This Notice is primarily for the benefit of our clients or potential clients or for related third parties whose data we may process as part of the provision of legal services. We maintain and will provide separate privacy notices in relation to the collection and use of personal information about our staff and employees, including potential employees, during and after their working relationship with us.
This firm processes your data in accordance with the terms of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (as amended by the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019) and the relevant provisions relating to the General Data Protection Regulation contained within the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (UK GDPR).
The terms ‘personal data’, ‘data controller, ‘data processor’ and ‘data subject’ are as defined in the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR.
This Data & Privacy Notice explains, in detail, the types of personal data we may collect about you when you interact with us. It also explains how we will store and handle that data and keep it safe. Unless otherwise indicated, references in this Data and Privacy Notice to the GDPR refer to the UK GDPR.
We know that there’s a lot of information here, but we want you to be fully informed about your rights, and how our firm uses your data. We hope the following sections will answer any questions you have but if not, please do get in touch with us.
Conditions for Processing Data
We are only entitled to hold and process your data where the law allows us to. The current law on data protection (Article 6 GDPR) sets out a number of different reasons for which a law firm may collect and process your personal data. These include:
Contractual Obligations
The main purpose for our holding your data is to provide you with legal services under the agreement we have with you. This agreement is a contract between us and the law allows us to process your data for the purposes of performing a contract (or for the steps necessary to enter into a contract).
Legitimate Interests
In specific situations, we require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way which might reasonably be expected as part of running our business, and which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests. This may include to satisfy our external quality auditors or our Regulators. Should we identify a need to use this processing basis, we will have ensured that our use of personal data is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests we have identified and that this processing has been balance against the interests of the data subject whose information we need to use.
Recognised Legitimate Interests
In some circumstances, we may need to process your data for the purposes that do not relate to our core functions but because there is a recognised legitimate interest and the data processing is in the public interest. This may include:
Where data processing is based on recognised legitimate interest, we would not conduct a balancing exercise of legitimate interest assessment.
Legal Compliance
If the law requires us to, we may need to collect and process your data. For example, we can pass on details of people involved in fraud or other criminal activity.
Consent
In some situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent. For example, when you tick a box to receive email newsletters. When collecting your personal data, we’ll always make clear to you which data is necessary in connection with a particular service.
When do we collect your data?
We normally collect your data when you provide it to us or when it is provided to us by others (your opponent’s solicitors for example) during your case. You may give us your data by email,; through an online web form,; over the telephone,; face to face; or by post.
We also collect data automatically with regard to each of your visits to our website including technical information.
What sort of data do we collect?
Information you provide to us
You voluntarily give us your personal information for instance when:
Where we request information from you, we will collect the information set out in the relevant web pages, or as explained to you over the telephone or face to face.
Client Services
We may collect personal data as follows:
We may gather details of your age, ethnicity, gender etc.
We also collect and hold information about your case or legal problem.
Depending on the circumstances of their legal matters, for some clients, we may have access to or process special category data including:
In addition to contract lawful condition for processing under Article 6 of the GDPR (see above), Article 9(2)(f) of the GDPR) permits us to process this data where it is necessary for, connected to and/or or relates to legal claims including for the purposes of assisting with legal proceedings, obtaining legal advice and/or establishing, exercising or defending legal rights. We will only process this specific data if it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend a client’s legal rights. We will ensure that the use of this data is relevant and proportionate and that we do not hold any more data than is needed. All such data is processed in line with the commitments and policies within this Privacy Notice.
Website or third party sources
We collect certain related technical information including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, logs (including, where available, the IP address and location of the device connecting to the online services and other technical information and identifiers about the device and the nature of the visit such as clickstream to, through and from our website) and other communication data, and the resources that you use.
On occasions, we acquire information from other companies, to collect information about how visitors to our website use the site. Information is also collected about how you arrived at our websites in the first place, including what links or adverts you have viewed or clicked on to reach us, or any search terms you have used. We do this to maintain and improve our website, getting a better understanding of visitor and client profiles and ultimately delivering a better experience. Information may be collected through the use of cookies or pixels.
How do we use your data?
