Privacy Policy
We take your privacy seriously. Please take the time to read this privacy policy as it contains important information on who we are, as well as how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities if you have a complaint.
This privacy policy does not apply to any third party websites that may have links to our own website.
Our clients should read this policy alongside our T&Cs of Business found in our Engagement Letter, which provide further information on confidentiality.
Who we are and what we do
XVO Legal is the trading name of XVO Legal Ltd: a limited company incorporated in England and Wales under company number 13267909 and registered at The Old Post Office, 1533 Pershore Road, Birmingham, B30 2JH. XVO Legal Ltd is part of the XVO Group.
We are a legal services provider, not a law firm, and we are not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (the “SRA”). As we do not provide reserved legal services (as defined by the SRA), we are not required to be regulated by the SRA. Our sole director and lawyer, Sam Walkley, is regulated by the SRA in his individual capacity as a solicitor.
We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so, we are subject to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (the “UK GDPR”).
Our website is not aimed at children. We do not provide our services to any person under the age of 18.
Key terms
Here is an explanation of some of the key terms used in this policy:
- “we”, “us” and “our” means XVO Legal Ltd and our group companies;
- “personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual;
- “special category personal data” means personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership; genetic data; biometric data (where used for identification purposes); and data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation; and
- “data subject” means the individual who the personal data relates to.
Personal data we collect about you
The table below sets out the personal data we will or may collect in the course of providing services to you:
Personal data we will collect | Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us |
Your name Electronic contact details, such as your email address and telephone number Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions Information about your use of our IT, communication and other systems, and other monitoring information | Your address Your National Insurance and tax details Your bank and/or building society details Details of your professional online presence, such as your LinkedIn profile Your employment status and details Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs |
We collect and use this personal data to provide our services to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing those services.
How your personal data is collected
We collect most of the above information from you. However, we may also collect information:
- from publicly available sources, such as Companies House;
- directly from a third party;
- from a third party with your consent; or
- via our website – we use cookies and similar technologies on our website (for more information on cookies, please our Cookie Policy).
How and why we use personal data
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason, such as:
- you have given consent – where we need your consent, we will ask for it separately outside of this privacy policy and you can withdraw consent at any time;
- to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
- to fulfil our contract with you or take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
- for our legitimate interests or those of a third party.
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal data, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We will carry out an assessment when relying on legitimate interests, to balance our interests against your own. You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests. We must then stop the processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds which override your interests, rights and freedoms or the processing is required to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
The table below explains what we use your personal data for and why:
What we use your personal data for | Our reasons |
Providing services to you | To fulfil our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
Preventing and detecting fraud against you or us | For our and/or your legitimate interests; i.e.to minimise fraud that could be damaging for you and/or us |
Activities necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business | Depending on the circumstances: · to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations · for our legitimate interests |
To enforce legal rights or defend or take legal proceedings | Depending on the circumstances: · to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations · for our legitimate interests |
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies | Depending on the circumstances: · to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations · for our legitimate interests |
Ensuring internal business policies are complied with, such as policies covering security and internet use | For our legitimate interests; i.e. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you |
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control | For our legitimate interests; i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price |
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information | Depending on the circumstances: · for our legitimate interests; i.e. to protect trade secrets and other commercially valuable information · to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, such as in relation to our financial performance, client base, services range or other efficiency measures | For our legitimate interests; i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price |
Protecting the security of systems and data used to provide services, preventing unauthorised access and changes to our systems | Depending on the circumstances: · for our legitimate interests; i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us · to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Updating and enhancing client records | Depending on the circumstances: · to fulfil our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract · to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations · for our legitimate interests, such as making sure we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services |
Statutory returns | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments | Depending on the circumstances: · to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations · for our legitimate interests, such as to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you |
Marketing our services to existing and former clients and third parties | Depending on the circumstances: · for our legitimate interests; i.e. to promote our business · consent |
To share your personal data with members of our group and third parties that will or may take control or ownership of some or all of our business (and professional advisors acting on our or their behalf) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale or in the event of our insolvency In such cases, information will be anonymised where possible and only shared where necessary | Depending on the circumstances: · to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations · in other cases, for our legitimate interests; i.e. to protect, realise or grow the value in our business and assets |
Where we process special category personal data, we will also ensure we are permitted to do so under data protection laws.
