Processing of data in connection with a practice closure

We are the Law Society of Ireland of Blackhall Place, Dublin 7, Ireland (the “Law Society”, “we”, “us”, “our”). We are the educational, representative and regulatory body of the solicitors' profession in Ireland.

We take our responsibilities under applicable data protection law, including the General Data Protection Regulation and implementing legislation such as the Data Protection Act 2018, very seriously. The purpose of this notice is to inform you of the data relating to you that we may collect and use in connection with the closure of a solicitor’s practice (a “Practice Closure”) and the uses (including disclosures to third parties) we may make of such data.

The Law Society is the controller of this personal data. If you have any questions about our use of your personal data, please contact us at dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie.

Personal data that we collect and process

We will collect and process personal data relating to you in connection with a Practice Closure.

In the event of a Practice Closure, the Law Society will take possession of files, title deeds, wills and correspondence relating to you (“Documents”) for safekeeping.

We will also collect personal data from you in connection with a Practice Closure. This personal data may include:

• your name and contact details, including your address including the post code, your phone number and email address;

• details of any person who has a prior title or claim on the Documents;

• where relevant, details of the solicitor you have instructed to take up the Documents from the Law Society; any other personal data which you provide to us directly e.g. death certificates.

Purposes of processing and legal basis

We will use personal data relating to you for the purposes of:

• communicating with you, or your solicitor, in relation to a Practice Closure;

• providing you, or your solicitor, with your Documents;

• complying with our own legal and regulatory obligations;

• processing communications with third parties.

• the legal basis on which we collect, process and transfer your information are:

• to ensure the proper management and functioning of the Law Society by our legitimate interests in regulating the solicitors’ profession in Ireland;

• to fulfil the Society’s legal and regulatory obligations;

• to process and transfer special categories of data relating to you, to the extent that your documents contain special categories of personal data;

• to comply with the Solicitors Acts 1954-2015; and

• not to process your personal data if to do so would constitute an unwarranted interference with your own interests, rights and freedoms.

To the extent that your documents contain personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences, the legal bases on which we collect, process and transfer personal data are authorised by law under the Solicitors Acts 1954 – 2015 [Section 19 Solicitors (Amendment) Act, 1960 as substituted by Section 27 of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act, 1994].

Certain power is also give to the Society to deal with the documents of certain solicitors.

Recipients of data

We may disclose your personal data to other organisations in connection with the above purposes, including:

• to the solicitor about whom you are making your Compensation Claim;

• to third parties who we engage to provide services or benefits to us, or to you, such as professional advisers, financial institutions, the Property Registration Authority, the Courts Service, the Criminal Assets Bureau or the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation ;

• to competent regulatory authorities and other bodies where requested or required by law;

Requirement to provide data

You are not under a statutory or contractual duty to provide us with any personal data. However, there are some pieces of information that you must provide us with, such as a sworn Statutory Declaration (Declaration of Client) so that we can provide you or your solicitor with your Documents.

If you do not provide us with this Declaration of Client, we may not be able to provide you with your Documents. Please be aware that the Law Society does not store Documents indefinitely and any Documents not taken up will be destroyed in due course. We do not however destroy original deeds or will.

Retention

We will not hold your data for longer than is necessary. We may retain your personal data for the duration of your relationship with the Law Society and for such period of time thereafter as is necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Transfers abroad

In relation to your personal data, we might transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area, including to a jurisdiction which is not recognised by the European Commission but which provides an equivalent level of protection for personal data as is provided for in the European Union.

If and to the extent that we do so, we will ensure that appropriate measures are in place to comply with our obligations under applicable law governing such transfers – which may include entering into a contract governing the transfer that contains the ‘standard contractual clauses’ approved for this purpose by the European Commission. If you would like to receive further details of the measures that we have taken in this regard, please contact us at dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie.

Your rights

You have the following rights, in certain circumstances and subject to certain restrictions, in relation to your personal data:

• Right to access the data – You have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, together with other information about our processing of that personal data.

• Right to rectification – You have the right to request that any inaccurate data that is held about you is corrected, or if we have incomplete information you, may request that we update the information such that it is complete.

• Right to erasure – You have the right to request us to delete personal data (this is sometimes referred to as the right to be forgotten) that we hold about you.

• Right to restriction of processing or to object to processing – You have the right to request that we no longer process your personal data for particular purposes, or to object to our processing of your personal data for particular purposes.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie.

Changes to this policy

We may review this policy from time to time and any changes will be notified to you by posting an up-to-date version of this policy on the Society’s website. We recommend that you regularly check for changes and review this policy whenever you visit our website. 

Complaints

If you have any queries or complaints in connection with our processing of your personal data, you can contact us at dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission if you are not happy with the way we have used your information or addressed your rights. Details of how to lodge a complaint can be found on the Data Protection Commissioner website or you can call the Data Protection Commission at 353 (0)761 104 800.