Legal Notices

Privacy Policy for Clients

We are committed to protecting the privacy of our clients’ personal information. If you are a client, we may collect, use and disclose your personal information in connection with legal services provided to you or to clients that you are associated with (for example, as an officer, director, employee or agent or a corporate client), or in association with marketing our services to you.

“Personal Information” is information about an identifiable individual, but does not include the name, title or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. The categories of personal information that we may collect, use and disclose will vary from case to case but may include your name, e-mail address, age, mailing address, residential phone number, personal history (including financial and credit information), billing history, personal health information, personal family and relationship matters, personal information related to corporate relationships and activities, and work experience.

We will collect your Personal Information by fair and lawful means, including retainer agreements, correspondence, emails, faxes and telephone discussions. We may collect Personal Information from you directly or from third parties acting as agents where we have obtained your consent to do so (for example, from another lawyer or professional service provider acting for you or from your employer or business partner) or as otherwise permitted by law.

We will use your Personal Information to provide legal services to you, your company or your organization, to issue invoices and to maintain business records for our practice. We may also use your personal information to communicate with you about developments in the law and to market our services.

We will limit our collection, use and disclosure of personal information to that required to provide the requested legal services and as otherwise described in this Policy.

We will generally not disclose your Personal Information to any third party without your consent unless permitted or required to do so by applicable law. Such circumstances may include where we are required to do so by a court order or subpoena, where the information is already on the public record and the disclosure is directly related to the purposes for which it was recorded on the public record, or where it is necessary to collect fees. Your consent to our disclosure of your personal information will be implied in certain circumstances, for example where we must provide it to a third party (including government agencies) in connection with the legal services being offered to you. We may also disclose your personal information to our service providers (e.g. those who provide accounting, secretarial or information technology services), but will ensure that our contracts with them impose the same obligations as we have, to protect the confidentiality of your personal information. However, please note that where services are provided in other jurisdictions such as the United States, your personal information may be subject to the laws of those jurisdictions and as such may become accessible to government officials there, without your knowledge or consent. We will notify you of such circumstances where we become aware of them and where we are permitted to do so by applicable law.

It is important we have accurate and current Personal Information for you. When there is any change in your Personal Information, please provide it to us. You have a right to know that we have accurate and complete Personal Information. Contact us (as noted below) to obtain information about the Personal Information we have on record and to make any changes.

We may keep a record of your Personal Information, including correspondence and other documents in the applicable client file. We will use, disclose or retain your Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected and as required or otherwise permitted by law. We will establish minimum and maximum retention periods and procedures for maintaining and destroying your Personal Information.

We are committed to protecting the security of Personal Information. We use security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of Personal Information to protect it from loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. These safeguards include physical measures, such as restricted access to offices and equipment, organizational measures, such as the creation of this Privacy Policy and the use of passwords.

For any inquiries about your Personal Information, please contact Carol Anne O’Brien at caob@caobrienlaw.com or (416) 640-7270.