Privacy Notice

1. Who we are

OJN Solicitors is a law firm providing legal advice and representation to individuals, families and businesses.

OJN Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 442692.

For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, OJN Solicitors is the controller responsible for deciding how and why personal information is processed.

Email: info@ojnsolicitors.com
Telephone: 0203 232 2135

Our data protection contact is Obi Nwokeji, who can be contacted at obi@ojnsolicitors.com .

2. The personal information we collect

We may collect personal information when you contact us, make an enquiry, ask for a quotation, attend a consultation, instruct the firm, use our website, apply for employment or otherwise communicate with us.

The information we collect may include:

• your name, address, email address and telephone number;
• your date of birth, nationality and immigration status;
• copies of passports, driving licences, identity documents, proof of address and photographs;
• information concerning your family, employment, property, finances, business or legal matter;
• bank details, payment records, invoices and transaction information;
• contracts, correspondence, court documents, witness evidence and other documents relating to your matter;
• information about counterparties, witnesses, family members, employees, directors, shareholders and other relevant persons;
• records of telephone calls, letters, emails, text messages, social-media messages and other communications;
• information obtained through identity, conflict, sanctions, fraud-prevention and anti-money-laundering checks;
• technical information about your use of our website, including your IP address, device, browser, pages visited, traffic source and cookie preferences;
• any other information you provide or that we lawfully obtain while acting in connection with a legal matter.

3. Special-category and criminal-offence information

Legal matters may require us to process sensitive personal information. This may include information concerning health, racial or ethnic origin, religion, political opinions, trade-union membership, sexual life or orientation, biometric information, criminal allegations, convictions or criminal proceedings.

We process this information only where it is necessary and lawful, including where it is required to provide legal services, comply with legal or regulatory obligations, protect vital interests or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

4. How we obtain information

We may obtain personal information:

• directly from you;
• from a person acting for you or jointly instructing us with you;
• from clients, witnesses and counterparties;
• from courts, tribunals, government departments, local authorities, regulators and law-enforcement agencies;
• from previous solicitors, barristers, experts and other professional advisers;
• from banks, insurers, accountants, estate agents, medical professionals and service providers;
• from publicly available registers, databases, websites and social-media services;
• from identity-verification, fraud-prevention, sanctions and credit-reference services.

5. How we use personal information

We may use personal information to:

• respond to enquiries and arrange consultations;
• assess whether we can accept instructions and conduct conflict checks;
• provide legal advice, assistance and representation;
• communicate with clients, courts, tribunals, counterparties, witnesses and professional advisers;
• verify identity and comply with anti-money-laundering, counter-terrorist financing, sanctions and fraud-prevention obligations;
• prepare legal documents, correspondence, evidence and court papers;
• manage client matters, appointments, deadlines and files;
• issue invoices, receive payments, administer client money and maintain accounting records;
• monitor and retain relevant communications for regulatory compliance, security, quality control, training and evidential purposes;
• manage complaints, disputes, claims, audits and professional risks;
• comply with legal, regulatory, professional and insurance obligations;
• operate, protect, maintain and improve our website, communications and information systems;
• recruit and manage employees, consultants, trainees and other personnel;
• protect the firm, its clients and others from unlawful activity, fraud, misuse and security threats.

6. Our lawful bases for processing

Depending on the circumstances, we process personal information on one or more of the following bases:

• processing is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
• processing is necessary to perform our contract with you;
• processing is necessary to comply with a legal, regulatory or professional obligation;
• processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of another person, where those interests are not overridden by your rights;
• processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
• processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest;
• processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of an individual;
• you have given consent, where consent is the appropriate lawful basis.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, those interests may include providing and improving legal services, managing our practice, protecting our systems, preventing fraud, maintaining records and defending the firm against claims.

7. Who we may share personal information with

We share personal information only where this is reasonably necessary, lawful and consistent with our professional duties, including our duties of confidentiality and legal professional privilege.

