privacy policy.

Introduction

We are committed to protecting the personal information that we collect, use and disclose in the course of providing legal services and operating our law firm, in accordance with all applicable regulatory requirements, including applicable privacy legislation, and consistent with our professional obligations. As practicing lawyers we have professional and ethical obligations to maintain information we have received within our client relationships in confidence. This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, use, and disclose the personal information of our clients, other individuals and our web site visitors (“you”).

Personal Information

Personal information means information about an identifiable individual. In general, personal information does not include business contact information that we use to contact you in your business capacity, including your name, title or position, business, telephone or facsimile number.

Accountability and Privacy Governance Policies and Procedures

We are responsible under applicable privacy legislation for the personal information in our possession or control. We have appointed a Privacy Officer to oversee privacy matters for our firm. Our Privacy Officer can be reached in the Contact  Us section below.

We are committed to protecting personal information and have established policies and procedures that govern our treatment of personal information. These policies and procedures include, among other things, the following:

• We have implemented policies and procedures to protect personal information in our custody and control from unauthorized access, use or disclosure.

• We have implemented processes to respond to data subject requests and complaints in a timely and effective manner.

• We have implemented a privacy framework that defines the roles and responsibilities for our employees with respect to the treatment of personal information.

Means of Collection of Personal Information

In most cases, we collect personal information directly from individuals. However, we may also receive information indirectly such as background screenings for job applicants. We also collect personal information through automatic means through our Websites as described below.  

What Personal Information Do We Collect and Use?

Provision of Legal Services: We collect, uses and discloses personal information for the primary purpose of providing our clients with professional legal services and representation, including for the following purposes:

• to establish and manage client relationships, provide legal advice, perform legal services, fulfil legal duties (including Know Your Client obligations), and avoid legal conflicts of interest;

• to share personal information with third parties for the purpose of providing legal services in the context of legal proceedings, including conducting litigation, arbitrations, mediations or other proceedings. Such third parties may include opposing parties, parties in interest, opposing, foreign and other counsel and advisors, witnesses, courts, adjudicators, arbitrators, other decision-makers and experts;

• to represent clients in the context of business transactions involving the exchange or disclosure of personal information, including by purchase, sale, lease, merger, amalgamation, arrangement or any other type of acquisition, disposition, public offering, securitization, investment, financing or other transaction;

• to establish and maintain commercial relationships with clients, suppliers and other third parties, including to issue invoices, administer accounts, collect and process payments, evaluate credit standing, and to fulfil contractual obligations;

• to contact and communicate with clients and other individuals for the purpose of conducting market research, and evaluating client service and satisfaction;

• to maintain, develop and manage our information systems, such as file transfer, e-discovery, document management, knowledge-management, and precedent systems and databases;

• to detect and protect against error, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, theft and other illegal activity, and where necessary to meet our insurance requirements;

• to develop and manage our business and operations; and

• as permitted by, and to comply with, applicable legal or regulatory requirements or provisions.

We keep records of the work performed and services provided by us in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements and professional standards. These records may include personal information. Our records are stored with safeguards against inappropriate or unauthorized access (see Safeguards).

We may ask you to update your personal information, contact information or preferences from time to time. Clients are encouraged to contact the lead lawyer on their file to update the personal information we maintain in our client files.

Events, Publications, Seminars: If you sign up to attend an event or receive a publication or other information, we collect your first and last name, email address, preferred language, job title, company, city, province/state, and country in order to send you newsletters and event information. 

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link included at the bottom of each email. Please note that you may continue to receive required legal services-related or account-related communications from us.

Consent

We will obtain a client’s consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information about the client, and the consent of other individuals where required by applicable privacy legislation. We assume that an individual has consented to our reasonable collection and use of personal information consistent with the purposes for which the information was given, when the individual initiates contact with us or voluntarily provides personal information to us. We also assume that clients who retain us, or individuals involved in proceedings or matters opposite or adverse to our clients, consent to the reasonable collection, use and disclosure of their personal information by our professionals and agents for purposes of our representation or provision of legal advice to our clients and the conduct of the transactions or proceedings involving our clients. If you provide us with personal information about a third party, we rely on you to obtain all necessary consents to permit us to collect, use and disclose the personal information for the purposes for which the information was collected and as set out in this Privacy Policy.

We do not collect, use or disclose personal information without consent unless authorized or required by law to do so, such as in the following circumstances:

• if a client provides personal information about third parties to us for purposes of our legal representation or advice to the client;

• where a court order or subpoena is issued, or under applicable rules of production, a regulatory or other body with jurisdiction to compel production so requires;

• when the information is publicly available within the meaning of applicable privacy legislation, such as in professional or other directories, in public registries, publicly-filed court records or information appearing in published form;

• if we are investigating the breach of an agreement, a legal duty or contravention of a law and obtaining consent would compromise the investigation or the accuracy of the information;

• if we are required to disclose personal information to a lawful authority; or as otherwise authorized by law.

Sharing of Personal Information

Legal services: We may share personal information with third parties for the purpose of providing legal services such as in the context of legal proceedings, including conducting litigation, arbitrations, mediations or other proceedings. Such third parties may include opposing parties, parties in interest, opposing, foreign and other counsel and advisors, witnesses, courts, adjudicators, arbitrators, other decision-makers and experts.

Service Providers: We rely on affiliated and unaffiliated companies, agents and contractors to assist us with the provision of our services, including: hosting our data; providing billing support; document storage; software support; delivering webinars; sending our communications; conducting background checks; managing job applicants; and facilitating secure file transfers.

We provide our service providers with access to your personal information as  necessary for them to provide services to us. We require our service providers to protect the confidentiality and security of personal information and our service providers are not authorized to use personal information for other purposes. 

Legal Requirements:  We or our third-party service providers may disclose personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order, to other organizations in the case of investigating a breach of an agreement or contravention of law or detecting, suppressing or preventing fraud, or as otherwise required or permitted by applicable Canadian, US or other law (which may include lawful access by Canadian, US or other foreign governmental authorities, regulators, courts or law enforcement agencies in the jurisdictions in which we or our service providers operate). 

Business Transactions: Personal information may be disclosed where necessary in connection with a prospective or completed sale of assets, merger or other corporate restructuring.

Transfer of Personal Information

Client data is stored and processed in Canada and the United States; however, we and our service providers (including affiliates) may otherwise access, store and otherwise process non-client personal information outside of Canada or the United States, including in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other foreign jurisdictions.

Safeguards

We have implemented reasonable administrative, technical and physical measures in an effort to safeguard the personal information in our custody and control against theft, loss and unauthorized access, use, modification and disclosure.

Your Choices

If you have signed up to receive our email communications, you can unsubscribe any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link included at the bottom of the email. 

Opting out of ‘interest-based advertising’ and to understand your options, please visit the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada website at: http://youradchoices.ca/choices 

Please note that even if you opt-out of interest-based advertising by a third party, these tracking technologies may still collect data for other purposes including analytics and you may still see ads, but the ads may be less relevant to you and your interests.

For more information about Google Analytics or to prevent the storage and processing of this data (including your IP address) by Google, you can download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout 

You can also withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. 

Updates to the Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes to our privacy practices.  We encourage you to periodically review this page to ensure you are familiar with those changes. We will indicate at the top of this privacy policy when it was most recently updated.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, complaints or comments about this privacy policy or the manner in which we or our service providers treat your personal information, or to request access to our collection of your personal information, please contact us by filling the ‘Contact’ form on this website.