Michelmores respects your privacy and is committed to protecting personal data. This privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website www.michelmores.com (regardless of where you visit it from), when you become a client, purchase our legal services, when you visit our premises or when you otherwise contact us. It will also tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
References to “you” or “your” include to you as an individual using our services where you are an employee, representative, agent or contractor representing a business or organisation that is our client.
It is important that this privacy policy is read together with any other privacy policy or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
This version was last updated on 28 February 2023 and last reviewed on 28 February 2023.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. You should keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
Our 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 leaving our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
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 are Michelmores LLP, a limited liability partnership, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and registered in England and Wales under partnership number OC326242. Our registered office is Woodwater House, Pynes Hill, Exeter EX2 5WR. Michelmores is the controller and responsible for your personal data (referred to as “Michelmores”, “the firm”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy policy.)
Michelmores provides legal services to a wide range of businesses, other organisations and individuals. We are bound by applicable data protection laws in respect of the handling and collection of your personal data. Michelmores is registered as a data controller in England and Wales, with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under the ICO number Z5749328.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise legal rights, please contact us using the contact details in section 13.
3.1 Paragraphs 3.2 – 3.10 below explain how and why we process your personal data, as well as the legal basis on which we carry out this processing.
3.2 To enter into and perform contracts with you: Where you ask us to provide services, we will process your personal data so that we can deliver these services to you. We may also use your information to notify you about important changes or developments to our services and to contact you for your views on our services. The legal basis on which we process your personal data in this way is the necessity to be able to enter into and perform the contract for the supply of services you have requested from us. If you do not wish to provide us with your personal data in this way, you will be unable to use our services.
3.3 To check your identity: In accordance with money laundering regulations and in order to carry out credit reference checks, we may be required to undertake checks on your identity. To do so, we will process your personal data. The legal basis on which we process your personal data in this way is the necessity for us to comply with legal obligations.
3.4 To provide services to others: Where you have provided personal data about another person (for example, where you request legal services on behalf of someone else whilst acting in the capacity of that other person’s attorney, parent or legal guardian), we need to process such personal data in order to provide these services to the other person or people. We need to process their personal data in this way to be able to provide them with the services you have requested for them from us. The legal basis on which we process their personal data in these circumstances is our legitimate interest to provide the person you have identified with the services you have requested.
3.5 To make our website better: We also use various cookies to help us improve our website (more details are set out in section 6), and may share aggregate data on the usage of our site with third parties (including third party analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website), but this will not include data that can be used to identify you.
We will also process your personal data for the purposes of making our website more secure, and to administer our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes.
The legal basis on which we process your personal data in these circumstances is our legitimate interest to provide you with the best client experience we can, and to ensure that our website is kept secure.
The use of any non-essential cookies is subject to your consent. You can also prevent us from using your personal data in this way by contacting us (please see section 13) or using the ‘do not track’ functionality in your internet browser. If you enable such ‘do not track’ functionality, our website may be less tailored to your needs and preferences.
3.6 To provide client services to you: We may process your personal data in order to provide various supporting client services to you (such as where you contact us with a question in connection with a service and/or request certain information from us). The legal basis on which we process your personal data in these circumstances is the legitimate interests of both us and our clients. If you do not provide us with the personal data we request from you for client services purposes, we may not be able to fully answer your queries.
3.7 For marketing purposes: Where you have expressly opted in to receive marketing communications from us, we will process your personal data to provide you with direct marketing communications in line with the preferences you have provided. The legal basis on which we process your personal data is your consent.
We may also contact you when you have instructed us previously and where we believe there are additional services that may be of interest to you or where there have been legal changes that may affect you. The legal basis on which we will use your personal data is our legitimate interest in providing you access to a complete legal service.
You are not under any obligation to provide us with your personal data for marketing purposes, and you can withdraw your consent to your personal data being processed in this way or opt out from receiving marketing at any time by contacting us (please see section 13) or, where relevant, by following the unsubscribe link in every marketing communication you receive from us. If you do choose to withdraw your consent or opt out, this will not mean that our processing of your personal data before you withdrew your consent was unlawful.
3.8 For prospecting: In a business-to-business context we may make contact with individuals to provide or seek information in connection with our services. The legal basis we rely on for making contact with individuals and processing their personal data is our shared legitimate interests in doing business together. When we make contact with individuals, they can exercise their right to object to such contact from us (for more information about individuals’ rights, see section 11).
3.9 If our business is sold: We will transfer your personal data to a third party:
3.9.1 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 (at all times in accordance with all applicable data protection laws); or
3.9.2 if Michelmores or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by Michelmores about its clients (including those individuals who work for an on behalf of our clients) will be one of the assets transferred to the purchaser,
in each case, the legal basis on which we process your data in these circumstances is our legitimate interest to ensure our business can be continued by a purchaser. If you object to our use of personal data in this way, the relevant seller or buyer of our business may not be able to provide services to you.
3.10 In certain circumstances we may also need to share your personal data if we are under a duty to disclose or share personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation.
4.1 We will collect and process the following personal data about you:
4.2 Information you give us: This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our website, registering for an event or seminar or by corresponding with us by phone, email, letter or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you register on our website, participate in our social media, post messages on our website and report a problem with our website. The information you give us may include names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers.
