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

We take our responsibilities under applicable data protection law, including the 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 may collect and use in connection with your complaint in relation to the misconduct of a solicitor, inadequate professional services or excessive fees, your interaction with the Complaints and Client Relations Section of the Law Society and the uses (including disclosures to third parties) we may make of such data.

The Law Society is the controller of this personal data. If you have any questions about our use of your personal data, please contact us at dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie.

Personal Data that we collect and process

We will collect and process personal data relating to you in connection with your complaint.

This personal data may include:

• your name and contact details, including your address, phone number, email address and post code;
• any previous correspondence with the Law Society in relation to your complaint;
• details of the legal services about which you wish to complain;
• details of any payments made to the solicitor about whom you wish to complain;
• in the case of a complaint about the administration of an estate, details of the deceased and his or her estate;
• where relevant, details of any legal proceedings relating to your complaint;
• any other personal data which you provide to us directly.

Personal Data that we Collect from Other Sources

We will collect and process personal data relating to you in connection with your complaint from the appropriate third parties, including the solicitor about whom you wish to complain.

Purposes of Processing and Legal Basis

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

• investigating your complaint;
• contacting you in order to provide you with updates in relation to your complaint;
• contacting the solicitor about whom you wish to complain;
• to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

The legal bases on which we collect, process and transfer your information in the manner described above are:

• our legitimate interests in regulating the solicitors’ profession in Ireland and 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; and
• that this is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that applies to us; and
• to perform a task carried out in the public interest.

Recipients of Data

• We may disclose your personal data to other organisations in connection with the above purposes, including:
• to the solicitor about whom you wish to complain;
• to third parties who we engage to provide services or benefits to us or to you, such as professional advisers and auditors;
• to competent regulatory authorities and other bodies where requested or required by law; and
• where your complaint is subject to review, to the Independent Adjudicator of the Law Society.

Requirement to Provide Data

You are not under a statutory or contractual duty to provide us with any personal data. However, there are some pieces of information that you must provide to us so that we can investigate your complaint. If you do not provide us with this information, we may not be able to investigate your complaint.

Retention

We will not hold your data for longer than is necessary. We may retain your personal data for the duration of your relationship with the Law Society and for such period of time thereafter as is necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Transfers Abroad

In connection with the above we might transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area, including to a jurisdiction which is not recognised by the European Commission as providing for an equivalent level of protection for personal data as is provided for in the European Union. If and to the extent that we do so, we will ensure that appropriate measures are in place to comply with our obligations under applicable law governing such transfers. These may include entering into a contract governing the transfer that contains the ‘standard contractual clauses’ approved for this purpose by the European Commission. If you would like to receive further details of the measures that we have taken in this regard, please contact us at dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie.

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.

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

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 the Data Protection Commissioner website or you can call the Data Protection Commission at 353 (0)761 104 800.