Privacy Notice

Who we are:

We are Thomas Barry & Company of 11 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, a law firm regulated by the Law Society of Ireland and the Legal Services Regulatory Authority. You can contact us at this address by post or by email at info@thomasbarry.ie.

We fully respect your right to privacy. Any personal information will be treated in accordance with the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force across the EU on 25 May 2018, and applicable law.

We have appointed a Data Protection Representative (“DPR”) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this data protection notice and our approach to privacy. If you have any questions about this data protection notice, including any request to exercise your legal rights, please contact the DPR using the details set out above.

By using our website, you are accepting the terms of this notice. Any external links to other websites are clearly identifiable as such, and we are not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of those websites.

Why we process your data, the lawful basis for processing your data and who we share it with

A. For our clients, we process data:

in order to provide you with legal advice
to assist you with legal claims or legal proceedings
to assist you with your legal rights
to comply with our legal obligations
for our legitimate business interests.

The legal basis for the processing of this data is processing necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, complying with our legal obligations and for our legitimate business interests. We ensure that there is a fair balance between our legitimate interest and your rights.

Where we process your information for our legitimate interests (including accounting, internal reporting, market research, to progress and respond to legal claims, to ensure appropriate IT security and to prevent fraud) our legitimate interest is the effective management of our business.

We may use your personal information to update you on legal developments, firm developments or to invite you to events that we feel may interest you in our legitimate interest to connect with our clients and to update our clients on services which we provide.

Processing of this data may include processing your personal data when an organisation with which you are connected is our client.

Where we process special categories of data relating to you, e.g. health data that we may process in connection with a legal claim where we are acting on your behalf, our legal basis for processing will be that the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

There may also be limited circumstances where our legal basis for processing is your consent (where we have sought it and you have provided it to us), in which case you can withdraw your consent at any time.

We may share this data as follows:

Third Party Service Providers: We may share your personal information with third party service providers that perform services and functions at our direction and on our behalf such as accountants, IT service providers, printers, debt collection agencies, business advisers, marketing companies who carry out marketing campaigns on our behalf and providers of security and administrative services.

Potential sale or merger of Thomas Barry & Company Solicitors: we may also transfer your personal information to law firms we plan to merge with or be acquired by.

An Garda Síochána, government bodies, or other government officials: we may share your personal information with An Garda Síochána, or other government bodies or agencies including but not limited to the Revenue Commissioners, where required to do so by law.

The Law Society and The Legal Services Regulatory Authority: we may share your personal information with the Law Society and/or the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, where required to do so by law.

Third Parties: We may provide your information to third parties to facilitate your instructions to us, such as lawyers, parties to any legal claim, parties with whom you have a legal issue or complaint and third parties who you instruct us to communicate with on your behalf.

Legal Directories: We may, with your consent, furnish your personal information to legal directories.

We will retain this data for a minimum period of 12.5 years from closure of the relevant matter, or for a period of 6.5 years after the client in question ceases to be our client. We retain the Personal Data so that we may comply with our obligations and duties as a law firm to protect our client’s interests, to protect our own interests as a law firm and as is required by legal and regulatory obligations to which we are subject.

B. For people who view and interact with our website, we process data:

to respond to your queries
to sign up to our newsletter when you request subscription
to comply with our legal obligations
for our legitimate business interests.

The legal basis for this processing is to comply with our legal obligations and our legitimate interest in the administration and operation of our legal services as well as our legitimate interest in marketing and promoting our firm’s legal services. We always include an unsubscribe button in our communications, so you can opt out of receiving such communications at any time.

We may share this data as follows:

Potential sale or merger of Thomas Barry & Company Solicitors: we may also transfer your personal information to law firms we plan to merge with or be acquired by.

An Garda Síochána, government bodies, or other government officials: we may share your personal information with an Gardaí, or other government bodies or agencies including but not limited to the Revenue Commissioners, where required to do so by law.

We will retain this data for the period necessary to satisfy any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

C. For our potential clients, we process data:

in order to market the services of our firm
to provide you with legal updates and newsletters to which you have subscribed
to comply with our legal obligations
for our legitimate business interests.

The legal basis for the processing of this data is to comply with our legal obligations and processing necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interests of our firm in promoting our services. We always include an unsubscribe button in our communications, so you can opt out of receiving such communications at any time.

We may share this data as follows:

Potential sale or merger of Thomas Barry & Company Solicitors: we may also transfer your personal information to law firms we plan to merge with or be acquired by.

We will retain this data for six years after collection or for such longer period as is necessary to satisfy any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

D. For service providers and potential service providers, solicitors, barristers and other advisers or representatives, we process data:

In order to liaise with you about our client matters
in order to liaise with you generally
to comply with our legal obligations
for our legitimate business interests.

