Privacy Notice – Chambers

About this notice

This privacy notice concerns the personal information Chambers processes about you and the legal basis for the processing. It also tells you who Chambers shares this information with, the security put in place to protect your data and how to contact Chambers in the event you need further information.

Who are we and what do we do?

39 Essex Chambers is a set of barristers’ chambers. Members of Chambers are barristers who provide legal and advocacy services as well as legal training as independent, self-employed barristers.

39 Essex Chambers LLP is a governance and holding entity and a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (0C360005) with its registered office at 81 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1DD.  It is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Z2531636).

39 Essex (Services Limited) manages the administrative, operational and support functions of Chambers and is an incorporated company (7385894) with a registered office at 81 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1DD.  It is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Z2531653).

39 Essex Chambers (International) Pte. Ltd. manages the administrative, operational and support functions for barristers and arbitrator members in Asia and is a company registered in Singapore (UNE  201300862H) with is registered office at 28 Maxwell Road, #04-03 & #04-04, Maxwell Chambers Suites, Singapore 069120.

If you need to contact Chambers about your information or the processing carried out, you can use the contact details at the end of this document.

What do we do with your personal information?

Information collected from you

Chambers collects the personal information that you provide which may include any or all of the following categories of personal data and special categories of personal data:

Personal Data: (“Personal Data”)

  • personal details
  • financial details
  • family details
  • lifestyle and social circumstances
  • goods and services
  • education, training and employment details
  • data relating to criminal convictions and offences or related security measures
  • other personal data relevant to the provision of legal services, including data specific to the instructions or appointment in question

Special Categories of Personal Data: (“Special Categories of Personal Data”)

  • data concerning health
  • data revealing racial or ethnic origin
  • data revealing political opinions
  • data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs
  • data revealing trade union membership
  • data concerning sex life or sexual orientation
  • genetic data
  • biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person

Personal information collected from others

We may also obtain personal information, including in the categories listed above, from third parties, such as members of Chambers, other legal professionals, experts, members of the public, your family and friends, witnesses, courts, arbitrators, expert determiners, mediators and other forms of dispute resolution service provider, tribunals, suppliers of goods and services, investigators, government departments, regulators, public records and registers.

How do we use your personal information

Chambers may process your personal information for the following purposes (“Purposes”):

  • to check for conflicts of interest in relation to any of the professional services referred to above
  • to carry out anti-money laundering and terrorist financing checks
  • to promote and market Chambers, and the Barristers and Members of Chambers
  • to carry out office administration and keep accounting and insurance records
  • to fulfil equality and diversity and other regulatory requirements
  • to take or defend legal or regulatory proceedings or to exercise a lien
  • to respond to potential complaints or make complaints
  • to assess applications for tenancy, pupillage, mini-pupillage, work-shadowing, employment and work opportunities
  • to train barristers, pupils, pupils, mini-pupils, secondees, staff and workers, and when providing work-shadowing opportunities
  • to respond to requests for references
  • when procuring goods and services
  • to publish legal articles and books
  • to publish legal judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals, awards and decisions in adjudications, arbitrations, expert determinations and other forms of dispute resolution procedure, disciplinary tribunals and investigations
  • as otherwise required or permitted by law

Marketing and promotion

In relation to personal information collected for marketing purposes (“Marketing Personal Data”), the personal information consists of:

  • names, contact details, and name of organisation
  • the nature of your interest in Chambers’ marketing
  • your attendance at Chambers events

This will be processed so that you can be provided with information about Chambers and its Members and to invite you to events.

You may contact Chambers using the contact details at the end of this document if you no longer wish to receive such invitations or information.

Whether information has to be provided by you, and why

If you apply to Chambers for membership, pupillage, mini-pupillage, employment or other work opportunities your personal information has to be provided to Chambers, so that your application can be properly assessed.

If you are offering or providing Chambers with goods or services, your information may be processed in relation to such offers or contracts.

The legal basis for processing your personal information

Chambers relies on the following as the lawful bases to process your personal information:

In relation to Personal Data:

  • Processing is necessary for the purpose of Chambers legitimate interests and/or the legitimate interests of a third party in carrying out the processing for the Purposes set out above.
  • The processing is necessary for the purposes of performing or exercising obligations or rights which are imposed or conferred by law on Chambers or you in connection with employment, social security or social protection.
  • The processing is necessary for the assessment of your working capacity or health or social care purposes.
  • The processing is necessary to prevent or detect unlawful acts where it is in the substantial public interest and it must be carried out without consent so as not to prejudice those purposes.
  • In certain circumstances processing may be necessary in order that Chambers can comply with a legal obligation to which it is subject (including carrying out anti-money laundering or terrorist financing checks).
  • If you have given your consent to the processing of your personal data, may process that information for the Purposes to the extent of your consent. You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time, but this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing activity we have carried out before the withdrawal of your consent.

