us if you have any queries by emailing us at roy@magaralaw.co.uk, or by calling us on: 01869 325 883.

3. Who does this privacy notice apply to?

This privacy notice applies to everyone whose personal information we collect and process. This includes individuals in the categories below or who work for any of the following:

• our clients;
• other lawyers and law firms, including barristers;
• people who are involved in court or other legal proceedings (including legal      claims, tribunals, arbitrations, mediations, investigations and regulatory actions) or the provision of related or other legal, advisory and/or consultancy services, or people who are involved in insurance claims we  are handling for clients. This may include claimants, respondents, witnesses, experts and service providers related to such court or other legal proceedings, services or claims, such as investigators, mediators and costs lawyers;
• people who are involved in contracts and transactions we are working on, such as      other businesses or individuals our clients are contracting with;
• our regulators, insurers, auditors, professional advisers and      certification/accreditation bodies; and
• people whose details we process in connection with our marketing activities.

4. What personal information do we collect?

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified.

In the course of our business, we will need to collect and process various types of personal information for various purposes. Given the nature of our business and the services we provide, it is impractical to list all the categories of personal information that may be collected and processed. We will however only process and collect personal information where we have a legal basis to do so.

We most commonly collect and process the following kinds of personal data about you:

• contact information for individuals (such as full name, job title, organisation, date of birth, address, email address and telephone number). We may collect additional information to enable the identity of individuals to be verified;
• financial information, including your bank account and payment card details;
• employment records, including professional membership/registration, SRA checks,      references, proof of eligibility to work in the UK , security checks,      photos;
• information regarding an individual’s legal requirements and personal or professional situation;
• information about individuals employed by or associated with our clients, advisers or      the organisations involved in a matter on which we are instructed;
• medical records and health information as necessary for the provision of our      services where the services we provide involve or relate to medical matters;
• information obtained as a result of investigations carried out in relation to      individuals which may involve surveillance conducted by third parties and/or by researching online activity, and accessing various subscription databases and open-source platforms where the services we provide relate to suspected crime including regulatory or disciplinary offences involving dishonesty; and
• marketing and communications data, including your marketing preferences and      interests and any feedback you provide to us (for example, by completing a      survey).

For details about information we collect automatically from your use of our website, please see our Cookie Notice below.

5. How do we collect your personal information?

We use different methods to collect personal information from and about you including:

Direct interactions: you may voluntarily provide us with your personal information, for instance when you:

• fill out a form on our website, e.g. completing an online form;
• correspond with us by email or post;
• speak to us in person or on the phone;
• visit our offices;
• give us feedback (for example, by completing a survey);
• give us your business card at an event or meeting; or
• register for one of our online learning tools, webinars, events and/or conferences.

Automated technologies or interactions: as you interact with our website, we will automatically collect information about your browsing activities and your equipment. We collect this information by using cookies. For full details about our use of cookies, please see our Cookie Notice below.

Publicly available sources: we may collect personal information available publically from the publically accessible and online sources such as:

• online professional social networking services and applications, such as LinkedIn;
• your company’s website; and
• Companies House.

Third party sources: we may collect personal information from the following third party sources:

• our clients;
• our agents;
• professional advisers instructed by us;
• fraud prevention and credit reference agencies;
• subscription databases; and
• government agencies.

6. How do we use your personal information?

Legal basis on which we will use your personal data

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to do so, i.e. where we have a lawful basis for processing. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

• Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered      into with you, or take any steps you ask us to before entering into a contract with you.
• Where it is necessary to do so in order to comply with any legal obligations we      have, such as under money laundering laws.
• On the basis of consent:
  • Where we rely on your consent for processing this will be brought to your       attention when the information is collected from you.
  • You have the right to withdraw consent at any time, see the ‘Your Rights’ section       below for further information about how you may withdraw your consent.
• Where      the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in:
  • providing legal, advisory and/or consultancy services;
  • ensuring regulatory compliance and maintaining accreditations;
  • providing you with the best service;
  • promoting  our services;
  • receiving feedback; and
  • improving our services and identifying ways to grow our business.

and/or for the legitimate purposes of our clients or other third parties in receiving those services. We will only rely on this lawful basis where we consider that your interests and fundamental rights do not override such interests.

When processing your personal information we comply with the provisions of this privacy notice and, in respect of the provision of legal services we are also bound by professional obligations of confidentiality. 

