Privacy Policy

H&C Lawyers values and respects the privacy of the people we deal with. H&C Lawyers is committed to protect your privacy and comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and other applicable privacy laws and regulations.

This Privacy Policy (Policy) describes how we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information, and how we maintain the quality and security of your personal information.

What is personal information?

“Personal information” means any information or opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. In general terms, this includes information or an opinion that personally identifies you either directly (e.g. your name) or indirectly.

What personal information do we collect?

The personal information we collect about you depends on the nature of your dealings with us or what you choose to share with us.

The personal information we collect about you may include information about:

• our clients, business associates, potential clients and their personnel;
• other individuals in the course of acting for our clients;
• our suppliers and their employees;
• our employees, partners, contractors, former employees, former partners, former contractors or prospective employees, contractors or partners;
• other people who come into contact with H&C Lawyers.

In general, the personal information we may collect and hold includes names, date of birth, contact details (including email addresses), occupation, company name, employment history, education and qualifications, testimonials and feedback, and other information which assists us in conducting our business, providing and marketing our service and meeting our legal obligations. In some cases we may also collect ‘sensitive information’, such as information about an individual’s membership of a professional association, criminal record or health information.

Your personal information may also be obtained in many ways including interviews, correspondence by telephone and facsimile, by email, via our website, from your website, from media and publications, from other publicly available sources, from cookies and from third parties. We do not guarantee website links or policy of authorised third parties.

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information directly from you when you:

• interact with us over the phone;
• interact with us in person;
• interact with us online;
• participate in surveys or questionnaires;
• attend a H&C Lawyers event;
• subscribe to our mailing list;
• apply for a position with us as an employee, contractor or volunteer;
• or from third parties, for example, a report provided by a medical professional or an employment reference from another person.

Collecting personal information from third parties

We may also collect your personal information from third parties or through publicly available sources. We collect your personal information from these third parties so that we can provide you with legal services, verify relevant facts and information, communicate with you and other parties as necessary, manage and administer our legal practice, comply with our legal and professional obligations, and improve the quality of our services.

How do we use your personal information?

We use personal information for many purposes in connection with our functions and activities, including the following purposes:

• provide you with information or services that you request from us;
• deliver to you a more personalised experience and service offering;
• improve the quality of the services we offer;
• internal administrative purposes;
• marketing and research purposes;
• comply with our legal and professional obligations;
• carry out conflict checks, due diligence and other risk management processes;
• represent you in legal matters and perform work in accordance with your instructions.

Disclosure of personal information to third parties

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in accordance with this Policy in circumstances where you would reasonably expect us to disclose your information. For example, we may disclose your personal information to:

• our third party service providers (for example, our IT providers);
• our marketing providers;
• our professional services advisors;
• barristers, experts, witnesses, mediators and other parties engaged to assist in the provision of legal services;
• courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies where disclosure is required or authorised by law.

How do we protect your personal information?

H&C Lawyers will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information that we hold about you is kept confidential and secure, including by:

• having a robust physical security of our premises and databases/records;
• taking measures to restrict access to only personnel who need that personal information to effectively provide services to you;
• having technological measures in place (for example, anti-virus software, fire walls);
• regularly training our staff on privacy, confidentiality and data security obligations;
• securely destroying or de-identifying personal information when it is no longer required.

Online activity

The H&C Lawyers website uses cookies. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers the website puts on your device if you allow it. These cookies recognise when your device has visited our website(s) before, so we can distinguish you from other users of the website. This improves your experience and the H&C Lawyers website(s).

We do not use cookies to identify you, just to improve your experience on our website(s). If you do not wish to use the cookies, you can amend the settings on your internet browser so it will not automatically download cookies. However, if you remove or block cookies on your computer, please be aware that your browsing experience and our website’s functionality may be affected.

Website analytics

Our website uses Google Analytic to help us better understand visitor traffic, so we can improve our services. Although this data is mostly anonymous, it is possible that under certain circumstances, we may connect it to you.

Direct marketing

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our services, opportunities, or events that we consider may be of interest to you if you have requested or consented to receive such communications.

These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, fax and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Australian Spam Act 2003 (Cth). You consent to us sending you those direct marketing communications by any of those methods. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so.

You may opt out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by following the instructions to “unsubscribe” set out in the relevant communication.

In addition, we may also use your personal information or disclose your personal information to third parties for the purposes of advertising, including online behavioural advertising, website personalisation, and to provide targeted or retargeted advertising content to you including through third party websites.

Retention of personal information

We will not keep your personal information for longer than we need to. In most cases, this means that we will only retain your personal information for the duration of your relationship with us unless we are required to retain your personal information to comply with applicable laws, for example record-keeping obligations.

How to access and correct your personal information

H&C Lawyers will endeavour to keep your personal information accurate, complete and up to date.

Subject to the exceptions set out in the Privacy Act, you may seek access to and correction of the personal information which we hold about you by contacting our office at [email protected]. We will require you to verify your identity and to specify what information you require. If a fee is charged for providing access, you will be advised of the likely cost in advance.

Links to third party sites

H&C Lawyers website(s) may contain links to websites operated by third parties. If you access a third party website through our website, personal information may be collected by that third party website. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party provider or website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party provider or website. Third party providers / websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

Inquiries and complaints

For complaints about how H&C Lawyers handles, processes or manages your personal information, please contact our office at [email protected]. Note we may require proof of your identity and full details of your request before we can process your complaint.

Please allow up to 30 days for H&C Lawyers to respond to your complaint. It will not always be possible to resolve a complaint to everyone’s satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with H&C Lawyers’s response to a complaint, you have the right to contact the Office of Australian Information Commissioner (at www.oaic.gov.au) to lodge a complaint.

How to contact us