Provision of Services
We only use your data for the purposes of providing you with legal advice, assistance and where appropriate, representation and for reasons directly associated with those services (i.e. providing information to quality auditors etc.).
In particular:
Regulatory
We also use data to communicate with our regulators or legislators and to obey laws, regulations and codes of conduct that apply to us.
For example, we will process your data to enable us to identify and/or verify your identity and conduct fraud, credit and anti-money laundering checks in accordance with anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing legislation and regulation.
Consent
We may use your data to notify you of our other services but only where we have your consent to do so.
Website Enhancement and Business Development
We also use data to develop our business and services. In particular:
Cookies
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
By law, some cookies such as those that collect data for statistical purposes and appearance cookies that adapt appearance of the website (such as by changing the language to suit your preferences), may be placed on your computer without your permission. We will however provide a simple opt-out mechanism.
Other cookies may not be placed on your computer without your consent, unless they are strictly necessary to the operation of the service that we provide on the website.
There are two types of cookies you will encounter on this site, first party and third party.
First party cookies are our own. They are controlled by us and used to identify a user session. They expire at the end of your session, and no personal information is gathered.
Third party cookies are those that are used to enhance the experience on our site using other companies’ tools. For example, Google Analytics and Facebook have their own cookies that are controlled by them.
Should users wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from the firm’s website onto their computer’s hard drive, they should take necessary steps within their web browser’s security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.
Lawson West does not use any non-essential first party cookies on their website.
We use Google Analytics to monitor how our website is being used so we can make improvements. Our use of Google Analytics requires us to pass to Google your IP address (but no other information) – Google uses this information to prepare site usage reports for us, but Google may also share this information with other Google services. In particular, Google may use the data collected to contextualise and personalise the ads of its own advertising network. Related information:
When you respond to a sponsored Google Adwords link or view pages from our website linked to a Google Pay Per Click campaign, your mobile phone number may be retained by Google and shared with Lawson West. This helps us to identify if you are an existing client of the firm.
If you complete a website Contact Us enquiry form, the data you submit is held on our website content management system and marketing database, including your marketing preferences to opt-in or opt-out. This helps us to ensure you are not contacted if you choose to opt-out.
Information about how to opt-out of this cookie can be found at http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html
It is usually possible to configure a web browser not to store, or to store only specific types of cookies. Details of using cookies may be found at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.
If you have any queries about the cookies that we use, or would like more information, please contact jhatcher@lawson-west.co.uk.
Artificial Intelligence
In order to provide an optimum service to our clients, under the agreement we have with you to provide legal services, we may utilise technology which uses artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, we may use AI for the following:
However, we aim to take steps to ensure that we remain fully accountable and our use of AI technology is safe, secure and compliant with data protection legislation as well as the professional rules that govern our work.
In addition to adhering to the data processing principles in the UK GDPR including fairness and accuracy, we also seek to evaluate and improve the ‘statistical accuracy’ of data generated by any AI system. Statistical accuracy refers to the accuracy of an AI system itself. Any AI system we use needs to be sufficiently statistically accurate to ensure that any personal data generated by it is processed lawfully and fairly.
In many cases, the outputs of an AI system are not intended to be treated as factual information about an individual. Instead, they are intended to represent a statistically informed guess as to something which may be true about the individual now or in the future. To avoid such personal data being misinterpreted as factual, we seek to ensure that the records generated by an AI tool indicate:
Wherever possible, we will ensure any factors that may result in inaccuracies in personal data are corrected and the risk of errors is minimised.
We seek to apply enhanced and comprehensive security whenever AI is implemented. Personal data will only be processed through an AI tool where we have conducted a data protection impact assessment and are assured that we can put in place practical steps to mitigate any risks and adequately maintain and protect confidentiality and privacy.
Automated decision making
Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention.
We do not currently use automated decision making and would notify you in writing in advance were this this position to ever change.
Where all parties consent, we may use WhatsApp as a convenient way to communicate with clients and provide updates on their case.
While we strive to keep our communications secure and will keep WhatsApp messages confidential and only access them when necessary to provide our services, it is important to understand that WhatsApp messages, like other communications, are stored on client files for record-keeping and may potentially be used in the legal process.
