Privacy Policy
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Gerrish Legal’s Privacy Policy.
Gerrish Legal respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy will inform you about how we look after your personal data (defined below) when you visit our website, regardless of where you visit it from, and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
We hope that this privacy policy will be clear and the language used is direct, in order for you to understand the information we collect, what we use it for, and the few situations in which we may share it with others. If you have any further questions, our contact details are set out below.
1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE
PURPOSE OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY
This privacy policy provides you with information about how Gerrish Legal collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website. This includes any data you may provide through this website when you sign up to our newsletter, download free content from our website, purchase content from our website, request or use our legal services or make an application to work with us.
Gerrish Legal SARL is a limited liability company registered in France and Gerrish AB is a limited liability company registered in Sweden. When we mention “we”, “us” or “our”, “Gerrish Legal” “our firm” in this privacy policy, we are referring to Gerrish Legal SARL and Gerrish AB collectively, unless specifically stated. Further details on Gerrish Legal are set out below.
This website and are services are not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children. If we obtain actual knowledge that such information has been collected it will be immediately deleted from our database.
This privacy policy governs your use of this website (www.gerrishlegal.com) which is made available by us, and use of our services. By visiting this website you agree to the terms of this privacy notice as it may be amended from time to time.
It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, and that you are always fully aware of how and why we are using your personal data. This privacy policy supplements any other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.
CONTROLLER
Gerrish AB and Gerrish Legal SARL are acting as joint-controllers and are jointly responsible for your personal data, unless we specifically state otherwise.
The legal information about Gerrish Legal’s entities is set out here:
Gerrish Legal SARL, a limited liability company registered in France at the Paris Company Register (R.C.S Paris) under SIRET number: 882 809 528 00012 and APE Code: 6910Z, with Paris Bar Box number (Toque): E2065. Registered office: 15 rue de Surène, 75008, Paris, France.
Gerrish AB, a limited liability company registered in Sweden with organization number: 559284-1166 and VAT and tax registration number: SE559284116601. Registered office: Kammakargatan 47, 11124 Stockholm, Sweden.
Professional registrations: Charlotte Gerrish, the founding lawyer and director (gérant) at Gerrish Legal SARL is an Avocat à la Cour at the Paris Bar under number: 110779, admitted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority as a Solicitor of England & Wales under number: 474457 and a Solicitor of Ireland under number: S20448. Gerrish AB is a jurist-office and is not regulated by Advokatsamfundet in Sweden.
Our Founder, Charlotte Gerrish is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your rights under this privacy policy, please contact Gerrish Legal using the details set out below.
UK REPRESENTATIVE
As Gerrish Legal is based in the European Union and Gerrish AB has an establishment in the United Kingdom, we have appointed Gerrish AB as Gerrish Legal SARL’s representative for privacy matters in the United Kingdom. Gerrish AB will handle any queries related to data processing from the ICO and also from data subjects usually resident in the UK. If you are usually resident in the UK and have queries related to our processing of your data, you may contact Gerrish AB by email at info@gerrishlegal.com. You may also write to Gerrish AB. All correspondence should be marked “Gerrish AB - Privacy Team” and addressed to: 124 City Road, London EC1V 2NX, UK.
CONTACT DETAILS
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact us by email: info@gerrishlegal.com.
Of course, you have the right to make a complaint at any time to your national Data Protection Authority such as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK (www.ico.org.uk), to the CNIL in France (www.cnil.fr) or to the IMY in Sweden (https://www.imy.se/other-lang/in-english/). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you make a complaint, so please contact us in the first instance.
CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES
We keep our privacy policy under regular review, and we may update it from time to time as our services and privacy practices change, as we offer new content on our website, or as required by law. The changes become effective upon publishing and we do not generally provide notice of changes in any other manner. This version was published on 15th May 2019 and last updated on 9th February 2023. Any updated version will always be published on this page, and we encourage you to check this policy regularly to ensure you are aware of the latest version. We will ask for your consent to any changes made if we are legally required to do so. It is also important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
THIRD-PARTY LINKS
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, you will be subject to that website’s privacy practices, so we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit before providing any personal data on that website.
