Privacy policy

Our approach to privacy

Allens, being the partnership and legal practice of Allens and its related entities set out at the end of this policy (Allens), respects privacy and is committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

The Privacy Act contains exemptions and permitted general situations in relation to certain acts undertaken, including in relation to employee records, legal claims and litigation and related bodies corporate. Where appropriate, we make use of relevant exemptions in the Privacy Act.

This privacy policy sets out how we collect, use, store and disclose personal information.

We may modify this policy from time to time by publishing updates to it on our website. We encourage you to check our website periodically to ensure you are aware of our current privacy policy.

What personal information do we collect?

Personal information includes information or an opinion (whether true or not) about an identified or a reasonably identifiable individual.

We may collect your personal information where:

• you enquire about or instruct us to provide legal services to you, your employer, organisation or other representative;
• we have other legal or business dealings with you or an organisation related to you (eg if you are involved in a corporate transaction or are otherwise related to or employed or engaged by an acquisition target, counterparty, regulator, referrer of work, supplier or a philanthropic or community organisation);
• you are an employee, partner, contractor or office holder of Allens;
• you subscribe to or use one of our online services, newsletters, mailings lists or visit our website;
• you register for or attend one of our events, seminars or webinars; or
• you enquire about or apply for a role at Allens, participate in a work experience program, internship or clerkship or otherwise work temporarily or on contract for Allens.

The types of personal information we may collect include:

• general, personal or business details such as your name, job title, contact number, address and email address;
• if you apply for a role with us, information about your work history, reference and background check information, identity verification information and information about your right to work in Australia;
• if you are a current or former employee, contractor, partner or office holder, other information as necessary and relevant to your employment, including emergency contact details, information about remuneration and benefits and information about your performance, training and development;
• if you are a current or potential client, or employed or engaged by one, your expertise, business interests, attendance at events and seminars and identification information for regulatory purposes;
• your or your organisation's financial or billing information, such as billing address, bank account, payment and credit card details;
• if you attend a seminar or webinar which is part of our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program, your practitioner ID (if you are a Western Australian legal practitioner) and attendance details as may be required by the relevant regulatory bodies;
• your marketing and communication preferences;
• information to identify the devices and IP addresses and ISPs you use to access our website or online services (as further set out under "Using Our Website and Cookies" below);
• user names and passwords where they are required on our website or for access to our systems as part of our legal services; and
• where relevant and with your consent, sensitive information including:
  • information about your health, any disabilities and special dietary needs including where you register for or attend an event or seminar, or in connection with your employment;
  • where we need it to provide you with legal advice;
  • your membership of associations or boards for conflicts or regulatory assessments; and
  • your gender, ethnicity and other sensitive personal information collected either directly from you or from third parties, including as part of our recruitment processes.

How do we collect your personal information?

We generally endeavour to collect your information directly from you. However, in some circumstances we may collect your information from third parties, such as:

• your employer or contracting agency, your business contacts or other organisations that you deal with, regulatory or credit reporting agencies, a supplier or from a publicly available record; or
• where you apply for a role with us, from recruitment consultants, your previous employers, universities, program providers and others who may be able to assist us in our decision as to whether to offer you employment.

For other methods of collection, please see "Using Our Website and Cookies" below.

Why do we collect, use and disclose your personal information?

We may use your information to:

• provide our services and products to you, your organisation and our clients and to improve them;
• identify and develop new services and products you, your organisation or our clients may be interested in;
• conduct, monitor and analyse our business and internal operations (including staff management);
• communicate with you and build and maintain our relationships with you, your organisation and our clients;
• send you legal updates and insights, marketing and event details and new service or product offerings (however, if you do not want to receive marketing emails from us, you can opt out at any time using the contact details set out below, or unsubscribe at this link: Unsubscribe)
• perform analytics on matter management, financial performance and engagement at our events and with our online resources;
• comply with applicable laws and our other regulatory, accounting, reporting and professional obligations, including providing information to regulatory bodies in relation to your attendance at our CPD programs or in relation to any compliance audit of your CPD attendance;
• comply with court orders and to protect, exercise or defend our legal rights;
• provide you with work experience opportunities, discuss any potential roles with you, consider your application and test and assess your suitability for roles; and
• process and respond to your requests, enquiries or complaints.

Of course, we are also bound to our clients by professional obligations of confidentiality and legal professional privilege. We will continue to treat and protect all client information we receive (including any personal information) in accordance with these obligations.

To whom do we disclose your personal information?

We may share your information with other members of the Allens Group (which includes the entities carrying on business under the name ‘Allens’ and derivatives of that name from time to time as set out at the end of this policy) and with our alliance partner, Linklaters, which has offices throughout Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. This may involve sending your personal information to these offices overseas.