Please be aware that WhatsApp operates its own privacy policy, which we encourage you to read. Wealso encourage those who may engage with us via this platform to secure access to their devices and use up to date versions of the software for secure communication.
How do we protect your data?
We take protecting your data very seriously. The data you give us may be subject to Legal Professional Privilege and is often extremely sensitive and confidential.
With this in mind, we will treat your data with the utmost care and take all appropriate steps to protect it. We have clear data protection and information security policies and procedures in place (along with Regulatory and other legal obligations to keep your data safe) and these are regularly assessed as part of our Quality Standards and compliance processes.
We protect our IT system from Cyber Attack. Access to your personal data is password-protected, and sensitive data is secured by encryption.
We regularly monitor our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and we carry out penetration testing to identify ways to further strengthen security.
How long will we keep your data?
We only keep your data for as long as is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was provided.
We use the following retention periods and review these periodically to make sure we are only keeping personal data and other data for as long as is needed:
For some data we may decide that it is proper and appropriate to keep data for longer than the above, but we will notify you if we believe that your case falls into this category or there is another reason your data has to be retained.
Who do we share your personal data with?
We sometimes share your personal data with trusted third parties. We only do this where it is necessary for providing you legal services or for the effective operation of our legal practice.
For example, we may share your data with barristers, experts, translators, costs draftsmen, process servers, website and marketing database providers, secure file storage and destruction companies, auditors, the company that securely hosts our off-site cloud storage servers.
We apply a strict policy to those recipients or data processors to keep your data safe and protect your privacy. In particular:
Where is your data processed?
Your legal matter data is stored and processed within the United Kingdom (UK). If we ever have to share your personal data with third parties and suppliers outside the UK we will seek your specific consent to do so.
Marketing database data is ultimately held in servers via US-based provider HighLevel Inc. (Google Cloud Services and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are used for data storage, both located in the US), compliant with UK GDPR legal restrictions and protections (certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and UK Extension to the EU-U.S Data Privacy Framework), and interrogated via cloud-based systems. The full Data Processing Agreement covers GDPR compliance.
What are your rights?
You have the following rights under the UK GDPR:
For further details on your rights, please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/.
Contact Details
For information on how your information is used, how we maintain the security of our information, and to exercise your rights to access information we hold on you, please contact us. Similarly, if you believe that the information we hold is wrong or out of date, please let us know and we will update it. The person in this firm responsible for data protection is our Data Protection Officer, Vaishali Thakerar, and enquiries and requests can be sent to them by telephone 0116 212 1000, or, by emailing vthakerar@lawson-west.co.ukor in writing to Vaishali Thakerar, Data Protection Officer, Lawson West Solicitors, 4 Dominus Way, Meridian Business Park, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE19 1RP.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement or policy applicable to the website in question.
Complaints about your personal data
In accordance with the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, should you wish to raise a complaint about a potential breach of your personal data or is you have any other concern about our handling of your personal data, then, we have put in place the following steps to facilitate that process.
Should you wish to raise a complaint about a potential breach of your personal data or is you have any other concern about our handling of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer (using the contact details provided above). They will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and, without undue delay, take appropriate steps to respond to the complaint and inform you of the outcome.
In the event of an allegation of a breach of Personal Data and/or any concern that our firm has not handled your personal information properly, we will consider whether a report needs to be made to the ICO. Not all breaches are reportable, and we will advise you of the results of our assessment.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO provided that you have first allowed us the opportunity to attempt to resolve it ourselves. For further information or to contact the ICO please visit: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-protection-complaints or call 0303 123 1113.
The Regulator
If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1113.
Or go online to http://www.ico.org.uk/concerns(opens in a new window; please note we can’t be responsible for the content of external websites).
Changes to this Notice
We do not intend to process a client or related third party’s personal information for any reason other than stated within this privacy notice. If this changes, we will update this privacy notice on this webpage and in any documentation, we will send to you. However, internet and data privacy best practice and acceptable standards are developing. We therefore reserve the right to revise this Notice at any time. If this Notice changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this webpage. For all other clients with ongoing instructions, we will provide a copy directly. Continued instructions to us will signify that you agree to any such changes.
Version: July 2026
