Privacy Notice

Privacy notice

About this notice

This notice sets out when and why we collect personal information about you, how this information is used, the conditions under which it may be disclosed to others and how it is kept secure. This notice may change from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes.

This policy was last updated on 06/04/2021.

Who we are

The Joint Brussels Office is a branch office of the Law Society of England and Wales (‘Law Society’) which is established in Belgium to represent, support and promote the interests of solicitors, particularly with respect to EU matters. The registered address of the Law Society is 113 Chancery Lane, London, England WC2A 1PL. The Law Society is incorporated by Royal Charter, number RC000304.

The Law Society is the data controller of the data collected by the Joint Brussels Office. The Law Society’s main privacy policy applies to the activities of the Joint Brussels Office and should be read alongside this notice. A copy can be viewed here. The information in this privacy notice provides additional information specific to the activities of the Joint Brussels Office. To the extent that anything in the main policy differs from what we say below, the information in this notice prevails.

The Joint Brussels Office also performs some representational and membership services for the Law Society of Scotland and the Law Society of Northern Ireland in respect of activities concerning their members in Europe and EU matters. See the ‘How we collect your personal information’ and ‘How we use your personal information’ sections below and the websites of the Law Society of Scotland (https://www.lawscot.org.uk/) and the Law Society of Northern Ireland (https://www.lawsoc-ni.org/) for more information.

The Law Society’s Head of Risk and Assurance is responsible for our data protection function. You can find contact details at the end of this notice.

How we collect your personal information

Please see the Law Society’s main policy for details of how the Law Society collects personal information. In addition to this, the Joint Brussels Office collects information about you, your organisation and your colleagues when you use this website (www.lawsocieties.eu) and when you interact with us by email, telephone, social media, post or face to face.

We collect information automatically through your visits to our site, including traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, and information on the resources you access. We also automatically collect technical information, including anonymous data collected by the hosting server for statistical purposes, the IP address used to connect your device to the internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform.

We also collect certain personal information about EU-based members of the Law Society of Scotland and the Law Society of Northern Ireland pursuant to our agreements with these organisations to allow us to perform functions on their behalf for solicitors and solicitors’ firms with interests in the EU.

How we useyour personal information

The purposes for which we use your information and the legal basis under data protection laws on which we rely to do this are explained below.

Where there is a legitimate interest

Information may be used by the Joint Brussels Office where it is necessary for us to perform our role as a representative body for solicitors and solicitors’ firms in the EU. For example, information may be used:

• · to maintain and raise professional standards by sending communications to you containing news, invitations to free events, details of the practice support available from the Joint Brussels Office and information about the Joint Brussels Office’s activities;
• · to liaise with stakeholders and EU representatives in order to promote the interests of solicitors and solicitors’ firms in the EU;
• · to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
• · to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so, and
• · to notify you about changes to our service.

The Joint Brussels Office also uses information gathered to prepare statistics and reports, including on identifying trends, practising numbers, turnover and our business performance. Such reports containing statistically based data may be published with all non-publicly available information removed.

Where we are exercising a statutory function

We may collect and use your personal information where this is necessary in order for us to deliver the Law Society’s statutory functions under the Legal Services Act 2007. In respect of the Joint Brussels Office’s activities these functions include providing practical support and advice about practice management with respect to EU law and practice issues; participating in law reform and the legislative process and promoting relations between the Law Society and relevant national or international bodies, governments or the legal professions of other jurisdictions.

Where you have provided consent

We may use and process your personal information where you have consented for us to do so for the following purposes:

- to use your special category data for any purpose we state expressly, e.g. to ensure we are able to meet any health-related requirements for an event we are running or to make reasonable adjustments for our visitors and guests as required;

- if you register for an account with us or sign up to receive information from us at an event or online.

In all other respects we will use your personal information consistent with the purposes and lawful bases set out in the Law Society’s main privacy policy.

Others who may receive or have access to your personal information

People we work with

We may from time to time outsource certain aspects of our work or administrative functions. This means that carefully selected third parties who provide services to us may have access to the information we gather, such as a chosen supplier of IT, events services, photocopying, scanning or legal services. In such circumstances appropriate steps are taken to maintain the security and confidentiality of the information and to restrict its use to those required for our purposes.

Third parties

We may share limited personal information with third parties if we determine, following an assessment, that the sharing is necessary in order to meet our legitimate interests, promotes the interests of our members and does not breach data protection laws.

We will also transfer your personal information to a third party where required by law to do so, to detect or report a crime, to enforce or apply the terms of our contracts or our legal rights or to protect the rights, property or safety of our members or visitors. We will always take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights will be protected as far as possible.

Where we store your personal information

We use up-to-date industry procedures to keep personal data as safe and secure as possible and to protect against loss, unauthorised disclosure or access. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to the Website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

How long we keep your personal information

We keep personal information for as long as necessary to ensure we can deliver our services. We comply with the Law Society’s published retention and disposal policy [https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/website-information/privacy-policy] and with applicable legal and regulatory requirements for our office.

Security and links to other sites

The Joint Brussels Office website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Cookies

Please see our separate page on cookies: http://www.lawsocieties.eu/cookies/

Your rights

You have a number of rights in relation to your personal information under data protection law. Please see the Law Society’s main privacy policy for details.

Contact us

Please direct any queries about this policy or about the way we process your personal information to the Law Society’s Risk and Assurance team. Our email address for data protection queries is informationcompliance@lawsociety.org.uk.

If you wish to contact someone in the Joint Brussels Office in the first instance, please email us at brussels@lawsociety.org.uk or contact us by phone on +32 2 743 85 85.