Privacy Policy

Kuits cares about your privacy. This policy sets out certain information about what personal data we process about you, why we process it and how we handle it.

About us

We are Kuit Steinart Levy LLP of 3 St Mary’s Parsonage, Manchester, M3 2RD and are registered as a limited liability partnership under number OC334768 (“Kuits”, “we”, “us”, “our” and “ours”). We act as data controller in respect of the personal data you provide to us.

What kind of personal data we collect and how we collect it

We process various items of personal data in order to provide our legal services to clients (and, where our clients are companies, their directors, shareholders and personnel). This typically includes names, addresses, email and telephone contact details, and other client information. We may also process your personal identification information (such as your passport or other photographic identification), date of birth, details of your employment, financial affairs, family and family relationships, and your relationship to our employees.

When using our website, we will also collect technical information, including the type of device you are using, the IP address, browser and operating system being used to connect your device to the internet. We will also collect certain information about your interaction with our website, such as length of visit, services viewed and about the device or browser you are using.

We also process your personal data when you access and share documents on the Kuits Data Room (“Data Room”). This includes information used to create your online account (such as a username, password and contact details), any personal information contained in documents you share with us on the Data Room, and technical information when you use the Data Room.

In limited circumstances we may also process certain special categories of personal data about you, such as your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, genetics, biometrics or health and sex life or sexual orientation, where we require this information to fulfil our services.

The personal data we collect about you will generally be provided to us directly by you, but may also be provided to us by a client or their representative in the course of our provision of legal services and in other cases may be collected from publicly available resources.

You may also provide your personal data to us when submitting an enquiry through our contact form on our website and through the Data Room.

Why we process your personal data

We collect and process personal data about our clients, prospective clients, referrers, other professionals, suppliers and other third parties and, if applicable, their personnel and other representatives, for the following purposes:

• the performance of our contractual engagements with and services for clients;
• compliance with legal obligations (for example the prevention or detection of criminal activities and compliance with anti-money laundering legislation);
• to pursue our legitimate interests of the development of our business (for example retaining contact information for referrers and other professionals for carrying out client services or the mutual development of business opportunities and the sending of marketing communications to clients where we believe such communications will be of interest to them);
• the establishment, exercise, resolution and/or defence of legal claims;
• for direct marketing, which will do either with your consent or, where you have the opportunity to opt out and we believe the content of the marketing communication will be of interest to you;
• specifically when using the Data Room, to verify your identity and protect your account against unauthorised use or abuse of our platform;
• specifically when using our Data Room or website, to perform data analytics, such as trend analysis and research to improve the service we provide, and assist with the ongoing administration and security of these platforms.

Who we share your personal data with

We may share your personal data, where necessary, with:

• our carefully selected service providers who provide IT and system administration services to enable us to communicate effectively with you, provide services to you, and to give you access and use of the Data Room (details of which can be provided upon request);
• our insurers and insurance brokers, auditors and other professional advisors;
• regulators, government agencies, accreditation bodies and other authorities;
• members of our international legal network, TAG Law, or other international law firms, where we are assisting you with legal advice which requires obtaining advice in jurisdictions outside of England and Wales (this includes firms situated outside of the UK and European Economic Area (EEA));
• other parties involved in any matter in respect of which we carry out legal services, such as counterparties, courts, tribunals, and experts.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Other than as specified in this privacy policy, all personal data we process about you is processed in the UK or EEA.

What we do to protect your personal data

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and, in the event of a breach, we will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Retention of your personal data

We retain your personal data in line with our internal retention policies and guidelines. These have been developed to ensure our compliance with regulatory obligations and professional practice. The time periods vary depending on the particular circumstances, but one of the following specific periods are most likely to apply to you:

• If you are a client or third party whose personal data we are holding in relation to a specific matter in respect of which we have provided legal services, we will hold your information for up to 15 years following the conclusion of the relevant matter;
• If we are sending marketing communications to you based on your consent, we will retain your personal data for the purpose you have consented to unless you withdraw your consent or do not open any of our emails or attend any of our events for a period of more than 24 months.
• If we are sending marketing communications to you based on our legitimate interests, we will retain your personal data unless you expressly opt out or you do not open any of our emails, or attend any of our events for a period of more than 24 months.
• If you have made an enquiry through our contact form and you do not become a client of ours, we will delete your information after six months.

If you would like further information regarding how long we hold your personal data, please contact us using the details below.

Cookies

When you visit our website at www.kuits.com, or the Data Room at https://fileshare.kuits.com, we use certain cookies to improve your browsing experience. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookies Policy.

Your rights

You have the right to withdraw your consent to us using your personal data at any time where you have provided any special categories of data to us, or by contacting us at the details below (although we may not be able to fully provide our services to you if you ask us to stop processing any special category data which is relevant to your matter).

You may also withdraw your consent to us using your personal data for direct marketing at any time and can do so by contacting us using the details below or following the “opt-out” link in any email communication we send to you.

In addition to such right to withdraw your consent, you have various other rights in respect of your personal data, as follows:

• a right to access a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• a right in certain circumstances to request a transfer of your personal data to you or a third party;
• a right in certain circumstances to have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed.
• a right to object to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes where we are relying on our legitimate interests as our lawful basis for processing your personal data.
• a right to object to our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances where we are relying on our legitimate interests as our lawful basis for processing your personal data.

You can exercise any of their rights by contacting us at the details below.  You can find more information concerning the above rights on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.ico.org.uk.

Changes to this privacy policy and your personal data

This policy was last updated 5 March 2024. We may update this policy from time to time by updating the version on our website at www.kuits.com/privacy-policy.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and up to date and so please keep us informed of any changes to your personal data during our relationship with you.

Contact Us

The person responsible for data protection compliance at Kuits is the Data Protection Partner, Jan Winstanley. You can contact us with any queries in respect of your personal information by email to dataprotection@kuits.com or post to Kuits Solicitors, 3 St Mary’s Parsonage, Manchester, M3 2RD.

You also have the right to raise queries with or make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, although we would of course appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns first before you approach the ICO.

If you would like to receive a copy of this information, please contact us and we will arrange for this to be sent to you at your preferred contact address.

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Kuit Steinart Levy LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England under registered number OC334768 and with registered office at 3 St Mary’s Parsonage, Manchester M3 2RD. A list of members is available for inspection at the registered office. Any reference to a partner in relation to Kuit Steinart Levy LLP means a member of Kuit Steinart Levy LLP. Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority with Practice ID No 487060