2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual which allows that individual to be identified. It does not include data where the individual's identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you and other third parties. To make things easier, we have separated the different types of personal data into the following categories:
Identity Data which includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
Contact Data which includes your name, title, address, billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
Candidate Data which includes any data relating to your application to work with us, such as your CV, qualifications, professional memberships, educational and employment history and any referees or references.
Financial Data which includes bank account, address, email address, contact information and limited payment card details.
Transaction Data which includes details about payments to and from you and other details of legal services you have purchased from us.
Technical Data which includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website which is always collected through third party cookies providers, or by other third parties on our website, which is described in more detail below.
Usage Data which includes information about how you use our website and legal services.
Marketing and Communications Data which includes your preferences in receiving newsletters from us and your communication preferences.
We might also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. While Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal data, it is not considered personal data in law since it will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. If we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we will treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.
We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (which includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data) unless you provide this to us with your express consent.
We also do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences unless you supply this to us voluntarily, and with your consent, such as, as part of any application you make to work with us.
We do not use any automated processing or automated decision-making of personal data (such as profiling) in a way that produces legal effects concerning you or otherwise significantly affects you.
If we receive personal data from you concerning other third parties, it is your responsibility to ensure that such data is transferred to us in compliance with applicable data protection laws.
IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE PERSONAL DATA
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, if you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you legal services or advice). Should this situation arise, we will discuss this with you to find the most appropriate way forward.
3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms, downloading or purchasing content, or corresponding with us by post, phone, email, via the contact forms on our website or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
Request that we provide you with legal services;
Request information about our legal services;
Subscribe to our newsletters;
Apply to work with us;
Give us feedback;
Contact us; or
Download any white papers or reports as made available from time to time.
Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.
Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
Technical Data from analytics providers such as Flodesk or Google Analytics (based inside and outside the UK and the EU).
Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources such as Companies House, Infogreffe and the Electoral Register (based inside the UK or EU only).
Identity, Contact, Financial and Transaction data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services made available on our website such as Stripe or Quickbooks (based inside and outside the UK and the EU).
We are subject to professional rules. Therefore, any other information that Gerrish Legal might receive during the provision of legal services to you or pursuant to any contractual obligations with its clients, such as information provided related to your case or matter shall be governed by rules relating to professional secrecy and legal professional privilege.
4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances by using some or all of the categories of personal data that you provide to us:
Where we need to, to provide legal services, respond to enquiries, and perform our obligations under a contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
Where we need to provide you with content such white papers, when you have chosen to download or purchase them.
Where we need to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject.
In accordance with our legitimate interests which do not override your privacy rights. Please get in touch using our contact details if you would like more information about this balancing test.
In certain situations, where you provide your express consent.
Further details about the specific legal ground(s) we rely on to process your personal data are set out below. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate and a description of the ways we plan to use your personal data..
Please note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. If you need more details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out, please contact us using the details specified at the start of this privacy policy.
Further details about the specific legal ground(s) we rely on to process your personal data are set out below, identifying what our legitimate interests are where appropriate and a description of the ways we plan to use your personal data.
We may process your personal data in order to:
Register you as a new client.
Lawful basis: consent (Article 6(1)(a)), in order to perform a contract with you (Article 6(1)(b)), to comply with our own legal obligations (Article 6(1)(c)), and because it is in our legitimate interests to do so (Article 6(1)(f)).
Type of data: Identity Data and Contact Data.
Process our contract with you for the provision of legal services, such as managing payments, fees and charges, collecting and recovering money owed to us.
Lawful basis: in order to perform a contract with you (Article 6(1)(b)) and because it is in our legitimate interests to recover debts due to us (Article 6(1)(f)).
Type of data: Identity Data, Contact Data, Financial Data, Transaction Data, Marketing and Communications Data.
