Privacy Policy

FBV Family Law values your privacy and cares about the way in which your personal data is treated.

This policy describes what personal data we collect about you, how we obtain it, how we use it, on what basis, how long we keep it for, who we share it with, how we protect it, and your rights regarding its control and processing.

Authority, and ‘personal data’ is defined as any information relating to an individual, whether it relates to their private, professional or public life. It can be anything from a name, a home address, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, social services records, records of criminal convictions, or a computer’s IP address. Personal data we collect about you:

We may collect personal data from you in the course of our business, including through your use of this website, when you contact or request information from me, when you engage our legal services or as a result of your relationship with me.

The personal data that we process includes:

  • Basic data, such as your name (including prefix or title), the company you work for, your title or position and your relationship to a person;
  • Contact data, such as your postal address, email address and phone number;
  • Financial data, such as payment related information;
  • Identification and background data provided by you or collected as part of our business acceptance, employment or recruitment processes;
  • Technical data, such as data from your visits to this website or in relation to materials and communications I send to you electronically;
  • Data you provide to me for the purposes of attending meetings and events, including access and dietary requirements;
  • Personal data provided to me by or on behalf of my clients or generated by me in the course of providing services to them, which may include special categories of data (to include records of criminal convictions); and
  • Any other data relating to you which you may provide to me or ask me to obtain on your behalf.

How I obtain your personal data:

I collect data from you:

  • As part of our business acceptance processes and about you and others as necessary in the course of providing legal services;
  • When you provide it to me, or interact with me directly, for instance engaging with me or registering on one of my websites;
  • When monitoring my technology tools and services, including my websites and email communications sent to and from FBV Family Law; and
  • I may collect or receive data about you from other sources, such as keeping the contact details I already hold for you accurate and up to date using publically available sources.

How I use your personal data

FBV Family Law collects and processes personal data about you in a number of ways, including through your use of my websites and in the provision of services by me. I use that data:

  • To provide and improve my website, including auditing and monitoring its use;
  • To promote my services, including sending legal updates, publications and details of events;
  • To manage and administer my relationship with you and my clients;
  • To provide and improve my services to you and to my clients, including handling the personal data of others on behalf of my clients;
  • To provide data requested by you;
  • To fulfil my legal, regulatory and risk management obligations, including establishing, exercising or defending legal claims; and
  • For the purposes of employment and recruitment.

Use of my websites

Some facilities on my websites invite you to provide me with personal data, such as my email queries facilities. The purpose of these facilities is apparent at the point that you provide your personal data and I only use that data for those purposes.

My website uses Google Analytics, a web-based analytics tool that tracks and reports on the manner in which the website is used to help me to improve it.

Google Analytics does this by placing small text files called ‘cookies’ on your device. The data that the cookies collect, such as the number of visitors to the site, the pages visited and the length of time spent on the site, is aggregated and therefore anonymous. Please also see ‘Marketing and other emails’ below.

You may refuse the use of cookies or withdraw your consent at any time by selecting the appropriate settings on your internet browser, but please note that this may affect your use and experience of my websites. By continuing to use my websites without changing your privacy settings, you are agreeing to the use of cookies.

Marketing and other emails

I use personal data to understand whether you read the emails and other materials, such as legal publications, that I send to you, click on the links to the data that I include in them and whether and how you visit my website after you click on that link (immediately and on future visits). I do this by using software that places a cookie on your device which tracks this activity and records it against your email address. Removal of this cookie will not affect your experience on my websites.

If you receive marketing emails from me and no longer wish to do so, you may unsubscribe at any time either by using the unsubscribe facility in the marketing email or emailing me at fbv@fbvfamilylaw.co.uk with the subject line ‘unsubscribe’.

Meetings, events and seminars

I will collect and process personal data about you in relation to your attendance at my office or at an event or seminar organised by FBV Family Law or its business partners. I will only process and use special categories of personal data about your dietary or access requirements in order to cater for your needs and to meet any other legal or regulatory obligations I may have. I may share your data with IT and other service providers or business partners involved in organising or hosting the relevant event.

Legal and other services

I collect, create, hold and use personal data in the course of and in connection with the services I provide to my clients. I will process identification and background data as part of our business acceptance, finance, administration and marketing processes, including anti-money laundering, conflict, reputational and financial checks. I will also process personal data provided to me by or on behalf of my clients for the purposes of the work I do for them. The data may be disclosed to third parties to the extent reasonably necessary in connection with that work.

