Mendelawitz Morton Commercial Lawyers (MMCL) understands that privacy and how we collect, use, disclose and protect your information is important to you. We are committed to ensuring the privacy of your information and to complying with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which are contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act).
This policy details how we will collect, use and disclose “personal information” is information or an opinion (whether true or not) about an identified or reasonably identifiable individual.
1. What Personal Information does MMCL collect and hold?
MMCL is a corporate Australian law firm. The types of personal information that MMCL collects will depend on the nature of your dealings with us. Please note that, while we seek to minimise the personal information we collect, if you do not provide us with the personal information we request we may not be able to provide you with the services, information or other assistance you seek.
We may collect personal information from you where:
(a) You or the company that you work for engage our services (legal or otherwise);
(b) you correspond with our employees or Directors;
(c) you have business dealings with us (whether as one of our suppliers or as a regulator we deal with or in the context of a transaction);
(d )you or the company that you work for is a counterparty or provides services to a counterparty of our client;
(e) you apply or register your interest for employment or a work placement opportunity with MMCL (see section 8 of this policy);
(f) you otherwise provide your personal information to us, such as where you supply your business card to us; or
(g) it is required by law to do so.
For detailed information as to how we collect, use and disclose the personal information of job applicants, please refer to section 8 of this policy.
The personal information we will collect from you may include your name, title, address and e-mail address and contact numbers (telephone and mobile). If necessary for the purposes of providing advice to you or for providing you with other information (such as email updates) sometimes we may collect other personal information from you, such as the areas of our practice or related expertise which you are interested in. However, we endeavour not to collect personal information that we do not need.
Generally we endeavour to collect personal information directly from the individuals concerned. However, if this is not practicable we may collect personal information about individuals from third parties, including from publicly available sources. If we do, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the individuals concerned are made aware of the collection of their information.
If you are one of MMCL’s ‘business contacts’ (e.g. a person working for one of our clients, suppliers, in a government agency or other company with which we deal when you correspond with one of our employees, Directors or a contact person in one of our suppliers, in a government agency or company with which we deal) we may collect basic business contact information from you (e.g. your name, title and work contact details) automatically using the details in your email signature.
MMCL will not ask to collect sensitive information about you (such as details of your racial or ethnic origin, political affiliation, religious beliefs, sexual preferences, criminal convictions or health information) except where it is needed for the purposes of providing legal advice or another reason for which we have your consent and collection is necessary for that purpose.
2. How does MMCL use Personal Information?
MMCL’s policy is only to use personal information collected from business contacts for the business purpose for which it was collected, or as otherwise provided for in this policy. Personal information collected from other persons (such as prospective employees, subscriber to our knowledge services, etc) is similarly used to fulfil the purposes for which information was collected in the first place, or occasionally for reasonably related purposes.MMCL uses your personal information:
(a) to provide you with our products and services;
(b) in connection with the fulfillment of a legal or regulatory obligation;
(c) to send legal or other updates relevant to us or you and to market our products and services to you;
(d) in connection with your job application (see section 8 of this policy);
(e) where we have a legitimate interest that is not overridden by your rights under the law;
(f) for any reason that you (or your organisation) has provided consent;
(g) if you are a client, where we have a job applicant or employee that we believe may be suitable for a role in your company;
(h) for the performance of a contract with you or your company;
(i) to respond to any enquiries or complaints; and
(j) to conduct our business.
We also collect personal information so that we can communicate new legal or firm developments, including advertising products or services (including events) that we offer to our clients and to those people who have subscribed to our website, alert services or mailing lists.
If at any time you do not wish to receive these kinds of communications, please let us know using the contact details set out in section 9 below.
