Privacy Policy

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the privacy notice of Sterling & Law Associates LLP and Sterling Lawyers Ltd. (Sterling Law Group).

Sterling Law Group respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data 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.

This privacy notice is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.

1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE
2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU
3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED
4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
7. DATA SECURITY
8. DATA RETENTION
9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
10. GLOSSARY

 

1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE

PURPOSE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Sterling Law Group collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you sign up to our newsletter.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

CONTROLLER

Sterling Law Group is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “Sterling & Law Associates LLP”, “Sterling Lawyers Ltd”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

CONTACT DETAILS

Full name of legal entities: Sterling & Law Associates LLP and Sterling Lawyers Ltd.

Name of data privacy manager: Navdeep Kaur Gill

Email address: navdeep@sterlinglawyers.co.uk

Postal address: Fleet House, 8-12 New Bridge Street, London, EC4V 6AL

Telephone number: +44 (0) 207 822 8535

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

 

CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY NOTICE AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES

We may change this privacy notice from time to time by updating it in order to reflect changes in the law and/or our privacy practices. We encourage you to check this privacy notice for changes whenever you visit our website.

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, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

• Identity Data includes first name, last name and company name.
• Contact Data includes billing address, email address and telephone number.
• Personal Data includes information which you disclose to us in the course of completing case evaluation form
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, 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.
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our services.
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and third parties.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does 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. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

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 and 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 with services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

 

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 Personal Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes the personal data you provide when you:
• apply for our services;
• request marketing to be sent to you;
• give us some feedback.
• Third parties or publicly available sources.We may receive personal data about you from analytics providers such as Google Analytics and Google tech manager.

 

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:

• Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests when we acting in pursue of our business purposes and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending our and third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE WILL USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Purpose/Activity	Type of data	Lawful basis for processing including the basis of legitimate interest
To provide case evaluation	(a)    Identity  (b)    Contact (c)    Personal	(a)    Consent
To manage our relationship with you which will include:  (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to leave a review, take a survey, or updating or keeping you informed about our or our partners’ products and services	(a) Identity  (b) Contact (d) Marketing and Communications	(a) Performance of a contract with you  (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services) (c) Consent
To run, administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting, hosting of data)	(a) Identity  (b) Contact (c) Technical	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business and provision of administration.)  (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To use data analytics to improve our services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences	(a)    Usage  (b)    Technical	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)

 

We have set out below a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

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. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

MARKETING

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. If you do not want to receive communications from us, please contact us or you can unsubscribe at any time with the link included in every email we send.

PROMOTIONAL OFFERS FROM US

We may use your Identity, Contact, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased services from us or if you provided us with your details or registered for a promotion and, in each case, you have opted in for receiving that marketing.

THIRD-PARTY MARKETING

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside the Sterling & Law Associates LLP group of companies for marketing purposes and for the purposes of performance of our contract with you.

OPTING OUT

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at any time or you can unsubscribe at any time with the link included in every email we send.

Where you opt-out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a service purchase, service experience or other transactions.

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.

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 get 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, where this is required or permitted by law.

5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in paragraph 4 above.

• Internal Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. 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.

6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

7. DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. 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 and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8. DATA RETENTION

HOW LONG WILL YOU USE MY PERSONAL DATA FOR?

By law, we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for legal purposes.

In some circumstances, you can ask us to delete your data.

In some circumstances, we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.

In particular, you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data.
• Request correction of your personal data.
• Request erasure of your personal data.
• Object to processing of your personal data.
• Request restriction of processing your personal data.
• Request transfer of your personal data.
• Right to withdraw consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us. 

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 may 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 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.

TIME LIMIT TO RESPOND

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may 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.

 

10. GLOSSARY

LAWFUL BASIS

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by Contacting us.

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

THIRD PARTIES

INTERNAL THIRD PARTIES

Other companies in the Sterling Law Group acting as joint controllers.

EXTERNAL THIRD PARTIES

• Professional advisers acting as processors including bankers, auditors and insurers based in the United Kingdom who provide banking, accounting, consultancy and insurance services.
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
• Service providers, such as Clio, Lexicata, Freshworks, acting as processors who provide IT and system administration services.
• Legal counsel, courts and tribunals, relevant government departments or third-party service providers, with your express consent or where it is strictly necessary for the performance of our contract with you.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, the further retention of the personal data should be lawful where it is necessary, for exercising the right of freedom of expression and information, for compliance with a legal obligation, for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller, on the grounds of public interest in the area of public health, for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw 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.