General statement

We are the Law Society of Ireland of Blackhall Place, Dublin 7, Ireland (the “Law Society of Ireland”, “we”, “us”, “our”) - the educational, representative and regulatory body of the solicitors' profession in Ireland.

We take our responsibilities under applicable data protection law, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation and implementing legislation such as the Data Protection Act 2018, very seriously. The purpose of this notice is to inform you of the data relating to you that we collect and use in connection with this website and the uses (including disclosures to third parties) we make of such data.

We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of any linked sites. Any external links to other websites are clearly identifiable as such. Some technical terms used in this statement are explained at the end of this page.

If you have any questions about our use of your personal data, please contact dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie

Collection and use of personal information

The Law Society of Ireland does not collect any personal data about you on this website, apart from information which you volunteer (for example by emailing us, using our online feedback form or by making a purchase or event booking). This personal data may include:

  • your name and contact details, including your address, phone number and email address;
  • your credit/debit card or bank account details;
  • any other personal data relating to you that you provide to us or that we generate about you in connection with your use of this website.

Collection and use of technical information

When you visit our website, the following information is retained about that visit:

  • the IP address of the visitor’s web server;
  • the top-level domain name used (for example .ie, .com, .org, .net);
  • the previous website address from which the visitor reached us, including any search terms used;
  • Google analytics which shows the traffic of visitors around this web site (for example pages accessed and documents downloaded);
  • the type of web browser and operating system used by the website visitor.

The Law Society of Ireland will make no attempt to identify individual visitors, or to associate the technical details listed above with any individual. It is the policy of the Law Society never to disclose such technical information in respect of individual website visitors to any third party (apart from our internet service provider, which records such data on our behalf and which is bound by confidentiality provisions in this regard), unless obliged to disclose such information by law. The technical information will be used only by the Law Society of Ireland, and only for statistical and other administrative purposes.

Purposes of processing and legal basis

We will use personal data relating to you for the purposes of:

  • dealing with any queries that you have submitted to us via the website;
  • processing applications and transactions submitted through the website;
  • improving and developing this website;
  • carrying out research and user surveys;
  • sending you promotional and marketing materials, subject to any preferences that you express when we collect your contact details or subsequently. You can opt out of receiving promotional and marketing materials from us at any time by contacting dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie
  • generating and analysing statistics regarding usage of this website, including the frequency of use of individual pages (where possible, personal data will be anonymised before being used for this purpose);
  • fraud prevention, investigation and detection;
  • establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.

The legal bases on which we process your personal data are that this is necessary for:

  • our legitimate interests in conducting our business in ensuring the proper management and functioning of the Law Society. We will not process your personal data for these purposes if to do so would constitute an unwarranted interference with your own interests, rights and freedoms
  • compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that applies to us; and
  • the performance of a contract with you or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract.

Recipients of Personal Data

We may disclose your personal data to other organisations in connection with the above purposes, including:

  • to third parties who we engage to provide services to us in connection with this website, such as outsourced service providers, IT services providers, professional advisers and auditors;
  • to competent regulatory authorities and bodies as requested or required by law; and
  • digital marketing and analytics service providers.

Retention

We will not hold your personal data for longer than is necessary. We retain your personal data for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this Notice, or to comply with our obligations under applicable law and, if relevant, to deal with any claim or dispute that might arise between you and us.

Requirement to provide personal data

You are not under a statutory or contractual obligation to provide us with any personal data. However, where you submit a query to us in the ‘Contact Us’ section of our website or submit a form such as registration for an account on our website or to sign up for one of our newsletters, we will ask you to provide certain information, such as your name and email address. If you do not provide this information, we may not be in a position to process your request.

Your rights

You have the following rights, in certain circumstances and subject to certain restrictions, in relation to your personal data:

  • Right to access the data - You have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, together with other information about our processing of that personal data.
  • Right to rectification - You have the right to request that any inaccurate data that is held about you is corrected, or if we have incomplete information you may request that we update the information such that it is complete.
  • Right to erasure - You have the right to request us to delete personal data that we hold about you. This is sometimes referred to as the right to be forgotten.
  • Right to restriction of processing or to object to processing - You have the right to request that we no longer process your personal data for particular purposes, or to object to our processing of your personal data for particular purposes.
  • Right to data portability - You have the right to request us to provide you, or a third party, with a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used machine readable format.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie

Updates

We may occasionally update this policy. We encourage you to periodically review this policy for the latest information on our privacy practices.

Queries and Complaints

If you have any queries or complaints in connection with our processing of your personal data, you can contact us at dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission if you are not happy with the way we have used your information or addressed your rights. Details of how to lodge a complaint can be found at on the Data Protection Commission website or call the Data Protection Commissioner at 353 (0) 761 104 800.

Glossary of technical terms used

Web browser: The piece of software you use to read web pages. Examples are Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera.

IP address: The identifying details for your computer, or your internet company’s computer, expressed in "internet protocol" code (for example 192.168.72.34). Every computer connected to the web has a unique IP address, although the address may not be the same every time a connection is made.

Cookies

For details of cookies we use and how they are used, see our Cookies policy.

Last updated: May 2018