Manage our relationship with you, such as notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy or our legal services, keeping our records updated and asking you for feedback.
Lawful basis: in order to perform a contract with you (Article 6(1)(b)), to comply with our own legal obligations (Article 6(1)(c)), and because it is in our legitimate interests to keep our records updated (Article 6(1)(f)).
Type of data: Identity Data, Contact Data, Profile Data, Marketing and Communications Data.
Administer and protect our professional activities and this website, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data.
Lawful basis: to comply with our own legal obligations (Article 6(1)(c)) and because it is in our legitimate interests to run our firm, expand our firm, provide administration and IT services, network security and prevent fraud (Article 6(1)(f)).
Type of data: Identity Data, Contact Data, Technical Data.
Manage your application to work with us.
Lawful basis: it is in our legitimate interests in order to run our firm, respond to client need and expand our firm, and in your legitimate interests as a candidate, applying to work with our firm (Article 6(1)(f)).
Type of data: Identity Data, Contact Data, Candidate Data.
Manage the content you receive and provide you with content such as white papers which are available for download and purchase, and to understand the interest in our website.
Lawful basis: consent (Article 6(1)(a)), in order to perform a contract with you where you have purchased content (Article 6(1)(b)), and because it is in our legitimate interests to provide you with content where you have chosen to download this (Article 6(1)(f)).
Type of data: Identity Data, Contact Data, Financial Data, Transaction Data, Technical Data and Usage Data.
Improve our website, legal services, client outreach, relationships and experiences by using data analytics.
Lawful basis: it is in our legitimate interests to define types of customers for our legal services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy.
Type of data: Technical Data and Usage Data.
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
You have control regarding our use of personal data for direct marketing. We do not carry out any third party marketing. However, we would like to keep in touch with you, and if you would like to do the same, you may wish to subscribe to our newsletter containing our latest case updates and legal news. You can subscribe to this newsletter by entering your details in the Subscribe section of our website and you may opt-out at any time by contacting us, or clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link in the email you receive. When you subscribe to our newsletter, we use the email management platform, Flodesk. For more details on how Flodesk processes your personal data, please visit their website here.
When we carry out promotional offers such as offering free content and white papers on our website or via our landing pages, we may use the Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data you provide when you download these in order to understand who is interested in our website. You will only receive marketing communications from us when downloading this content if you opt in to receive that marketing.
OPTING OUT
You can ask us to stop sending you our newsletter at any time by following the opt-out links in any message sent to you, or by contacting us at any time.
Where you opt-out of receiving our newsletter, please note that this will only apply to the newsletter. This opt-out will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of legal services that we are providing to you or to emails which are related to the provision of those legal services.
COOKIES
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For an explanation of what a cookie is, and more information about the cookies we use, please see here.
CHANGE OF PURPOSE
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to have an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules or where this is required or permitted by law.
5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We may share your personal data with different categories of recipients, such as the following set out below:
Internally:
Charlotte Gerrish
Other Gerrish Legal lawyers and support services (ex. consultants, legal secretaries and administrative staff)
Gerrish Legal Interns or legal trainees.
The individuals referred to above are always bound by confidentiality, legal privilege and professional secrecy obligations which are adapted to the legal profession, and of course also cover your personal data as well as your legal case. If you have any questions about the parties with which we share personal data, please contact us as specified above.
Externally:
In certain circumstances, external parties and independent third parties might have access to your personal data if this is shared with them as part of our professional activities, in order to fulfil any orders on our website, and in order to respect our tax and legal obligations. Such parties may include:
Our accountants and other professional advisors
Professional bodies: eg. ICO, CNIL, IMY, SRA, Ordre des Avocats (Paris), CNB
Financial bodies: eg. for the payment of invoices, an tax and VAT authorities
Service Providers: eg. cloud storage, database providers, administrative services providers, IT services and IT security providers and secure payment platform providers. For more information about this, and to obtain an up-to-date list of our authorized sub-processors, please contact us by email: info@gerrishlegal.com.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We respect your privacy, so we do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
A list of our third-party providers is available on request. Personal data about our employees and third party bodies we interact with are addressed through internal policies and procedures, and are outside the scope of this privacy policy.