Please also see ‘Who I share your personal data with’ and ‘Which countries I transfer your personal data to’ below.

On what basis I use your personal data

I use your personal data on the following bases:

  • To perform a contract, such as engaging with an individual to provide legal or other services;
  • To comply with legal and regulatory obligations;
  • For the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or proceedings; and
  • For legitimate business purposes.

This means the interest of FBV Family Law in conducting and managing our business to enable me to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. I make sure I consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before I process your personal data for our legitimate interests. I do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless I have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). Please see ‘How I use your personal data’ for more detail.

How long I keep your personal data

Your personal data will be retained in accordance with my data retention policy which categorises all of the data held by FBV Family Law and specifies the appropriate retention period for each category of data. Those periods are based on the requirements of applicable data protection laws and the purpose for which the data is collected and used, taking into account legal and regulatory requirements to retain the data for a minimum period, limitation periods for taking legal action, good practice and FBV Family Law’s business purposes.

If you purchase legal services from me I will usually retain your personal data for 15 years, starting from when I cease to act for you. After 15 years your personal data is destroyed, unless you have asked me to store your will or other important legal documents for you.

Who I share your personal data with

I may share your personal data with certain trusted third parties in accordance with contractual arrangements in place with them, including:

  • Suppliers to whom I outsource certain support services such as word processing, photocopying, and translation;
  • My professional advisers and auditors;
  • IT service providers to FBV Family Law;
  • Third parties engaged in the course of the services I provide to clients and with their prior consent, such as barristers, expert witnesses, medical agencies, costs drafting agencies and technology service providers; and
  • Third parties involved in hosting or organising events or seminars.

Where necessary, or for the reasons set out in this policy, personal data may also be shared with regulatory authorities, courts, tribunals, government agencies and law enforcement agencies. While it is unlikely, I may be required to disclose your data to comply with legal or regulatory requirements. I will use reasonable endeavours to notify you before I do this, unless I am legally restricted from doing so.

If in the future I re-organise or transfer all or part of our business, I may need to transfer your data to third parties through which the business of FBV Family Law will be carried out.

FBV Family Law uses social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. If you use these services, you should review their privacy policy for more information on how they deal with your personal data. I do not sell, rent or otherwise make personal data commercially available to any third party, except with your prior permission.

How I protect your personal data

I use appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. I have procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where I am legally required to do so.

Which countries I transfer your personal data to

In order to provide our legal services I do not generally need to transfer your personal data to locations outside the European Economic Area (‘the EEA’) for the purposes set out in this privacy policy. Where our third party service providers process personal data outside the EEA in the course of providing services to me, my written agreement with them will include appropriate measures to ensure that your personal data remains protected and secure in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Your rights regarding your personal data

UK General Data Protection Regulations and other applicable data protection laws provide certain rights for data subjects.

You are entitled to request details of the data I hold about you and how I process it. You may also have a right in accordance with applicable data protection law to have it amended or deleted, to restrict our processing of that data, to stop unauthorised transfers of your personal data to a third party and, in some circumstances, to have personal data relating to you transferred to another organisation. You may also have the right to make a complaint in relation to my processing of your personal data with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If you object to the processing of your personal data, or if you have provided your consent to processing and you later choose to withdraw it, I will respect that choice in accordance with my legal obligations. Your objection (or withdrawal of any previously given consent) could mean that I am unable to perform the actions necessary to achieve the purposes set out above (see ‘How I use your personal data’) or that you may not be able to make use of the legal services offered by me. Please note that even after you have chosen to withdraw your consent I may be able to continue to process your personal data to the extent required or otherwise permitted by law, in particular in connection with exercising and defending our legal rights or meeting our legal and
regulatory obligations.

I must ensure that your personal data is accurate and up to date. Therefore, please advise me of any changes to your data as soon as possible.

Enquiries, complaints & requests

All enquiries, complaints and requests relating to personal data should be directed to me by telephone (+44 7515 472 944 or +33 6 17 83 41 59),by post to 1 Hind Court,149 Fleet Street London EC4A 3DL, or by email to fbv@fbvfamilylaw.co.uk.

Policy updates

This policy was last updated on 05 May 2024. Any changes to this policy will be notified to you as promptly as possible in accordance with our legal obligations.