Lee Legal Group ABN: 86 073 636 058 (Lee Legal Group or we, us or our) deals with information privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set out in the Privacy Act.
This Privacy Policy sets out the Lee Legal Group’s policies in relation to collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information.
We generally collect your personal information directly from you, including when you engage the services of Lee Legal Group. However, in some cases, we may receive your personal information from a third party or when it is relevant to our statutory responsibilities (for instance other regulators or government entities who have dealt with you).
Without your personal information we may not be able to effectively represent you, perform our statutory functions or provide you with some or all our services.
What we collect
- Client/customer contact details, such as office address, home address, telephone numbers and email address.
- Information concerning matters (litigated and unlitigated) that we are engaged in.
- Financial information including client/customer banking details.
- Details about occupation and professional memberships.
In this Privacy Policy we refer to this as your personal information.
We collect and hold your personal information to:
Fulfil our functions and responsibilities under, and facilitate compliance with, the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) and the legal profession legislation (as defined in the Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014 (NSW), Professional Standards Legislation, the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), the Professional Standards Act 1994 (NSW) and associated regulations (which require and authorise us to collect certain information) including:
- providing you with requested services (generally legal services)
- Communication for billing
- Maintaining a database of clients and matters
- Responding to client enquires
- HR functions including recruitment
- Compliance with professional obligations such as conflict of interest checks.
Use and Disclosure of your personal information
We do not use your personal information or disclose it to another organisation unless:
- it is reasonably necessary for one of the purposes described above;
- having regard to the nature of the information or the circumstances of collection we believe you would expect us to use the information or make the disclosure;
- required or authorised by law or court or tribunal;
- it is necessary to protect the rights, property, health or personal safety of a legal practitioner or member, the public or our interests, and it is unreasonable or impracticable to obtain your consent;
- the disclosure is necessary to assist any entity, body or person to locate a person who has been reported missing;
- we have reason to suspect that unlawful activity, or misconduct of a serious nature, that relates to our functions or activities has been, is being or may be engaged in, and we believe that the collection, use or disclosure is necessary in order for us to take appropriate action;
- the assets and operations of our business are transferred to another party as a going concern;
- it is necessary to obtain third party services, for example to carry out data analysis or provide information processing services. The use of your information by third parties is strictly controlled;
- it is for one of the purposes expressly permitted under the Privacy Act; or
- you have provided your consent.
Storage and security of personal information
We take reasonable precautions to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Where practicable we implement measures to require organisations to whom disclosure is made to comply with the Privacy Act. If a third party is given access to personal information we take reasonable steps to ensure that the information is held securely and used only for the purpose of providing the relevant service or activity.
We have physical and information security policies and procedures that are followed to safeguard your information from inadvertent disclosure.
Rights to access and correction of your personal information
You have the right to access your personal information unless we are permitted by law to withhold that information. Any requests for access to your personal information should be made to the Lee Legal Group Privacy Officer (see below) in writing. You also have the right to request the correction of any of your personal information which is inaccurate. You are able to change, update or clear your profile and account settings at any time by logging into your account. If you wish to access personal information about you that is not available on or accessible from your profile or account settings, please contact Lee Legal Group in writing.
In some circumstances it may be appropriate and lawful for us to deny access, including if:
- we reasonably believe that giving access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or public safety;
- providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of another individual;
- the request is frivolous or vexatious;
- the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between you and us and the information would not be accessible by the process of legal discovery in those proceedings;
- giving access would reveal our intentions in relation to negotiations with you and prejudice those negotiations;
- we have reason to suspect that unlawful activity, or misconduct of a serious nature, relating to our functions or activities has been, is being or may be engaged in; and giving access would be likely to prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to the matter;
- providing access would be unlawful or if denying access is required or authorised under Australian law or a court/tribunal order;
- giving access would be likely to prejudice one or more enforcement related activities conducted by, or on behalf of, an enforcement body; or
- giving access would reveal evaluative information generated within the Lee Legal Group in connection with a commercially sensitive decision-making process.
Further information and complaints
If you require any further information about our management of personal information or have a complaint about our handling of your personal information, you should initially write to Lee Legal Group, who will respond to you within a reasonable time, usually 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint you may contact us further to advise of your concerns and, if we are unable to reach a satisfactory resolution you may write to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner for further review of your complaint.
Revisions to this Policy
LLG may update this Privacy Policy from time to time so please review it periodically for changes. If the changes are significant or substantive, they will either be advised to you in writing or otherwise communicated.
Your continued use of our services, requesting our assistance or the provision of further personal information to us (directly or via an authorised person) after this Privacy Policy has been revised, constitutes your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.