The legal basis for the processing of this data is processing necessary to comply with our legal obligations, for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by our firm in representing our clients and for the purpose of the legitimate interests of our firm in promoting our services.

We may share this data as follows:

Potential sale or merger of Thomas Barry & Company Solicitors: we may also transfer your personal information to law firms we plan to merge with or be acquired by.

We will retain this data for six years after it has been last used or for such longer period as is necessary to satisfy any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

E. For job applicants to the firm, we process data:

to recruit new employees
to ascertain your suitability for a specific role
to comply with our legal obligations

The legal basis for this processing is processing necessary to comply with our legal obligations and for the purpose of the legitimate interests of our firm in recruiting new staff.

We share the information you provide in your application with our recruitment advisers in order to make a shortlist of candidates. This recruiter is not permitted to use this data other than on our behalf. We may also send you emails about your application through our email service provider.

We may also share this data as follows:

Potential sale or merger of Thomas Barry & Company Solicitors: we may also transfer your personal information to law firms we plan to merge with or be acquired by.

We will retain this data for six years after it has been last used or for such longer period as is necessary to satisfy any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

Personal Data we collect

Personal Data we collect may include as follows:

For clients and potential clients (including personnel connected with them):

your name;
your employer, your job title and/or position;
your contact details, including your address, email address and phone number;
documentation confirming your identity, such as your passport or driving licence;
your status as a director of a company;
your status as a beneficial owner of a company;
financial information, including information necessary to make or receive payments to and from you and for the purposes of fraud prevention;
details of your visits to Thomas Barry & Company and your correspondence, communications and connections with our staff;
special category Personal Data, specifically information regarding any disability or mobility or dietary requirements you might have, which we will only process on the basis of your consent;
publicly available information; and
any information which is provided to us by you or on your behalf.

For people who view and interact with our website:

the name of the domain and host from which you access the internet;
the internet protocol (IP) address of the computer which you are using;
the browser software you are using;
the operating system you are using; and
the date and time at which you are accessing the Website.

Thomas Barry & Company will also collect and process information about your interaction with our Website using cookies. For more information on how we use cookies, please see below.

For others:

your name;
your employer, your job title and/or position;
your contact details, including your address, email address and phone number;
CCTV footage, when you visit our premises;
our business activities and your areas of interest; and
information relating to your subscription to, receipt of or interest in any of our mailing lists or newsletters.

Personal Date which you provide to us

It is your responsibility to ensure that all Personal Data you provide us with is complete, accurate and up-to-date in all respects and not misleading. Our ability to provide our advice and services, and the quality thereof, may be negatively affected if you fail to do so.

You may provide Personal Data about yourself or about other people to us during the course of our dealings with you. Whenever you provide us with Personal Data about another person, you must ensure that you are entitled to disclose the Personal Data relating to that other person to us and that we may process that Personal Data in accordance with this Privacy Notice without having to take any further steps. It is your responsibility to ensure that the person concerned is aware of the content of this Privacy Notice.

Transfers of data outside the European Economic Area

We may transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area. These countries do not always afford an equivalent level of privacy protection and in such circumstances we take specific steps, in accordance with data protection law and to protect your personal information. In particular, for transfers of personal data, outside the EEA where there is no adequacy decision by the European Commission we may rely on contractual protection approved by the European Commission.

Your rights relating to personal data

You have the following rights under the GDPR, in certain circumstances and subject to certain exemptions, 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 that we hold about you. This is sometimes referred to as the right to be forgotten.
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.
right to data portability – you have the right to request us to provide you, or a third party, with a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used machine readable format.

In order to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at the contact details at the start of this privacy notice.

If we are processing personal data based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing which took place prior to its withdrawal.

If you are unhappy with how we process personal data, we ask you to contact us so that we can address the situation.

You may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The Irish supervisory authority is the Data Protection Commission.

We use industry standard security measures to protect your information and to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of any information in our control in so far as is practicable. No physical or electronic security system is entirely secure and we cannot ensure that all of your personally identifiable information provided via our website will never be accessed.

Security of Your Data

We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to collate aggregate information. This is statistical data about how you browse our website. In this website we use Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses cookies and web beacons in connection with the services it provides.

Information about your general Internet usage may be obtained by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. Web beacons may also be used and these facilitate the transfer of data from our website to the Google Analytics website. Cookies and web beacons help us to improve our website and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They may be used to enable us to:

Information collected may be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of the website or be unable to avail of any of our services. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, cookies will issue when you log on to our website.

Updates

We may update this data protection notice from time to time at our sole discretion. You should check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they will be binding on you.