When we say 'Brodies', 'we' or 'us' in this notice, it means the entity you are working with, being either Brodies LLP or Brodies Middle East LLP (ADGM Branch) which is Brodies Middle East LLP's branch in the Abu Dhabi Global Market. That entity (either Brodies LLP or Brodies Middle East LLP (ADGM Branch)) is the 'controller' of your personal information.

We collect, use and store different types of personal information about you, which we have grouped together as follows:

Types of personal information Description
Identity Data ID information including your name, marital status, title, date of birth, gender and National Insurance Number
Contact Data Where you live and how to contact you
Financial Data Your financial position, status and history, including bank details and credit rating
Communications Data What we learn about you from letters, emails, call recordings and conversations between us
Publicly Available Data Details about you that are publicly available, such as on Companies House or elsewhere on the internet
Marketing Data Details about your preferences in receiving marketing communications from us and our third parties
Consents Data Any permissions, consents or preferences that you give us
Usage Data Information about how you use our website, products and services

How we use your information

The table below outlines how we use your personal information and our reasons. Where these reasons include legitimate interests, we explain what these legitimate interests are.

What we use your information for Our reasons Our legitimate interests
  • To communicate with you in the course of our professional relationship with you
  • Contractual performance
  • Legitimate interests
  • To provide our clients with legal services
  • To obtain services from you for the benefit of our clients
  • To provide legal services for the benefit of you or your clients
  • To fulfil our contractual obligations
  • For marketing and business development activities, including seeking new business, promoting our business and events management
  • Consent (where provided through our preference centre)
  • Legitimate interests
  • To develop our relationship with you and others
  • To attract new business, including bidding and tendering
  • To promote our business
  • To hold events, such as seminars or corporate hospitality to promote our business and its services
  • To seek your consent if we need it to contact you
  • For press and media relations
  • Legitimate interests
  • Consent
  • To contact you to publicise our work through press releases and other published material, subject to obligations of confidentiality
  • To run our business in an efficient and proper way. This includes managing financial administration, business capability, planning, communications, corporate governance and audit
  • To improve our products and services and develop new ones.
  • Legal obligation
  • Contractual performance
  • Legitimate interests
  • To manage our relationship with you and fulfilling our responsibilities generally
  • To improve our efficiency and provide you or your clients with new or improved products and services.

Where we collect your personal information from

We may collect personal information about you from the following sources:

  • Directly from you or your website
  • Companies that introduce you to us
  • Publicly available resources, such as Companies House and Registers of Scotland
  • The internet and social networking sites such as LinkedIn
  • Other intermediaries such as (other) professional firms who know you

Who we share your information with

We may share your personal information with the following third parties:

  • If you are working with Brodies Middle East LLP (ADGM Branch), personal data will be shared with Brodies LLP which will act as a (a) processor in relation to its provision of human resource, IT, finance and other services to Brodies Middle East LLP (ADGM Branch) and (b) as a separate controller where Brodies LLP is engaged by BMEL to provide legal advice. 
  • Clients, prospective clients and other intermediaries
  • Other solicitors, intermediaries, expert witnesses, courts, adjudicators, arbiters, third party payees and other parties with whom it is necessary for us to engage in the course of the provision of our legal services
  • Public information resources, such as Companies House and Registers of Scotland
  • Subcontractors working within Brodies
  • Relevant regulators, including the Information Commissioner's Office in the event of a personal data breach
  • The police and other law enforcement agencies
  • Other companies or service providers who support our business and the provision of our services
  • (a) Subsidiaries or affiliates of Brodies LLP, (b) Brodies Middle East LLP (ADGM Branch), or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates, and (c) Brodies & Co (Trustees) Limited and any of its subsidiaries or affiliates
  • Journalists and other members of the media
  • Potential or actual purchasers of any part of our business or assets, or other third parties in the context of a possible transfer or restructuring of our business

How long we keep your personal information

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

In general terms, as an intermediary, we will hold your personal information so long as you remain an intermediary or other business contact that provides services that are complementary to ours.

In relation to matters in which we act for clients, we follow the guidelines issued by the Law Society of Scotland concerning the retention of client files which means that we will retain those files (and your personal information within them) for a basic minimum period of 10 years. In some areas of practice, such as real estate or wills, trusts and executries, the nature of the matters on which we are instructed, may require us to hold our client files (and your personal information) for longer periods because the time periods during which legal claims can arise are much longer than 10 years.

International transfers

Brodies LLP

We hold all personal information concerning our clients and their affairs within the United Kingdom. This means our document management system, our email servers and our practice management system are all hosted in the United Kingdom.

Brodies LLP will only send your personal information outside the United Kingdom:

  • where you ask us to
  • where we are being instructed on your behalf by someone outside the United Kingdom (for example, another law firm)
  • where that is required to provide the legal services that you have instructed us to provide – for example, in instructing/dealing with foreign solicitors or other advisors on your behalf
  • where we need to do so in order to comply with a legal duty incumbent on us or you
  • where the transfer is necessary for important reasons of public interest
  • the transfer is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims

We also use ancillary IT systems hosted outside the United Kingdom or where data is backed up in a data centre outside the United Kingdom.

If your information is to be processed outside the United Kingdom, then we will ensure that it is protected to the same standards as if it were being processed within the United Kingdom by using appropriate safeguards, which may include:

  • ensuring that your information is only transferred to countries that have been recognised under data protection law as adequately protecting personal information to the same standards as the United Kingdom.
  • putting in place a contract with the recipient of your information which requires them to protect that information to the same standards as if the information were being processed within the United Kingdom.

The safeguards we use will depend on the location of the recipient, the function they are performing and the personal information being transferred.

Brodies Middle East LLP (ADGM Branch) 

Where Brodies Middle East LLP (ADGM Branch) is the controller of your personal data under our notices, personal information will be held within the Abu Dhabi Global Market. We will only send your personal data outside of the Abu Dhabi Global Market to Brodies LLP within the United Kingdom (see Who we share your information with). The United Kingdom is considered an 'adequate jurisdiction' by the Abu Dhabi Global Market Office of Data Protection.