In relation to Special Categories of Personal Data:

  • Processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or court proceedings.
  • Processing is necessary in order to ensure that Chambers meets its obligations to you by reason of a disability or medical condition.
  • Processing is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between members of staff, tenants, pupils, applicants for pupillage and employment, and mini-pupils with a view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained.
  • If you have given your explicit consent to the processing of such personal data, we may process that information for the Purposes to the extent of your consent. You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time, but this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing activity we have carried out before the withdrawal of your consent.

Who will Chambers share your personal information with?

It may be necessary to share your information with another entity within Chambers and also with the following third parties (“Third Parties”):

  • data processors, sub-contractors, email service providers, and data storage service providers
  • legal professionals, including Members of Chambers
  • lay and professional clients of Members of Chambers
  • courts, tribunals and arbitral institutions
  • members of an alternative dispute resolution panel including adjudicators, arbitrators, expert determiners, co-mediators, and arbitration panel secretaries
  • members of a disciplinary tribunal or investigation panel
  • witnesses and expert witnesses (including prospective witnesses and expert witnesses)
  • interpreters and transcribers
  • the general public in relation to the publication of legal judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals
  • the parties and legal advisors and appointing or supervising institutions in relation to adjudications, arbitrations, expert determinations, and other forms of dispute resolution procedure, disciplinary and investigation proceedings
  • trainee barristers including pupils and mini-pupils, and secondees
  • family and associates of the person whose personal information Chambers is processing
  • in the event of complaints, the Heads of Chambers, other members of Chambers who deal with complaints, the UK's Bar Standards Board, the UK's Legal Ombudsman, Singapore’s Legal Services Regulatory Authority, and the Law Society of Singapore.
  • prosecution authorities
  • other regulatory authorities, including the UK’s Bar Standards Board, and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, Singapore’s Legal Services Regulatory Authority, and the Law Society of Singapore
  • the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office and Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Commission 
  • the police or intelligence services, where we are required or permitted by law to do so
  • education and examining bodies
  • business associates, professional advisers and trade bodies, e.g. the Bar Council and Legal Directories
  • the intended recipient, where you have asked Chambers to provide a reference
  • current, past or prospective employers or employees
  • in the case of recruitment of barristers to or from other chambers, your current, past and prospective chambers
  • the general public in relation to the publication of legal judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals
  • the intended recipient as required or permitted by law

Sources of information

The personal information Chambers obtains may include information obtained from:

  • another entity within Chambers
  • data processors, sub-contractors, email service providers, and data storage service providers
  • legal professionals including members of Chambers
  • lay and professional clients of members of Chambers
  • courts, tribunals and arbitral institutions
  • members of an alternative dispute resolution panel including adjudicators, arbitrators, expert determiners, co-mediators and independent investigators and arbitration panel secretaries
  • members of a disciplinary tribunal or investigation panel
  • witnesses and expert witnesses (including prospective witnesses and expert witnesses)
  • interpreters and transcribers
  • trainee barristers (including pupils and mini-pupils, and secondees), staff, workers and those on work experience
  • family and associates of the person whose personal information Chambers is processing
  • in the event of complaints, the Head of Chambers, other members of Chambers who deal with complaints, the Bar Standards Board, and the Legal Ombudsman
  • prosecution authorities, including the Bar Standards Board and Financial Conduct Authority
  • other regulatory authorities
  • current, past or prospective employers
  • education and examining bodies
  • business associates, insurers, professional advisers and trade bodies, e.g. the Bar Council and Legal Directories
  • the intended recipient, where you have asked Chambers to provide a reference
  • the general public in relation to the publication of legal judgments and decisions of courts and tribunals
  • public sources, such as the press, public registers and law reports.

Transfer of your information outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

This privacy notice is of general application and as such it is not possible to state whether it will be necessary to transfer your information out of the UK and EEA in any particular case or for any particular purpose.  Such transfers include transfers for cloud data storage providers situated outside the UK and EEA.

If you are in a country outside the UK and EEA or your instructions, your case, my professional services [to you] or the role for which you or we require a reference involving persons, organisations, courts, tribunals or other forms of dispute resolution entity outside the UK and EEA, then it may be necessary to transfer some of your information to that country outside of the UK and EEA for that purpose.

If any of these circumstances apply to you and you wish additional precautions to be taken in respect of your information please indicate this to us or when providing initial instructions.