Marketing
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, WhatsApp, phone, post or social media channels) about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services.
We have a legitimate interest in using your personal data for marketing purposes. This means we do not usually need your consent to send you marketing information. Where this is not the case, we will always ask for your consent.
In all cases, you have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by contacting us at sam@xvolegal.co.uk. We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation or the structure of our business.
We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell it to, or share it with, other organisations outside the XVO Group for marketing purposes.
Who we share your personal data with
We routinely share personal data with:
- companies within the XVO Group;
- third parties we use to help deliver our services to you, such as IT service providers (including cloud service providers such as data storage platforms) and financial institutions in connection with invoicing and payments;
- third party external advisors or experts engaged in the course of providing services to you, such as specialist counsel, barristers, tax advisors and technology service providers;
- other third parties we use to help promote our business, such as marketing agencies;
- our insurers and brokers; and
- our bank.
We only allow those organisations to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We ensure all outsourcing providers operate under service agreements that are consistent with our legal and professional obligations, including in relation to confidentiality.
We or the third parties mentioned above may occasionally also share personal data with:
- our and their external auditors, such as in relation to the audit of our or their accounts, in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations;
- our and their professional advisors (such as lawyers and other advisors), in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations;
- law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; and
- other parties that have or may acquire control or ownership of our business (and our or their professional advisers) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition or asset sale or in the event of our insolvency – usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible and the recipient of any of your personal data will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please contact us.
Where your personal data is held
Personal data may be held at our offices and those of our group companies, third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents.
Some of these third parties may be based outside the UK.
How long your personal data will be kept
We will not keep your personal data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it was collected or as required by law.
As a general rule, we will keep your personal data for at least six years from the conclusion of your matter, in case you, or we, need to bring or defend any complaints or claims.
Following the end of the of the relevant retention period, we will delete or anonymise your personal data.
Transferring your personal data abroad
It is sometimes necessary for us to transfer your personal data to countries outside the UK. This may include countries which do not provide the same level of protection of personal data as the UK.
We will transfer your personal data outside the UK only where:
- the UK government has decided the recipient country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an adequacy decision);
- there are appropriate safeguards in place (such as standard contractual data protection clauses published or approved by the relevant data protection regulator), together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you; or
- a specific exception applies under data protection law.
You can contact us if you would like a list of countries benefiting from a UK adequacy decision or for any other information about protection of personal data when it is transferred abroad.
Your rights
You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
Right | Details |
Access | The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data |
Rectification | The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data |
Erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten) | The right to require us to delete your personal data – in certain situations |
Restriction of processing | The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data – in certain situations, such as if you contest the accuracy of the data |
Data portability | The right to receive the personal data you provided to us in a structured, commonly-used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party – in certain situations |
To object | The right to object · at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling) · in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, such as processing carried out for our legitimate interests unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests or for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims |
Not to be subject to automated individual decision making | The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you |
The right to withdraw consent | If you have provided us with consent to use your personal data, you have a right to withdraw that consent at any time Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of our use of your personal data in reliance on that consent before it was withdrawn |
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
- email, call or write to us using the details provided below in the ‘How to contact us’ section;
- provide enough information to identify yourself, such as your full name, email address and any additional identity information we may reasonably request from you; and
- let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.
Keeping your personal data secure
We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your personal data confidential and secure from unauthorised access, use and disclosure. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your personal data will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We require our business partners, suppliers and other third parties to implement appropriate security measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, use and disclosure.
We also have procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are required to do so.
How to complain
Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal data.
You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner (the UK data protection regulator). Please contact us if you would like further information.
Changes to this privacy policy
This privacy policy was published on 1st October 2023 and is the first version.
We may change this privacy policy from time to time. When we do, we will publish the updated version on our website and ask for your consent to the changes to the extent legally required.
Updating your personal data
We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal data remains accurate and up to date. To help us with this, please let us know if any of the personal data you have provided to us has changed, such as your surname or address.
How to contact us
You can contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you, to exercise a right under data protection law or to make a complaint.
Our contact details are shown below:
Address: XVO Legal Ltd
The Old Post Office
1533 Pershore Road
Birmingham
B30 2JH
Email: sam@xvolegal.co.uk
Phone: 07999 779 152
Do you need extra help?
If you would like this policy in another format (such as audio or braille), please contact us.
