Privacy Policy

Radcliffe Chambers is a set of barristers’ chambers. All barristers practising at Radcliffe Chambers are self-employed individuals regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Radcliffe Chambers Services Limited is a service company set up to support Radcliffe Chambers’ barristers. In this policy the terms “Chambers”, “we” and “our” refer to Radcliffe Chambers and/or Radcliffe Chambers Services Limited, either separately or collectively, as appropriate.

Chambers takes your privacy seriously. We are committed to protecting the privacy of our clients and any users of our services, to being transparent about how we collect and use your data, and to meeting our data protection obligations. Chambers is responsible as the “controller” of that personal information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”).

Chambers is registered on the Information Commissioner’s Data Protection Register under number A8313295.

What personal information does Chambers collect and how does it do so?

Chambers may collect personal information:

  • when you provide it to us by visiting our website (https://www.radcliffechambers.com/); joining our mailing list(s); registering for or attending our events or webinars; registering for our webinars; or corresponding with us by telephone, email or otherwise;

  • from publicly accessible sources, e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter etc;

  • via our case management, document management and time recording systems.

Chambers may collect and process a range of personal information. Such information may include:

  • your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number (work, home and mobile);

  • diversity monitoring information, which we collect for the purposes of discharging our statutory obligations;

  • any other information that you choose to send us.

When recruiting for staff and pupils or new members Chambers will ask applicants for additional personal information such as previous professional experience, education history, fee income if relevant, referee contact details and answers to questions relevant to the role applied for. Chambers’ recruitment team will have access to all of this information.

Depending on the nature of your relationship with Chambers some of the information that we hold about you may be provided by your solicitor or gathered by us in the course of your case and/or proceedings. Your solicitor and/or barrister will advise why we need the information and how we will use it.

Chambers’ website uses cookies. These are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Chambers’ website uses both “session cookies” and “persistent cookies”. Session cookies allow you to move from page to page within Chambers’ website and any information you enter to be remembered. This type of cookie is deleted when you close your browser or after a short time. Persistent cookies allow Chambers’ website to remember your preferences and settings when you visit the website in the future. Persistent cookies expire after a prescribed period of time.

Cookies can be disabled by changing the settings on your browser.

We may use Google Analytics to provide us with information about the use of Chambers’ website, including:

  • password and standard usage data about requests for pages on Chambers’ website;

  • the requesting computer’s operating system, browser type, screen size and colour depth;

  • the requesting computer’s IP address and any domain name associated with it;

  • the length of any visit and the number of page views;

  • information relating to any transactions carried out between you and us on or in relation to Chambers’ website, including information relating to any purchases you make of our goods or services including seminar or event attendance.

Why does Chambers process personal information?

We may use your personal information:

  • to keep you up to date with the range of services that Chambers provides;

  • to send you general commercial communications;

  • to send you email notifications which you have specifically requested;

  • to send you marketing communications relating to our business which we think may be of interest to you;

  • to gather statistical, marketing and strategic development information;

  • for recruitment purposes;

  • to deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to Chambers’ website;

  • to raise funds for charities.

We can only use your personal information if we have a proper reason for doing so. This may be because you have given us explicit consent to use your personal information, or because there is a legitimate business reason for using it, for example to invite you to a relevant event. We will also use your personal information to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may ask you to complete surveys for research purposes. You are not obliged to complete such surveys. Any responses received will be treated as completely confidential and analysed anonymously. All responses will be destroyed once they have been analysed and reported.

Chambers processes certain special categories of personal data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation and religion or belief, for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring. Personal information used by Chambers for these purposes is anonymised or is collected with your express consent, which can be withdrawn at any time. You are entirely free to decide whether or not to provide such information. There are no consequences should you decline to do so.

Who has access to your personal information?

Your personal information may be shared internally with our employees, suppliers or contractors, but only as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy policy. We may use third party hosting software to provide webinars.

In addition, we may disclose information about you:

  • as required by law;

  • in connection with any current or prospective legal proceedings;

  • in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights;

  • to the purchaser of any business or asset which we are (or are contemplating) selling.

In the normal course of events and unless, for example, required to by law, Chambers will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area except to the United States under the Privacy Shield safeguard or in the course of a legal transaction where it is necessary to do so.

How does Chambers protect personal information?

Chambers takes the security of your personal information seriously. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. Chambers has internal policies and controls in place intended to ensure that your personal information is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed other than as set out above. We store all data you provide on our secure (password and firewall protected) servers.

Where Chambers engages third parties to process personal information on its behalf, these third parties do so on the basis of written instructions, under a duty of confidentiality. Any third parties processing personal information on behalf of Chambers are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of that information.

We provide training to all our staff to remind them of their obligations. Our policies and procedures are audited and reviewed regularly.

External Links

Although we have endeavoured to include on Chambers’ website external links only to safe and relevant third-party websites, you are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking any such link.

Chambers cannot guarantee or verify the contents of third party websites. If you click on an external link you do so at your own risk; we cannot be held liable for any damage, problems or other issues that may thereby arise. Before submitting any personal data to a third-party website, please check the website’s own privacy policy.

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

  • access and obtain a copy of your data on request;

  • require Chambers to change incorrect or incomplete data;

  • require Chambers to delete or stop processing your data, for example where such data are no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;

  • object to the processing of your data where Chambers is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

If you believe that Chambers has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): https://ico.org.uk/

Retention policy

We only retain your personal information for as long as necessary for the reasonable and legitimate conduct of our business. After this period if there is no on-going relationship your personal information will either be securely deleted or anonymised so that it can be used for statistical purposes without identifying you individually.

Policy amendment

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes we may make to this policy will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. This policy was last updated on 29 July 2020.

Contact us

 

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or would like to exercise your rights, please contact Fiona Fitzgerald, Chief Executive, by email (ffitzgerald@radcliffechambers.com), telephone (020 7831 0081) or post (Radcliffe Chambers, 11 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, London WC2A 3QB).