We may also disclose your information to:

• our clients, where we have collected your personal information for the purposes of providing services to our clients;
• barristers, legal consultants and other specialists in relation to your matter;
• our suppliers, contractors and agents from time to time that provide services to us or help us to provide and market our services to you;
• specific third parties authorised by you to receive information held by us; and
• other persons, including government agencies, regulatory bodies, law enforcement agencies and courts and as otherwise required or authorised by law.

While we aim to use services and instances that are located in Australia, some of these suppliers and other parties may receive, access, process, host or store your information in overseas locations. This includes the United Kingdom, United States of America and the European Union, and if your services relate to those offices, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam. For example, we may disclose your email address or other contact information to providers of electronic execution services, which may store the information in an overseas jurisdiction.

Using our Website, Electronic Messages and Cookies

We may collect and store information about your use of our website, such as which pages you visit, the time and date of your visit and the IP (internet protocol) or MAC (media access control) address assigned to your device.

We and our ISP also collect information such as the pages you access on our website, the documents you download, the amount of time you spend on a page or viewing a webinar, which links you use to access our site and the type of device and browser you use. This information is used to improve the services we offer you, for statistical, website development and functionality purposes, and for complying with our CPD reporting obligations.

We may also use cookies to collect information about your activity on our website so that we can send you information we think may be of interest to you.

When cookies are used on this site, they store information about your visit, which may include a unique identifier or value to indicate whether you have visited a webpage. We may use this to identify you when you engage with our website more than once.

Most internet browsers are set up to accept cookies. If you do not wish to enable cookies, you may be able to change the settings of your browser to refuse all cookies or to notify you each time a cookie is sent to your computer.

If you click through to our website from any insight, invitation, legal update or other email or message we send to you, we may identify and collect information relating to your subsequent and previous use of our website, such as which pages you visit and for how long.

We will hold that information and, subject to your communication preferences, we may contact you in relation to those insights or service areas. If you do not want to receive marketing emails from us, you can opt out at any time using the contact details set out below or unsubscribe at this link: Unsubscribe.

How do we store and keep your information secure?

We may hold your personal information in either electronic or hard-copy form. We use a variety of physical and electronic security measures to keep your personal information secure from misuse, interference, loss or unauthorised access, use or disclosure. For example, we restrict physical access to our offices, employ firewalls, secure databases, password protect our IT systems, frequently update our anti-virus software, use cyber security services and conduct regular audit and data integrity checks. All of our employees are also bound to keep your personal information secure and treat it as confidential.

However, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information. The internet is not a secure environment. If you do use the internet to send us any information, including your email address, please be aware that it will be sent at your own risk.

Our websites and electronic communications may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. Unless expressly stated otherwise, Allens is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those linked websites. The privacy policies that apply to those other websites may differ from our privacy policy, so we encourage individuals to read them before using those websites.

We will update, retain and delete your data in accordance with our policies and procedures, applicable laws and, where applicable, your instructions.

Are you required to provide your personal information? 

You may deal with Allens anonymously, however it may have an effect on the services we may provide to you. For example, we may not be able to take your instructions as a client.

Accessing or correcting your personal information

You have rights under the Privacy Act and Spam Act 2003 (Cth) to:

• request access to personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to update or correct any information that is inaccurate, incomplete or outdated; and
• opt out of receiving direct marketing communications from us.

You can do any of these things by contacting our Privacy Compliance Officer using the contact details below.

If you request access to your personal information or ask us to correct or update information about you, we may need to verify your identity. In some circumstances, there may be a valid reason for us to deny your request to access or correct your information. If we do this, we will tell you why.

Making a complaint

If you think we have breached the Privacy Act, or you wish to make a complaint about the way we have handled your personal information or a request from you to access or correct your personal information, you can contact us using the details set out below. Please include your name, email address and telephone number and clearly describe your complaint.

Any complaint will be investigated by our Office of General Counsel and the outcome of that investigation will be communicated to you as soon as we can do so.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of any internal investigation we conduct, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at enquiries@oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992. More information is available on the OAIC’s website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/.

Contact us

If you would like more information about how we handle your information or our approach to privacy, or to exercise any of your rights outlined above, please contact:

Rachel Murray
Privacy Compliance Officer
Allens
PrivacyCompliance@allens.com.au
Tel: +61 2 9230 4925

Allens
Level 28, Deutsche Bank Place
Corner of Hunter and Phillip Streets
Sydney NSW 2000
ABN: 47 702 595 758
Tel: +61 2 9230 4000
Fax: +61 2 9230 5333
Mail: GPO Box 50, Sydney NSW 2001

Updated 4 November 2022

Allens entities

Allens (Australian Partnership)

Allens Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys

Allens Operations Pty Limited

Allens Operations Trust

Allens Finance Pty Limited

Allens Corporate Services Pty Limited

Allens PNG Partnership