4.3 Information we collect about you: With regard to each of your visits to our website we will automatically collect the following information:
4.3.1 technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, screen resolution, operating system and platform; and
4.3.2 information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our website (including date and time), page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs) and methods used to browse away from the page.
A number of our offices are protected by CCTV. We also collect information relating to office visits in our meeting booking software. As such, your personal data may be recorded by us when you visit our premises. Our CCTV policy provides more information about our use of CCTV.
4.4 Information we receive from other sources: We may receive information about you:
4.4.1 when you use our site. We are also working closely with third parties (such as business partners, sub-contractors, advertising networks, analytics providers, hosting providers and search information providers) from whom we may also receive information about you;
4.4.2 from third parties as part of any potential or actual purchase of a property, including sales agents;
4.4.3 from our identity, anti-money laundering and / or credit checking providers.
4.5 We may process special categories of personal data, meaning personal data revealing:
4.5.1 racial or ethnic origin;
4.5.2 political opinions;
4.5.3 religious or philosophical beliefs or trade union membership;
4.5.4 genetic or biometric data that uniquely identifies you;
4.5.5 data concerning your health, sex life or sexual orientation; or
We will only do so (1) with your explicit consent; (2) where the processing is required by law; or (3) where the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
4.6 We do not collect data relating to criminal convictions or offences or related security measures unless legally obliged to do so, in other limited circumstances in connection with legal advice or where our CCTV recordings contain evidence of criminal activity.
5.1 The details in our privacy policy relating to third parties other than Michelmores are for your information only. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party recipients of your personal data. Where third parties are recipients of your personal data from us, please ensure that you read any information those third parties provide you about how, why and the legal basis for, their processing of your personal data and make your own enquiries in respect of them.
5.2 Your personal data may be shared by us with external third parties for the purposes set out in section 3. Section 5.3 below details our main third party recipients of personal data.
5.3 Your personal data may be shared by us with external third parties who provide support integral to the provision of our services and enable us to operate our business. These include:
5.4 If we are instructed by a client to transfer their file to another legal adviser, we will do so in accordance with our policies for secure transfer of files.
6.1 Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our website. By continuing to browse the website, users are agreeing to our use of cookies.
6.2 A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer. We only use (and store) non-essential cookies on your computer’s browser or hard drive if you provide your consent.
6.3 Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
6.4 You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) they may not be able to access all or parts of our website.
6.5 Please see our full Cookie Policy for more information on the cookies we use. Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire as outlined in the Cookie Policy.
7.1 We will combine the information you provide to us with information we collect about you. We will use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).
7.2 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 our 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.
8.1 Our clients or individuals who access our website may be based outside the United Kingdom so the processing of their personal data will involve the transfer and storage of data outside the United Kingdom. Some of our suppliers are based outside the United Kingdom. For example, in the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the United Kingdom.
8.2 Whenever we transfer personal data out of the United Kingdom, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
8.2.1 We will only transfer personal data to countries covered by UK adequacy regulations. This is currently countries in the EEA, Gibraltar, countries that are deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission and EU or EEA institutions, bodies, offices or agencies.
8.2.2 Where we use certain service providers outside the United Kingdom, we may use specific contracts approved for use in the United Kingdom which give personal data the same protection it has in the United Kingdom.
8.3 If further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the combined area of the United Kingdom and EEA is required please contact us directly (please see section 13).
8.4 All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. You must not share your password with anyone.
9.1 We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. Any personal data we store (including payment transactions) will be stored encrypted at rest and via SSL technology during transfer. We have ISO27001, ISO9001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications. 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 personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
10.1 Where you use our services, we will retain your data for a period of up to twelve (12) years, after the services are performed, depending on the type, to ensure that we are able to assist you should you have any questions or feedback in relation to our services, or to protect, or defend our legal rights. Where our services consist of property related work, we will retain your data for a period of twelve (12) years. Where our services consist of wills related work, we will retain your data until the will is proven.
10.2 Where we have processed your personal data to provide you with marketing communications with your consent, we may contact to ensure you are happy to continue receiving such communications. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive such communications, your personal data will be removed from our lists.
10.3 Where we have processed your data for any other reason (such as where you have contacted us with a question in connection with our services), subject to section 10.1, we may generally retain your data for up to twelve (12) years and for certain departments a longer retention period may be necessary. Our CCTV policy sets out the retention period for CCTV recordings.
10.4 In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see section 11.1.3 below for further information.
10.5 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.
11.1 Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You may have the right to:
11.1.1 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.
11.1.2 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.
11.1.3 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, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
11.1.4 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.
11.1.5 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.
11.1.6 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.
11.1.7 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 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.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us directly.
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the ICO, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.
11.2 No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your 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.
11.3 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 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 for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
11.4 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.
Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this webpage and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed.
Our full details are:
Full name of legal entity: Michelmores LLP
Partnership Number: OC326242
Email Address: service@michelmores.com
Postal Address: Governance & Risk
Michelmores LLP
Woodwater House
Pynes Hill
Exeter EX2 5WR
Telephone Number: +44 (0) 1392 688688
Last Reviewed: 28/02/2023 V#3
Review due: 28/02/2024
Controlled by Head of Governance and Risk
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