We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and 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 in the event you have a complaint.
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 (UK GDPR). We are also subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) in relation to services we offer to individuals and our wider operations in the European Economic Area (EEA).
| We, us, our | Maher & Co Solicitors |
| Our Data Protection Officer | Munir Younus – myounus@maherandco.com |
| Personal data | Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual |
| Special category personal data | Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership; genetic and biometric data (when processed to uniquely identify an individual); data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation |
| Data subject | The individual who the personal data relates to |
We will or may collect personal data in the course of providing legal services. This may include special category personal data. We collect and use this personal data to provide legal services. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing those services.
Personal data we will collect includes your name, address and telephone number; information to enable us to check and verify your identity, such as your date of birth or passport details; electronic contact details such as your email address and mobile phone number; and information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation. Depending on why you have instructed us, we may also collect information to enable us to undertake credit or other financial checks, and your financial information.
We collect most of this information from you, directly or via our secure online client portal. However, we may also collect information:
Under data protection law, we can only use personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.:
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use personal data, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.
| What we use personal data for | Our reasons |
|---|---|
| To provide legal services to our clients | For the performance of our contract with our client or to take steps at our client’s request before entering into a contract |
| Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity; screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes; other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g. 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 for you at the best price |
| Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information; to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price |
| Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity; to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Updating and enhancing client records | For the performance of our contract with you; to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; for our legitimate interests, e.g. making sure that we can keep in touch with our clients |
| Statutory returns | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; for our legitimate interests |
| Marketing our services to existing and former clients, and third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to promote our business to existing and former clients |
| Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies | For our legitimate interests, i.e. for credit control |
| External audits and quality checks | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to maintain our accreditations; to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Under data protection law, we can only use special category personal data where we have a proper reason for doing so, and one of the ‘grounds’ for using special category personal data applies.
Generally, where we use special category personal data, we will do so on the ground that this is necessary for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims. This includes using special category personal data, where necessary, for actual or prospective court proceedings; obtaining legal advice; or establishing, exercising or defending legal rights in any other way. Where this does not apply, we will seek explicit consent.
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services.
We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for promotional purposes. This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.
We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and will never sell or share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by contacting us by email, or by using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails or ‘STOP’ number in texts.
We routinely share personal data with professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts; other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, e.g. Companies House; credit reference agencies; our insurers and brokers; external auditors; our bank; and external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient.
We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.
We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
We may also need to share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
We will not share your personal data with any other third party.
We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons: to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf; to show that we treated you fairly; or to keep records required by law.
We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.
To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (EEA), for example with service providers located outside the EEA, if you are based outside the EEA, or where there is an international dimension to the matter in which we are advising you.
These transfers are subject to special rules under UK and European data protection law. Where a country has not been recognised as providing an adequate level of protection, we will ensure the transfer complies with data protection law and that all personal data remains secure. Our standard practice is to use standard data protection contract clauses approved for this purpose.
If you would like further information please contact our Data Protection Officer.
| 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 |
| 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 circumstances, e.g. 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), and in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data |
| 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 |
You can exercise these rights free of charge. If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please email, call or write to our Data Protection Officer, and:
We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place 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 legally required to do so.
For detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org.
We hope that our Data Protection Officer can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.
Data protection law also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office, which may be contacted at ico.org.uk/concerns or on 0303 123 1113.
This privacy policy was published on 5 July 2022 and last reviewed in 2026. We may change this privacy policy from time to time; when we do, we will inform you via email or letter.
| Our contact details | Our Data Protection Officer |
|---|---|
| Maher & Co Solicitors 19 York Road, Maidenhead, SL6 1SQ Tel: 01628 675239 Fax: 01628 638838 Email: info@maherandco.com |
Munir Younus Email: myounus@maherandco.com Mobile: 07956 443604 |
Please note we are no longer on the DX.
Maher & Co Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA number 670579.