Special category data

In most cases, when we process special category data as defined by the General Data Protection Regulation 1 it is because it is necessary to do so for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever instructed by the courts acting in their judicial capacity. We may however process special categories of data with your explicit consent (for example for the purpose of providing legal advice), where it is necessary to protect your vital interests (for example in the event of an emergency where you are attending our offices) or where the data has been manifestly made public by you.

Purposes for which we use your personal data

We may process your information for the following purposes:

Legal, advisory and/or consultancy services

Where we receive personal data in connection with the provision of legal, advisory and/or consultancy services, we process that data for the purposes of the provision of those services. This includes:

(a) Providing legal and related services, such as:

• managing court or other legal proceedings (including legal claims, tribunals,      mediations and investigations);
• providing legal advice;
• providing consultancy services;
• providing claims handling services; and
• advising on and negotiating legal contracts and transactions.

(b) Complying with our legal obligations or making disclosures to government, regulatory or other public bodies where in our reasonable opinion the disclosure is appropriate and permitted by law. This includes:

• performing checks of our clients and others as we are required to do by law or which      are good practice, such as anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism checks. In undertaking such checks we may ask individuals to provide information and use publicly available information;
• disclosures required by law or court order;
• disclosures to the police, tax authorities, the National Crime Agency or other public      or government authorities where in our reasonable opinion the disclosure is required in relation to any criminal investigation or prosecution; and
• disclosures to our regulators, ombudsman or other government, public or regulatory      authority, including any data protection supervisory authority or regulator of legal services, where in our reasonable opinion the disclosure is required or permitted by law.

(c) Providing access to our files for audit, review or other quality assurance checks, by our clients, regulators, auditors, professional advisers and certification/accreditation bodies.

(d) Processing required in connection with the day to day operation of our business such as billing and payments, complaints handling and internal record keeping. For this we may use third party service providers such as IT service providers.

(e) Processing required in connection with any actual or proposed reorganisation, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other transaction relating to all or any portion of our business or assets.

Marketing

We process personal information in connection with marketing or communications purposes, including so that we can:

• register and manage your attendance at one of our webinars, events or conferences;
• if you are a speaker at one of our events, promote your participation via platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, our website and in our marketing communications (NB: external platforms may continue to store and use your personal information after the event has ended);
• archive event attendance information and other personal information at the end of      every business year;
• share with you news and offers about our products and services;
• email you with legal updates and newsletters relevant to you;
• ask you for feedback (for instance, in a survey) about our services, and to manage, review and act on the feedback;
• manage any changes to your marketing preferences or comply with any unsubscribe      requests; and
• monitor our website usage and improve our services.

7. Who might we share your information with?

For the purposes set out in the section above, we may share your personal information with the following categories of third parties, some of whom we appoint to provide services, including:

• professional advisors, suppliers and sub-contractors in the course of the provision of      legal or other services or in the performance of any contract we enter into with you;
• providers of business support services including technology, banking, insurance,      litigation support and security;
• analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and      optimisation of our site;
• providers of business development and marketing support services;
• survey or quality assurance providers in order to receive feedback and improve      our services.

Additionally, we will disclose your personal information to the relevant third party:

• in the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets;
• if we are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data about you held by us will be one of the transferred assets; and
• if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our customers, our regulator, or others.

Where we share your personal information with third parties, as described above, we will only do so where in our reasonable opinion that information will be adequately protected.

Any other service providers with whom we share information are approved by us and subject to contractual obligations designed to ensure that those providers comply with data protection legislation.

Transferring personal information outside the EEA

We will not transfer personal data outside the European Economic Area ("EEA").

Third party links

Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications, for example when you click the link to register for an event, you may be taken to a third party such as Eventbrite. We do not control these third party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

8. How can you change your marketing preferences?

We strive to provide you with choices around what marketing communications you receive from us. To ensure that we continue to provide you with the most relevant information, you can review and update your marketing preferences at any time by emailing roy@magaralaw.co.uk, and we shall stop processing your information for those purposes.

If you have consented to receive marketing communications from us, you can withdraw this consent at any time by emailing roy@magaralaw.co.uk, and we shall stop processing your information for those purposes.

9. How long we keep hold of your information?

We retain personal data in accordance with our terms of engagement. 

