When we say 'Brodies', 'we' or 'us' in this notice, it means the entity which has collected your personal data in the course of the services it provides to its clients 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.

Often, it may not be possible for us to provide information to the individuals concerned about how we use that personal information – since we may have no direct contact with them and may not have the details to do so – and obligations of professional secrecy to our clients (in the form of legal professional privilege/ confidentiality of communications) to which we are subject allow us not to provide that information in any event.

This statement seeks to summarise how we may use the personal information of individuals who do not fall within any of the other categories covered by our privacy statement but, clearly, the actual use we make of any individual's personal data is dependent on the context and circumstances.

Types of personal information we collect

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
Transactional Data Details about payments to and from you and other details about services you purchase from us
Contractual Data Information obtained by providing legal services to you
Communications Data What we learn about you from letters, emails, call recordings and conversations between us
Social Relationships Data Details about your family, friends and other relationships
Publicly Available Data Details about you that are publicly available, such as on Companies House or elsewhere on the internet
Consents Data Any permissions, consents or preferences that you give us
Usage Data Information about how you use our website, products and services
Special Category Data

Some types of personal information are defined as special. We will only collect and use these types of information where we need to and if the law allows us to:

  • Racial or ethnic origin
  • Political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs
  • Trade union membership
  • Genetic or biometric data used for ID purposes
  • Health data
  • Sex life and sexual orientation
  • Criminal convictions data


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.

Categories of Individual What we use your information for Our reasons Our legitimate interests
  • Third party (claimant or litigant)
  • To give legal advice to our clients
  • To communicate with you or your advisers on behalf of our clients
  • To carry out pre-action discovery and evidence gathering (including e-discovery tools)
  • To bring or defend legal claims on behalf of our clients
  • To enforce judgements or awards on behalf of our clients
  • Contractual performance
  • Legitimate interests
  • Legal claims
  • To provide legal services to our clients
  • To provide legal advice to our clients
  • To assist clients to establish, exercise or defend legal claims
  • To support the due and proper administration of justice
  • Third party (transactional)
  • To give legal advice to our clients
  • To communicate with you or your advisers on behalf of our clients
  • To carry out due diligence on behalf of our clients including through the use of data or deal room tools
  • To negotiate and conclude sale/purchase, commercial or other transactions on behalf of our clients
  • Contractual performance
  • Legitimate interests
  • To provide legal services to our clients
  • To provide legal advice to our clients
  • To assist clients to establish, exercise or defend legal claims
  • To carry out pre-contract due diligence activities
  • To assist our clients to comply with legal obligations generally
  • Employees (TUPE transfers)
  • To carry out due diligence on behalf of our clients including through the use of data or deal room tools
  • To give legal advice to our clients on the potential or actual application of TUPE, employment and pensions legislation on transactions where TUPE may apply
  • Contractual performance
  • Legitimate interests
  • Legal claims
  • To provide legal services to our clients
  • To provide legal advice to our clients
  • To assist clients to establish, exercise or defend legal claims
  • To carry out pre-contract due diligence activities
  • To assist our clients to comply with legal obligations concerning TUPE, employment and pensions legislation
  • Witnesses
  • To contact you to establish whether you have evidence relevant to matters concerning our client
  • To take evidence from you in connection with legal claims concerning our client
  • To seek to compel you to give evidence in court or other proceedings concerning our client
  • Legal claims
  • Legitimate interests
  • To provide legal advice and services for the benefit of our clients
  • To support the due and proper administration of justice
  • Executors, administrators or trustees (Estates or Trusts – Non-Clients)
  • To contact and communicate with you on behalf of our client in connection with the proper administration of wills, trusts or executries of which you are an executor, administrator or trustee
  • Legal obligation
    Contractual performance
  • Legitimate interests
  • To provide legal services to our clients
  • To provide legal advice to our clients
  • To assist clients to properly administer trusts and executries in accordance with their legal obligations
  • Beneficiaries (Estates or Trusts – Non-Clients)
  • To verify your identity and entitlement to legacies from an executry or administration
  • To verify your identity and entitlement to benefit from any distribution from a trust
  • To distribute any entitlement to any assets from an estate on the instructions of a client
  • Legal obligation
  • Contractual performance
  • Legitimate interests
  • To provide legal services to our clients
  • To provide legal advice to our clients
  • To assist clients to properly administer trusts and executries in accordance with their legal obligations
  • Referees
  • To verify the suitability of an individual to be employed as an employee or be assumed as a partner
  • Employment purposes
  • Legitimate interests
  • For recruitment and resourcing
  • For firm management
  • For the prevention of crime and public security
  • For pre-employment screening


Where we collect your personal information from

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

  • From our clients
  • Directly from you
  • Organisations or other businesses that introduce you to us such as referrals from other law firms
  • Publicly available resources, such as Companies House and Registers of Scotland
  • The internet and social networking sites such as LinkedIn
  • Market researchers
  • Title and search agents for real estate work
  • Intermediaries and other professional advisors
  • Witnesses

Who we share your information with

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

  • Where Brodies Middle East LLP (ADGM Branch) has collected your personal data personal data will be shared with Brodies LLP which will act as 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 
  • Agents and service providers that we use during the course of providing legal services, including providers of e-discovery and document analysis tools, data rooms and extranets
  • Relevant regulators, including the Information Commissioner's Office in the event of a personal data breach, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, the Law Society of Scotland and the Solicitors Regulation Authority
  • Fraud prevention agencies
  • Where relevant, our client that is instructing us to provide them with legal advice 
  • Other solicitors, intermediaries, expert witnesses, courts, adjudicators, arbiters, sheriff officers, 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 to our clients
  • 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
  • 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.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Where we use your personal information in relation to matters in which we act for clients, the period for which we will retain your personal information will often be the period for which we hold our client file. 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 client files (and your personal information) for longer periods because the time periods for 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 (for example, the European Union or European Economic Area).
  • 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.