Where the UK Government or the European Commission has decided that a country or part of a country outside the UK or EEA, or listed entities in such a country, ensures an adequate level of protection for personal information, we are entitled to transfer personal information to that country or to that entity in accordance with the relevant adequacy decisions. The list of European Commission  adequacy decisions can be found here; information on UK adequacy decisions can be found on the ICO website.

If your information has to be transferred outside the UK and EEA, then it may not have the same protections and you may not have the same rights as you would within the UK and EEA.

In the absence of an adequacy decision by the UK Government or the European Commission, we will transfer your personal information outside the UK or EEA where there are adequate safeguards in place in respect of such transfers.

In the absence of adequacy decision or adequate safeguards, we will only transfer your personal information outside the UK and EEA where the transfer is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or if you have given your explicit consent to the proposed transfer after having been informed of the possible risk of such transfer.  You have the right to withdraw consent at any time, but this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing activity we have carried out before the withdraw of consent. 

Data Security

Chambers stores your data in electronic form in a secure IT system protected by up-to-date security including firewall, secure access and anti-virus protection. The data is stored or on its own servers or on servers operated by highly reputable IT system providers with database centres in the UK.

The computer hardware used, including desktop and laptops, is whole disc encrypted and, in the event of loss, data on iPads and iPhones is deleted remotely. When replaced, the hard disc of computer equipment is securely destroyed.

When email data is to be permanently deleted this is done by instruction to an email archive facility.

How long will Chambers store your personal information?

Chambers will normally store:

  • Your personal information until at least 1 year after the expiry of any relevant limitation period, from for example the date on which your employment terminates, the date of the last provision of service or goods, the date of the last payment made or received or the date on which all outstanding payments are written off (whichever is the latest). This is because it may be needed for potential legal proceedings. At this point any further retention will be reviewed and the information will be marked for deletion or marked for retention for a further period. The latter retention period is likely to occur only where the information is needed for legal proceedings, regulatory matters or active complaints. Deletion will be carried out as soon as reasonably practicable after the information is marked for deletion
  • Equality and diversity data may be retained for 10 years in pseudonymised form for the purpose of research and statistics and complying with regulatory obligations in relation to the reporting of equality and diversity data
  • Names and contact details held for marketing purposes will be stored indefinitely or until Chambers becomes aware or is informed that the individual has ceased to be a potential client. This is likely to be limited to your name and contact details.
  • Personal information held for recruitment purposes or in relation to pupillage or mini- pupillage will be stored as for at least 3 years so that it can be referred by Chambers should the individual make a further application.

Your Rights

Under the UK GDPR, you have a number of rights that you can exercise in certain circumstances. The exercise of these rights is free of charge. In summary, you may have the right to:

  • Access to your personal information and other supplementary information
  • Correction of errors or omissions in your personal information.
  • Erasure of some or all of your personal information in certain circumstances
  • A copy of the personal information you have provided sent to you or a third party in a commonly used and machine-readable format.
  • Object at any time to processing of your personal information for direct marketing
  • Object in certain other situations to the continued processing of your personal information
  • Restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances

If you want more information about your rights under the UK GDPR please see the Guidance from the Information Commissioners Office on Individual’s rights under the UK GDPR.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, please:

  • Use the contact details at the end of this document. Chambers may need to ask you to provide other information so that you can be identified
  • Please provide a contact address so that you can be contacted to request further information to verify your identity
  • Provide proof of your identity
  • State the right or rights that you wish to exercise.

Chambers will respond to you within one month from when it receives your request.

Marketing Emails

If you wish to unsubscribe from any marketing emails that you have signed up for, you can do so by emailing marketing@39essex.com (subject line ‘unsubscribe’). It may take up to one week for this to become effective.

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of data which are stored for you on your computer by your web browser. Their purpose is to improve your online experience and are used by almost every website.  You can find out more about the cookies we use on our website here.

How to make a complaint?

The UK GDPR also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners’ Office if you are in the UK, or with the supervisory authority of the Member State where you work, normally live or where the alleged infringement of information protection laws occurred. The Information Commissioner’s Office can be contacted at http://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Future Processing

Chambers does not intend to process your personal information except for the reasons stated within this privacy notice. If this changes, this privacy notice will be amended and placed on the Chambers’ website.

Singapore

1. General

1.1. The terms set out in this Section shall apply to you if you are a resident in Singapore where the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (“PDPA”) applies. 

1.2. The Privacy Notice - Chambers (the “Privacy Notice”) as set out above shall continue to apply to you, save as may be supplemented, amended or modified by the terms set out in this Section. If there is any conflict between the terms set out in the Privacy Notice and those in this Section, the terms set out in this Section shall prevail.

1.3. In this Section, unless the subject or context otherwise requires:

1.3.1. the term “Singapore Privacy Notice” shall refer to the Privacy Notice as supplemented and/or modified by this Section.