If you withdraw your consent for us to contact you, we will store your information for a period of two years to ensure that you no longer receive emails from us.

10. How is your information kept secure?

We are strongly committed to data security and we take reasonable appropriate steps to protect the personal information we hold from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or corruption. We have put in place physical and electronic procedures to safeguard and secure that information.

11. What are your rights in respect of your data?

We process your personal data, you have the following rights. You can exercise these rights at any time by emailing us at roy@magaralaw.co.uk.

You have the right:

• to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes;
• to ask us not to process your personal data where it is processed on the basis of legitimate interests provided that there are no compelling  reasons for that processing;
• to withdraw your consent at any time. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew your consent.  If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the  time you withdraw your consent;
• to ask us not to process your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes, where relevant, unless the processing is necessary in the public interest;
• to request from us access to personal data we hold about you;
• to ask for the information we hold about you to be rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
• to ask for data to be erased provided that the personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, you withdraw consent (if the lawful basis for processing is consent), you exercise your right to object, set out below, and there are no overriding legitimate ground for processing, the data is unlawfully processed, the data needs to be erased to comply with a legal obligation;
• to ask for the processing of that information to be restricted if the accuracy of that data is contested, the processing is unlawful, the personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or you exercise your right to object (pending verification of whether there are legitimate grounds for processing); and
• to ask for data portability if the processing is carried out by automated means and the legal basis for processing is consent or contract.

12. What can you do if you have concerns about our use of data?

Should you have any issues, concerns or problems in relation to your data, or wish to notify us of data which is inaccurate, please let us know by contacting roy@magaralaw.co.uk in the first. If we are unable to resolve your concerns and you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to complain to the relevant supervisory authority, which is the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK. The ICO’s contact details are available here: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files of letters and numbers that are placed and stored on your computer by the websites you use. These files can be read by website servers and can be used to help identify you when you return to a website.

They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site, for example, remembering your preferences, recording what you have put in your shopping basket, and counting the number of people looking at a website.

This website uses cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a functional website and to give you a more personalised service.

We use the following cookies:

Essential cookies

We have one cookie which is used for operational reasons; it is strictly necessary for us to use this cookie in order the site to work. The cookie is set by our content management system and only lasts for the length of your visit.

Functionality cookies

We use some cookies for enhancing the search functionality on the site. This helps the website remember your selections and makes the search tool easier to use. None of these cookies last for longer than 5 minutes.

Analytical cookies

The other cookies we use are ‘analytical’ cookies. The analytical cookies we use contain an ID number which is used to uniquely identify your browser and track each site you visit that has Google Analytics enabled.

Our analytical cookies are operated by Google Analytics and store the following data:

• time of visit, pages visited, and time spent on each page of the website
• interactions with site-specific widgets
• referring site details (such as the URL a user came through to arrive at the      website)
• type of web browser
• type of operating system (OS)
• flash version, JavaScript support, screen resolution, and screen colour      processing ability
• network location and IP address
• document downloads
• clicks on links leading to external websites
• errors when users fill out forms
• clicks on videos
• ‘scroll depth’ (how far you scroll up or down on a page).

They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the site when they’re using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example by making sure users are finding what they need easily.

If you already have Google Analytics cookies, they will be updated with the latest information about your visit to our website. We cannot access these cookies and are not the data controller for information held by Google Analytics.

Third party cookies

Please note we allow third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) to use cookies on our website.  We do not have direct control over how these third parties use cookies. Other cookies that may be used by third parties are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

How do I change my cookie settings?

Your consent is generally required for cookies to be placed on your computer and for the use and storage of personal information relating to you provided by the cookies. If you do not disable them but continue to use our site we will take this as your consent to the use of those cookies. You may withdraw your consent at any time by updating your cookie settings.

Consent is not needed for cookies to be placed on your computer (for example, where a cookie is needed for the operation of our website or for the provision of a service to you), the use and storage of any personal information provided by the cookies will be based on legitimate interests. The legitimate interests we are pursuing are the operation of our website and promotion of our business.

Please be aware that if you decide to disable some or all cookies, you may not be able to access or use parts or all of the features of our website and you will not receive a personalised service.
 

Cookies can also be controlled by your web browser settings. Whether our cookies are used will depend on your browser settings, so you are in control. All browsers allow you to reject and/or delete cookies either one at a time or all at once. The procedure for this depends on the browser you use.

Please note that where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.