3. Will Your Personal Information be given to anyone else?
MMCL does not sell or trade personal information about you to or with third parties. Personal information may be disclosed to others by MMCL in the circumstances described below:
(a) Disclosures to external service providers
4. Security of Personal Information
MMCL take reasonable steps to ensure the security of your personal information. Our premises are in secure buildings with access restricted to authorised personnel. Our IT systems are secured against external threats by various means, password protected and tested through regular audit and data integrity checks. We frequently update our anti-virus software in order to protect our systems (and the data contained in those systems) from computer viruses. In addition, all MMCL employees are required as a condition of employment to treat personal information held by MMCL as confidential.
5. Your Rights
Under the Privacy Act, you have the right to:
(a) seek access to your personal information handled by MMCL;
(b) ask us to update or correct your personal information when it is inaccurate,
incomplete or out of date; and
(c) opt-out of receiving direct marketing communications from us.
If you wish to access the personal information that MMCL holds about you, please set out your request in writing and forward this to our Privacy Officer using the contact details set out at the end of this policy.
To provide you with access to your personal information held by us on our current records, MMCL can provide you with a copy of the relevant personal information (ordinarily, an electronic print-out or a photocopy). MMCL will not charge you for the cost of providing this type of access to these current records.
For legal and administrative reasons MMCL may also archive non-current records containing personal information such as back up data files and offsite storage. Please note that if we do provide access to old records we may charge you for the cost of providing such access.
If you are of the view that personal information about you is inaccurate or out of date, or if you have any other queries about access and correction, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact details set out in section 9 below.
6. Online Privacy Issues
Use of cookies
When you visit our website, a small data file called a "cookie" may be stored on your internet enabled device. We use cookies or similar digital markers to maintain user sessions and track the behaviour of website visitors. This enables us to keep our site relevant and useful. However, generally this information will not identify you. We do not link this information back to your identity or other information that you have provided to us.
We and our service providers also use cookies and other digital markers (e.g. Clear GIFs’) to assist us with our online marketing services and advertise to our website visitors on other third-party websites or platforms (e.g. Google Ads Services or LinkedIn). Cookies placed on third party websites help us to monitor the efficacy of our business relationships with third parties, improve performance as well as personalise your experience when you visit our and our service providers’ websites. When you visit other websites or platforms you may see an advertisement for MMCL products or services because you have previously visited our website. MMCL may disclose the information collected via use of cookies on our websites to third parties for marketing purposes.
By using our website and not opting out of cookies, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.
Most web browsers are set by default to accept cookies. However, if you do not wish to receive cookies you may set your browser to either prompt or refuse cookies. If you use your browser settings to block all cookies, you may not be able to access and/or use all or parts of our website.
7. Making a complaint
If you wish to make a complaint about how MMCL handles your personal information, please contact us setting out your complaint in writing and forward it to our Privacy Officer using the contact details in section 9 of this policy.
We will deal with all requests for access to personal information or complaints as quickly as possible and will endeavour to get back to you within a reasonable timeframe.
If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint you can make a formal complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner through their website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/, by emailing enquiries@oaic.gov.au.
8. How do we handle the personal information of individuals?
MMCL collects information about and from individuals who make enquiries or apply for employment with MMCL. The information we collect may include an individual’s personal information and includes the individuals:
(a) contact details;
(b) educational and employment history, and relevant qualifications; and
(c) reason for enquiry
In addition, MMCL may collect any personal information that an individual chooses to disclose during the process of an enquiry or application which could include sensitive information.
If you do not provide with us the information we request we may not be able to process or assess your enquiry.
MMCL stores all personal information relating to any enquiries in Australia and that information is not accessible to third parties located outside Australia.
9. Additional Privacy Information and How to Contact MMCL
This MMCL Privacy Policy may change from time to time. The MMCL Privacy Policy will be made available to anyone who requests it, whether at our offices or by use of our website.If you have any questions or comments about the MMCL Privacy Policy, please set out your request in writing, and forward this to our Privacy Officer, using the contact details below.
Email: mail@mmcl.com.au
Post: PO Box 501, West Perth WA 6872
Telephone: 08 9481 8811