6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
We share your personal data with suppliers or third parties, which involves transferring your data outside the United Kingdom (UK) or European Economic Area (EEA) where the level of data protection might not be the same as your home country. The transfer of information such as personal data is necessary to provide you with your requested service, and to the extent permitted by law, your submission of this information to us constitutes your consent for this transfer.
Your privacy is important to us, so whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK or EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
Where we have your consent to do so.
Where you are based outside of the UK or EEA.
Where transfers of your personal data are made to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission (Adequacy Decision). To find out more, please see European Commission: Adequacy of the protection of personal data in non-EU countries.
Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contractual clauses and relevant modules, as approved by the European Commission (EU SCCs), and other appropriate solutions, which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe, as required by Articles 46 and 49 of the General Data Protection Regulation. To find out more, please visit the Commission website here.
Where required by such laws, you can contact us as detailed above if you want further information on the suitable mechanisms used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK and EEA.
The Brexit transition period ended on 31 December 2020 and the UK is no longer part of the EU. We currently conduct EU-UK data transfers in reliance on the UK Adequacy Decision which has been granted to the UK by the European Commission. Where a UK Adequacy Decision is not available, any transfers from the UK to a country outside of the EEA are conducted on the basis of the EU SCCs and the UK Addendum. More information about this can be found here.
7. DATA SECURITY
We have implemented appropriate organisational and security measures in an effort to protect you and prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. We limit access to your personal data only to employees, staff, interns, trainees, agents, contractors and other third parties on a business need-to-know basis. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you without undue delay and any applicable regulator within 72 hours of a breach, where we are legally required to do so.
You also have an important role in data security, and we recommend that you do not share personal information generally on the internet. If you have any reason to believe that your data has been shared and is no longer secure, please contact us as detailed above.
8. HOW LONG WILL YOU USE MY PERSONAL DATA FOR?
We typically will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, payment or reporting requirements, or to fulfil an order you have made on our website. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data can be requested by contacting us at info@gerrishlegal.com.
9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. An overview of these rights is set out below:
The right to request access to your personal data, subject to certain exceptions. At our discretion we may require you to prove your identity before providing this information and if you require multiple copies we may charge a reasonable admin fee.
The right to request correction of your personal data.
The right to request erasure of your personal data, known as the right to be forgotten, unless we are required to retain such data in order to comply with a legal obligation or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
The right to object to processing of your personal data where the legal justification for our processing of your personal data is in our legitimate interest. We will abide by your request unless there are legitimate grounds which override your interests or rights, or if we need to continue to process the data for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim.
The right to request restriction of processing your personal data if you believe that the data is incorrect, or; if our processing is unlawful, or; if we no longer need to process your data for a particular purpose but cannot delete it due to a legal obligation or because you do not want us to delete it.
The right to request the transfer of your personal data (data portability), if you have provided personal information to us and we are processing data on the basis of your consent or in order to perform our obligations under a contract to you.
The right to withdraw your consent for your personal data to be processed where we are relying on consent to process your personal data.
The right to withdraw consent for direct marketing purposes at any time, free of charge.
Further information about these rights is available here.
You have the right to lodge a complaint at the relevant supervisory authority, if you believe that our processing of your personal data infringes applicable data protection laws, either at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are in the UK. Our Lead Supervisory Authority in the EEA is the IMY, the supervisory authority in Sweden (https://www.imy.se/other-lang/in-english/).
If you are a data subject from any other territory, you can check out a list of local data protection authorities here. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach any supervisory body, so please contact us in the first instance.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at info@gerrishlegal.com.
NO FEE USUALLY REQUIRED
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
WHAT WE MAY NEED FROM YOU
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to protect your privacy and ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. If you do not provide personal data, we may not be able to respond to your request or provide legal services to you.
TIME LIMIT TO RESPOND
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Effective date: 9th February 2023.