Our Privacy Policy
Gray & Gray LLP will be a "controller" of the personal information that you provide to us when you instruct us to act on your behalf or contact us through our website. Where we are required, in the course of any case, to disclose information to a third party, that third party becomes the controller of the disclosed data.
Personal Client Data
When you become a client of Gray & Gray LLP we will collect, store and use the personal information that you provide to us in your instructions and during the course of our solicitor / client relationship. We may ask you for additional personal information during the course of our solicitor / client relationship, which shall be collected, stored and used in accordance with this privacy notice.
We also collect, store and use the following personal information relating to you which is provided to us, in the course of conducting your case, from third parties.
Why we need your personal information – contractual purposes:
We need to collect our clients' personal information so that we can properly perform our role as legal advisers. We will use your personal information to:
- provide you with legal advice, including, for example, communicating with you by email, letter and/or telephone;
- represent you as your solicitors in connection with court actions, negotiations and transactions; and
- respond to and communicate with you regarding your questions, comments, and legal support needs.
If you do not provide us with all of the personal information that we need to collect then this may severely affect our ability to provide you with legal advice and / or represent you as your solicitors.
Why we need your personal information – legitimate purposes:
We also process our clients' personal information in pursuit of our other legitimate interests to:/p>
- promote our services by sending clients communications with information for upcoming events and legal updates;
- invite our clients as guests to our events; and
- recommend further services which may be of benefit to you.
Where we process your personal information in pursuit of our legitimate interests, you have the right to object to us using your personal information for these purposes. If you wish to object to any of the above data processing activities, please contact our Ms Dickers on 01779 480222. If we act on your objection, it may affect our ability to undertake the specified tasks above for your benefit./p>
Why we need your personal information – legal obligations:
We are under a legal duty to process certain personal information relating to our clients for the purposes of complying with our obligations under:
- Law Society of Scotland requirements for solicitors;
- Anti-Money Laundering regulations; and
- other statutory or regulatory instruments, or at Common Law.
Other uses of your personal information:
We may ask you if we can process your personal information for additional purposes. For example, making a referral to another professional service provider. Where we do so, we will provide you with detailed information on how we will use your information for these additional purposes.
Who we share your personal information with:
We may be required to share personal information with statutory or regulatory authorities and with other organisations in order to comply with statutory obligations. Such organisations include, for example, the Law Society of Scotland, HMRC and the Courts.
We may also share personal data with our own professional advisors for the purposes of taking advice from them.
Gray & Gray LLP employs third party suppliers to provide services, including IT support, payroll, accountancy services and shredding. These suppliers may process personal data on our behalf as "processors" and are subject to written contractual conditions only to process that personal data under our instructions and to protect it.
In the event that we do share personal data with external third parties, we will only share such personal data as is strictly required for the specific purposes and will take reasonable steps to ensure that recipients shall only process the disclosed personal data in accordance with those purposes.
How we protect your personal information:
Your personal information is stored on our electronic filing system and our servers based in the United Kingdom, and is accessed by our staff for the purposes set out above.
In some cases, we are required to keep paper files. Where this is the case, we will keep your file in a safe and secure location within our offices, unless there is a legitimate reason for its removal outwith our premises, such as a Court appearance. We will endeavour to shred and securely dispose of your paper file at the earliest possible opportunity following the conclusion of your case.
How long we keep your personal information:
We keep our clients' personal data for specific periods as set out in guidance from the Law Society of Scotland and dependant on the work type. Our data retention policy for retaining and reviewing all client information that we hold is based entirely on this guidance. If you have specific queries about retention periods, please contact Ms Dickers on 01779 480222.
We will review and possibly delete your personal information following a period of at least three years after you have ceased to be our client.
Your rights:
You can exercise any of the following rights by writing to us at Gray & Gray LLP, 8-10 Queen Street, Peterhead AB42 1TS.
Your rights in relation to your personal information are:
- subject to specific exceptions, you have a right to request access to the personal information that we hold about you by making a subject access request;
- if you believe that any of your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, you have a right to request that we correct or complete your personal information;
- you have a right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information for specific purposes; and
- if you wish us to delete your personal information, you may request that we do so.
You should be aware that the exercise of these rights may have important and negative legal consequences for you. We will discuss these consequences with you on receipt of your request.
Any requests received by Gray & Gray LLP will be considered under applicable data protection legislation. If you remain dissatisfied, you have a right to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office at
The Information Commissioner's Office - Scotland
45 Melville Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7HL
Telephone: 0303 123 1115
Email: Scotland@ico.org.uk