Privacy Notice

Gerrard L. McGowan Solicitors is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Through this Privacy Notice we aim to inform you how Gerrard L. McGowan Solicitors processes your personal data. This notice should be read in conjunction with our cookie policy.

1. Who we are:

We are Gerrard L. McGowan Solicitors of The Square, Balbriggan, County Dublin and also of Thomas Hand Street, Skerries, County Dublin. You can contact us at this address by post or by email at info@glmcgowan.ie.

Our data protection representative is Helen Killeen and may be contacted by email at helen.killeen@glmcgowan.ie.

2. Why we process your data, the lawful basis for processing your data and who we share it with

A) For people who view and interact with our website, we process data:

• to respond to your query when sent through our ‘contact us’ form
• to sign up to our newsletter and legal updates when you request subscription through our website

The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in the administration and operation of our legal services as well as our legitimate interest in marketing and promoting our  firm’s legal services. We always include an unsubscribe button in our communications, so you can opt out of receiving such communications at any time.

We share this data with our client relationship management system provider. They may only process this data for the purpose of providing us with their services, and no other purpose.

B) For our existing clients and potential clients, we process data:

• in order to market the services of our firm
• to provide you with legal updates and newsletters to which you have subscribed

The legal basis for the processing of this data is processing necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interests of our firm in promoting our services. We always include an unsubscribe button in our communications, so you can opt out of receiving such communications at any time.

We share information such as your name and email address with our newsletter services provider who sends out our newsletters. This provider is not permitted to use this data other than on our behalf.

C) For solicitors and barristers and other professional advisers that we liaise with on client matters, we process data:

• In order to liaise with you about our client matters
• In order to provide our legal services.

The legal basis for the processing of this data is processing necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by our firm in representing our clients.

We share the information you provide with our practice management system in order to store your contact information with our client file. We may also send you emails through our email service provider.

D) For job applicants to the firm, we process data:

• to recruit new employees
• to ascertain your suitability for a specific role

The legal basis for this processing is processing necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interests of our firm in recruiting new staff. Please see the privacy notice in the job advertisement for further information about how we process applicant data. 

We share the information you provide in your application with our contracted recruiter in order to make a shortlist of candidates. This recruiter is not permitted to use this data other than on our behalf. We may also send you emails about your application through our email service provider.

3. Sharing your Information

We may disclose your personal data to third parties who provide a service to us or are retained on your behalf to provide a service to you and are bound by confidentiality provisions such as our IT service providers, our practice management system provider, professional advisers retained on your behalf, regulators, barristers and experts retained on your behalf or where required by law, where necessary to administer our working relationship with you or where we have a legitimate interest in doing so, or in the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyers of such business or assets or if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or where necessary for our legitimate business interests to protect the rights, property, or safety of Gerrard L. McGowan Solicitors, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

4. Retention

We only retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services, products and information or as permitted/required by applicable law. We will retain data in accordance with the Law Society of Ireland’s practice note on Data Retention and Destruction of paper and electronic files produced by the Law Society Technology Committee,  Guidance & Ethics Committee on the 5th February 2019.  

5. Transfers of data outside the European Economic Area

In some circumstances, it may be necessary for us to transfer your Personal Data to a country outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). We will only transfer your Personal Data where the transferee is based in a country that has been approved by the EU Commission, or where there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect your Personal Data.

6. Third Party Services

Our website, domains and apps may contain links to other websites and services, which are managed and controlled by third parties. Please note that this Notice does not apply in those cases and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such third parties.  

7. Your rights relating to personal data

You have the following rights under the GDPR, in certain circumstances and subject to certain exemptions, in relation to your personal data:

• right to access the data – you have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, together with other information about our processing of that personal data.

• right to rectification- you have the right to request that any inaccurate data that is held about you is corrected, or if we have incomplete information you may request that we update the information such that it is complete.

• right to erasure – you have the right to request us to delete personal data that we hold about you. This is sometimes referred to as the right to be forgotten.

• right to restriction of processing or to object to processing – you have the right to request that we no longer process your personal data for particular purposes, or to object to our processing of your personal data for particular purposes.

•. Right to data portability – you have the right to request us to provide you, or a third party, with a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used machine readable format.

In order to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at the contact details at the start of this privacy notice.

If we are processing personal data based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing which took place prior to its withdrawal.

If you are unhappy with how we process personal data, we ask you to contact us so that we can rectify the situation.

You may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The Irish supervisory authority is the Data Protection Commission.

8. Requirement to process personal data 

You may browse our website without providing us with any personal data and this will not affect your ability to view our website.

If you do not provide us with your information for the purposes described above, we cannot send you our newsletter, respond to your queries sent through our contact us form, liaise with you on client matters or assess your suitability for a role within our firm.

9. Automated decision-making and profiling 

We do not use any personal data for the purpose of automated decision-making or profiling.

10. Changes to this privacy statement

We reserve the right to change this privacy statement from time to time at our sole discretion. If we make any changes, we will post those changes here and we will update the “Updated” date at the bottom of this statement. When you use our website after any such change you will be deemed to have consented to the current version of the privacy notice and accordingly you should review the privacy notice from time to time.

11. Contact us

Queries, comments, requests and complaints regarding this privacy statement and the personal data we hold should be addressed to info@glmcgowan.ie or by writing to Gerrard L. McGowan Solicitors, The Square, Balbriggan, County Dublin.

5 April 2019