Recipients may include:

• courts, tribunals, arbitrators and dispute-resolution bodies;
• the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Legal Ombudsman, the Information Commissioner’s Office and other regulators;
• government departments, local authorities, law-enforcement agencies and other public bodies;
• barristers, solicitors, foreign lawyers, experts, investigators, translators, interpreters and process servers;
• accountants, auditors, insurers, banks, payment providers and other professional advisers;
• identity-verification, fraud-prevention, sanctions-screening, debt-recovery and credit-reference services;
• counterparties and their advisers where necessary for your matter;
• LEAP, which we use for cloud-based practice management and client-file storage;
• Amazon Web Services, which provides cloud infrastructure used in connection with LEAP;
• Squarespace, which hosts and supports this website;
• email, telephone, document-storage, information-technology, security and administrative service providers;
• any other person where you have consented or where disclosure is required or permitted by law.

We do not sell personal information.

8. International transfers

Some of our technology providers or professional service providers may store or process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

A legal matter may also require us to send information to overseas courts, authorities, lawyers, experts, clients or other relevant persons.

Where personal information is transferred outside the United Kingdom, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the transfer complies with applicable data-protection law. Depending on the destination and recipient, this may involve an adequacy regulation, approved contractual protections or another lawful transfer mechanism.

9. How long we retain personal information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was obtained and to meet applicable legal, regulatory, professional, accounting, insurance and risk-management requirements.

We may retain information for longer where this is necessary to preserve evidence, comply with a court order, respond to a complaint, establish or defend a legal claim, protect legal professional privilege or meet another legal or professional obligation.

At the end of the applicable retention period, information will be securely deleted, destroyed, anonymised or placed beyond ordinary use.

10. Cookies and website analytics

This website is hosted by Squarespace. Squarespace uses cookies and similar technologies that are necessary to provide, protect and operate the website.

We also use Squarespace’s built-in website analytics to obtain information about how the website is used. This may include page views, traffic sources, approximate location, browser and device information and general visitor activity.

Non-essential analytics cookies will only be used where permitted by law and after you have made a choice through the website’s cookie banner.

We do not use the website to place advertising cookies or build advertising profiles about visitors.

You can accept, reject or manage non-essential cookies through the cookie controls available on the website.

11. Communications

We may communicate with you by email, telephone, letter, text message, video call or another agreed method.

We may retain records of calls, letters, emails, text messages, social-media messages and other communications for regulatory compliance, security, crime prevention, quality control, training and evidential purposes.

Electronic communication cannot be guaranteed to be completely secure. You should tell us if you require a particular method of communication or additional security arrangements.

12. Information security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information against accidental loss, unauthorised access, misuse, alteration, disclosure or destruction.

These measures may include access controls, passwords, confidentiality obligations, secure cloud storage, system updates, backups, staff training and oversight of service providers.

No electronic system or method of communication is completely secure. You should not send highly sensitive information through an unsecured channel unless appropriate arrangements have been agreed.

13. Legal professional privilege and confidentiality

Information relating to legal advice or representation may be protected by legal professional privilege and our professional duty of confidentiality.

Nothing in this notice requires us to disclose information where disclosure would breach legal professional privilege, a court order, a duty owed to another person or another applicable legal restriction.

14. Your rights

Subject to applicable law and any relevant exemptions, you may have the right to:

• be informed about our collection and use of your personal information;
• request access to the personal information we hold about you;
• request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
• request deletion of personal information in appropriate circumstances;
• request restriction of processing;
• object to certain processing;
• receive eligible personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;
• request that eligible information be transferred to another controller;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• raise concerns about automated decision-making or profiling.

We do not currently make decisions about clients solely by automated means.

These rights are not absolute. We may be unable to comply fully with a request where information must be retained or withheld because of legal obligations, professional duties, legal professional privilege, legal proceedings or the rights of another person.

15. Exercising your rights

To exercise a data-protection right or raise a privacy concern, contact:

Email: obi@ojnsolicitors.com

We may ask for information reasonably necessary to verify your identity and understand your request. We will respond within the period required by applicable law.

16. Complaints

We encourage you to contact us first if you have concerns about the way we have used your personal information. We will try to resolve the matter promptly.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the United Kingdom’s data-protection supervisory authority.

Information about making a complaint is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

17. Children’s personal information

Our website is not directed at children. We may nevertheless process personal information about a child where this is necessary for a legal matter and there is an appropriate lawful basis.

Where appropriate, we will involve a parent, guardian, litigation friend or another person legally responsible for the child.

18. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this notice to reflect changes in our services, systems, legal obligations or processing activities.

The latest version will be published on this page together with the date on which it was last updated.