Privacy Policy

EFFECTIVE 31 AUGUST 2015

METIS LAW PTY LIMITED (“Metis Law”, “we”, “our” and “us”) (Suite 205, 84 Pitt Street Sydney NSW Australia 2000) respects individual privacy and the rights of individuals to control their personal information. We are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy sets out our policies and practices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information that you provide to us and which we collect from you. Our obligations in relation to client confidentiality are not set out in the Privacy Policy, but are addressed in our terms of engagement. References to “you” and “your” are to the individual who is accessing or using our website at www.metislaw.com.au (“Website”) or otherwise providing personal information to us.

 

YOUR CONSENT

By accessing or using the Website, contacting us by email, telephone or otherwise, or using any of our other services or providing services to us, you agree to the terms and conditions set out in this Privacy Policy and consent to the use and processing of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

 

CHANGES TO PRIVACY POLICY

Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be posted on the Website. Unless stated otherwise, changes will be effective immediately upon being placed on the Website.

 

TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOLD

“Personal information” is information or an opinion about you or which is reasonably identifiable as you, whether or not the information or opinion is true and whether or not the information is recorded in a material form.

The types of personal information that we collect includes:

• name, date of birth, photo identification, name of the organisation you work for, occupation / position title, email address, telephone number, postal address, other contact details;
• your passport identification number or medicare number;
• records of our interactions with you, including by telephone, email and online;
• information relating to your circumstances and affairs relevant to the matter/s in which we are instructed;
• information about your legal interests and requirements and the legal services that you may wish to purchase;
• information regarding our communications with you and your attendance at seminars and promotional events held by us;
• if you are a supplier or prospective supplier, information about your business skills, services, products and prices;
• any other personal information that may be required in order to facilitate your dealings with us.

From time to time, we may collect information about your membership of a professional or trade association or union, health information and details of any criminal record you may have.

We may collect personal information about: individuals; contractors and suppliers; third parties seeking our services; and other people who come into contact with us in the ordinary course of business.

In addition, when you apply for a job or position with us we may collect certain information from you (including your name, contact details, working history and relevant records checks) from any recruitment consultant, your previous employers and others who may be able to provide information to us to assist in our decision whether or not to make you an offer of employment or engage you under a contract. This Privacy Policy does not apply to acts and practices in relation to employee records of our current and former employees, which are exempt from the Privacy Act.

 

HOW WE COLLECT AND HOLD PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect personal information by various means including by way of or when:

• personal contact with us at a face-to-face meeting or situation;
• mail, email or telephone when you contact us to make an enquiry about our services;
• online, when you contact us via the contact form on our Website;
• you subscribe to our newsletter or legal updates service;
• your business card that you provide to us;
• you attend a seminar or event where we are hosting or presenting;
• you instruct us to act for you and we open a file and conduct a conflict check;
• our clients provide information relating to related and adverse parties relevant to the advice or services we are providing;
• we undertake a search or investigation;
• you visit the Website.

Where practicable we collect personal information about you directly from you. However, we may have collected information about you from third party sources including public sources, our related companies, referrers, your adviser(s), a client, a third party information provider, the courts or a person responding to our questions or inquiries.

We are required to collect the full name and address of our clients by the Solicitors Rules made under the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW). Accurate name and address information must also be collected in order to comply with the trust account record keeping requirements in the Legal Profession Regulation 2005 (NSW) and to comply with our duty to the courts.

If you are a client or prospective client and you do not provide us with name and address information, we cannot act for you. If you do not provide us with accurate personal information we may not be able to carry out our instructions or achieve the purpose for which the information has been sought.

We may hold your personal information in hard copy files and/or electronic files.

 

PURPOSE FOR WHICH WE COLLECT, HOLD, USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Metis Law, our employees, agents, consultants and contractors, will use and disclose your personal information only for the purpose (the “primary purpose”) for which you provide it to us, which may include:

• to provide you with any legal services that you may request and any related administration;
• to respond to any query or complaint that you may make;
• for internal administration purposes;
• to operate, protect, improve and optimise our Website, our sevices and our business such as to perform analytics, conduct research, evaluation and development and quality control purposes and for advertising and marketing;
• to inform you of legal developments, our expertise and legal services, publications, seminars and events that may be of interest to you (but only where you have opted in to receive such information);
• to consider your employment or contractual engagement application (such as partnership, supply or retention of services);
• for insurance purposes;
• We may disclose your personal information:
• in order to carry out your instructions as our client; and
• subject always to our confidentiality obligations, when using services in support of our legal practice.