1.3.2. the term “process” in the Privacy Notice shall be read as “collect, use, disclose and/or process” in the context of the PDPA, and the term “processing” shall be construed accordingly.

2. How I Collect Personal Information

2.1. In certain circumstances, you may also provide me with personal information of persons other than yourself (such as your family members and next-of-kin). If you do so, you represent and warrant that you have brought the Singapore Privacy Notice to his/her attention, informed him/her of the purposes for which I am collecting his/her personal information and that he/she has consented to your disclosure of his/her personal information to me for those purposes and accepts the Singapore Privacy Notice. You agree to indemnify and hold me harmless from and against any and all claims by such individuals relating to my collection, use and/or disclosure of such personal information in accordance with the terms of this Singapore Privacy Notice.

3. What I Do with Your Personal Information

3.1. I collect, use and/or disclose your personal information for purposes connected or relevant to the services which I provide you, and to manage your relationship with me. Such purposes include those listed in the section “How do I use your personal information” of the Privacy Notice. If your personal information is to be used and/or disclosed for new purposes that are not disclosed therein, I shall:

3.1.1. obtain your consent where required under applicable law; or

3.1.2. proceed to use and/or disclose your personal information, without your knowledge or consent, where this is required or permitted by law. 

4. Disclosure Of Your Personal Information

4.1. When disclosing personal information to Affiliated Parties and Third Parties, I will (where appropriate and permissible) enter into contracts with these parties to protect your personal information in a manner that is consistent with all applicable laws and/or ensure that they only process your personal information in accordance with my instructions.

5. Transfer Of Personal Information Outside of Singapore

5.1. I may transfer your personal information to different jurisdictions outside of Singapore in connection with the Purposes described in “How do I use your personal information” of the Privacy Notice, and other purposes that may arise from time to time provided that the requirements set out in paragraph 3.1. of this Section are satisfied. The transfer may take place from Singapore where the data is collected to:

5.1.1. the United Kingdom; and/or

5.1.2. any other jurisdiction where necessary in order to fulfil the aforementioned purposes. 

5.2. Where I transfer your personal information outside of Singapore, I will ensure that your personal information is protected in accordance with this Singapore Privacy Notice and applicable laws regardless of the jurisdictions they are transferred to, but in any event to a level that is no less stringent than the applicable Singapore standard (the country from which the personal information is transferred from).

6. Your Rights

6.1. Under the PDPA, you may:

6.1.1. Ask me if I hold your personal information and, if I do, you can request access to your personal information. This enables you to receive a copy of and information on the personal information I hold about you. In addition, you may also request for information about the ways in which your personal information may have been used or disclosed by me within a year from the date of request.

6.1.2. Request that any incomplete or inaccurate personal information that I hold about you is corrected

6.1.3. Withdraw consent for my collection, use and/or disclosure of your personal information. However, please note that the withdrawal of consent may result in us not being able to fulfil the purposes for which your personal information is provided to us. Therefore, we reserve the right to withdraw or cease the fulfilment of such purposes upon your withdrawal of consent. Upon receipt of your request to withdraw your consent, the consequences of withdrawal may be communicated to you. Upon your agreement to the same, your request for withdrawal will be processed by us.

6.1.4. Request the transfer of certain of your personal information to another party under certain conditions.

6.2.  If you wish to exercise any of your rights, you may submit a written request to the Chief Executive (Asia) of 39 Essex Chambers (see “Contact details” section of the Privacy Notice). I may also require that you submit certain forms or provide certain information to process your request. Where permitted by the PDPA, I may also charge you a fee to process your request.

6.3.   I may be permitted under the PDPA to refuse a request, for example, I may refuse (a) a request for access where the personal information is subject to legal privilege; or (b) a correction request if the data involves opinion data kept solely for an evaluative purpose.

Changes to this privacy notice

This privacy notice was first published on 23 May 2018 and last updated on 4 August 2023.

Chambers continually reviews its privacy practices and may change this policy from time to time. When it does an amended privacy notice will be placed on the Chambers’ website.

Contact Details

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information Chambers holds about you, please contact the Chambers’ Chief Operating Officer using the contact details below.

United Kingdom:
Celia Grace
Chief Operating Officer
39 Essex Chambers
81 Chancery Lane
London WC2A 1DD

Email: celia.grace@39essex.com
Phone: +44 (0)20 7832 1111

Singapore:
Abhinav Bhushan
Chief Executive Asia
39 Essex Chambers
28 Maxwell Road
#04-03 & #04-04
Maxwell Chambers Suites
Singapore 069120

Email: abhinav.bhushan@39essex.com
Phone: +65 6320 9272