PARTIES TO WHOM WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Subject to our confidentiality obligations, we may share some relevant personal information to:

• parties related to a matter you have with us, government authorities and service providers as reasonably required to carry out your instructions;
• to third party contractors engaged to perform functions or provide services relating to the purposes for which we collect personal information
• to third party service providers or affiliates within or outside of Australia who work on behalf of or with us to provide some of our administrative and other services, such as archival, auditing, accounting, legal, business consulting, website or technology services, and processing payments (such as credit card payments);
• our marketing provider for the purposes of providing you our newsletter, invitations and legal updates;
• to enforcement or regulatory authorities, within and outside of Australia, if required by law.

We also will disclose your information if required by law to do so or in circumstances permitted by the Privacy Act – for example, where we have reasonable grounds to suspect that unlawful activity, or misconduct of a serious nature, that relates to our functions or activities has been is being or may be engaged in, in response to a subpoena, discovery request or a court order.

Subject to the above, we will not use or disclose your personal information for any secondary purpose, unless you consent to that use or disclosure; or you would reasonably expect the use or disclosure in the circumstances, and that secondary purpose is related to the primary purpose for which we have collected that information.

Except as set out in this Privacy Policy (or as required for any statutory or legal requirements), we do not share, sell, rent or otherwise disclose your personal information to third parties. If Metis Law is acquired or merged with another entity or entities, your personal information may be shared with such other entity, always confidentially, and subject always to the primary purpose for which your personal information was provided to us.

 

OVERSEAS DISCLOSURES

Some of the third parties described above under “Parties to whom we disclose Personal Information” including our service providers and related bodies corporate may be in the USA. We do not otherwise disclose your personal information overseas.

 

OPTING OUT OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

We may, from time to time, send you newsletters, invitations and legal updates about our services. You can opt out of receiving further such communications by notifying us using our contact details below or by clicking the “unsubscribe” option at the bottom of any marketing e-mail received from us.

 

SECURITY

Metis Law will take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure that all personal information that we collect is kept secure in accordance with industry standard physical, electronic and managerial procedures. All of our staff are trained to comply with this Privacy Policy. In respect of personal information collected online or stored electronically (including in the cloud) in particular, you acknowledge that no security system is impenetrable and that the security of such networks and systems can never be guaranteed. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information which is transmitted to us is transmitted at your own risk.

 

ACCESS TO AND CORRECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Metis Law will take reasonable steps to ensure that any personal information we collect is up-to-date, complete and accurate, and any personal information that we use or disclose is up-to-date, complete, accurate and relevant.

Unless we are subject to confidentiality obligations or some other restriction on giving access to the information and we are permitted to refuse you access under the Privacy Act, we will endeavour to make your information available to you within 30 days of your request.

Examples of circumstances where we may refuse to give you access to your personal information include where:

• giving access would be unlawful;
• we reasonably believe that giving you access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual or to public health or public safety;
• giving access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
• the information could reveal the intentions of a party in negotiations;
• giving access could prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to unlawful activity;
• giving access could reveal evaluative information in a commercially sensitive decision making process.

You may request access to your personal information and you may seek the correction of such information by contacting our us at metisatmetislaw.com.au or at Metis Law Privacy Officer PO Box 84 Edensor Park NSW Australia 2176.

If you request to correct your personal information, we will correct, or, if we consider more appropriate, note your request for amendment of the information on your record. We will not charge you to make a request to access your record but we may charge you to actually provide access depending on the costs associated with obtaining and providing the material.

 

COMPLAINTS ABOUT A PRIVACY BREACH

If you believe that we have breached this Privacy Policy, you may direct your complaint to us at metisatmetislaw.com.au or at Metis Law Privacy Officer PO Box 84 Edensor Park NSW Australia 2176. We will review your complaint and liaise with you directly to resolve your complaint. We will endeavour to respond to any complaint within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint you may seek a review by contacting the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner using the information available at http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints.