PRIVACY POLICY

The following is a general description of the privacy policy and information practices relating to this website, including what information we collect, how we use the information, and with whom we share the information.

Web Site Owner. OffShore Counsel (“we” or “us” or “our” refers to OffShore Counsel) is the owner of this website (“Website)”). We can be contacted by e-mail at info@offshorecounsel.com.

Anonymous Web Site Visits. In general, you can visit the Website without disclosing or revealing any personal information. We do collect certain non-identifying information from Website visitors. This includes, but is not limited to, the referring source, type of web browser, what pages visitors accessed, and limited information about search requests. This information is used to solve technical problems and to calculate overall usage statistics.

Website Transactions. At times, we will need personal information regarding a customer or a prospect. For example, to process an order, book a consultation, receive a comment to a blog post, or receive and respond to an inquiry, we may need to know a visitor’s name, business name, mailing address, e-mail address and/or credit card details. It is our intent to inform you before we collect personal information, and we can only obtain such information when you voluntarily provide it. If you tell us that you do not wish to have this information used as a basis for further contact with you, we will respect your wishes.

Personal Information That May Be Collected

  • Identifying Information. In order to book a consultation, make a purchase, post a comment to a blog entry, or make an inquiry using our contact form, we will request a user to provide certain personal identifying information, which may include: name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, method of payment, and, if applicable, credit card number. We may request additional information necessary to establish and maintain a customer’s account.

  • Information from Children. We do not collect or maintain information from users actually known to be under the age of 13, and no part of our Website is structured to attract anyone under the age of 13.

Uses Made of the Information

  • Limited Uses Identified. Without your prior consent, we will not use your personal identifiable information for any purpose other than that for which it is submitted. We use personal identifiable information to reply to inquiries, handle complaints, provide operational notices, record-keeping, and process billing and business requests.

  • Marketing Uses. Unless you request in writing to opt out, we reserve the right to provide you with information about the Website, our products and services, and related information in which you have indicated an interest.

  • Stored Information Uses. We store the information provided by you. Stored information is used by us (and/or our agents): to support customer interaction with the Website; to deliver customer purchases; and/or to contact customers about other services and products. We use third-party vendors for credit card processing, and we do not store customer credit card numbers. However, our credit card processors may store credit card numbers and related purchase information.

Disclosure of the Information

  • Within Our Organization. We may share your personal information within our firm, in order to manage the operations of our firm and to provide legal and other services.

  • Mergers and Acquisitions. Circumstances may arise where for business reasons, we decide to sell, buy, merge or otherwise reorganize our business. Such a transaction may involve the disclosure of personal identifying information to prospective or actual purchasers, and/or receiving such information from sellers. It is our practice to seek appropriate protection for information in these types of transactions. Also, in the event we are acquired, customer information will be one of the transferred assets.

  • Agents. We may employ other companies and individuals to perform business functions on behalf of us. These persons and companies may be provided with personal identifying information required to perform their functions, but will be prohibited by contract from using the information for other purposes. These persons and companies may engage in a variety of functions which include, but are not limited to, fulfilling orders, delivering packages, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, processing credit card payments and providing customer services.

  • Marketing Analysis by Third Parties. We reserve the right to disclose to third parties personal information about customers for marketing analysis; however, any information disclosed will be in the form of aggregate data that does not describe or identify an individual customer. Any such disclosure will be done in such a manner as to preserve attorney-client privilege and confidentiality.

  • Disclosure to Governmental Authorities. Under certain circumstances, personal information may be subject to disclosure pursuant to a judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants or orders. Any such disclosure will be in compliance with our obligations under rules of ethics applicable to attorneys.

Use of Computer Tracking Technologies

  • No Tracking of Personal Information. The Website is not set up to track, collect or distribute personal information not entered by visitors. Through Website access logs we do collect clickstream data and HTTP protocol elements, which generate certain kinds of non-identifying site usage data, such as the number of hits and visits to our sites. This information may be used for internal purposes by technical support staff for research and development, user analysis and business decision making. The statistics garnered, which contain no personal information and cannot be used to gather such information, may also be provided to third parties.

  • Use of Cookies. We, or our third party vendors, may collect non-identifiable and personal information through the use of various technologies, including “cookies”. A cookie is an alphanumeric identifier that a website can transfer to a visitor’s hard drive through the visitor’s browser. The cookie is then stored on the visitor’s computer as an anonymous tag that identifies the visitor’s computer, but not the visitor. Cookies may be sent by us or our third party vendors. The visitor can set his or her browser to notify the visitor before a cookie is received, giving an opportunity to decide whether to accept the cookie. A visitor may also set his or her browser to turn off cookies; however, some websites may not then work properly.

  • Use of Web Beacon Technologies. We may also use web beacon or other technologies to enable our Website to provide better customer service. If these technologies are in use, when a visitor accesses these pages of the Website, a non-identifiable notice of that visit is generated which may be processed by us or by our suppliers. Web beacons usually work in conjunction with cookies. If a visitor does not want cookie information to be associated with his or her visits to these pages, the visitor can set its browser to turn off cookies; however, Web beacon and other technologies will still detect visits to these pages, but the notices they generate cannot be associated with other non-identifiable cookie information and are disregarded.

  • Online Tracking. Online tracking technology enables website operators to collect personal information about consumers as they move across websites and other online services. Most browsers incorporate “do not track” (DNT) features in their privacy settings. When enabled, a DNT signal or request informs a website operator that the visitor does not wish to be tracked online. Our Website is currently designed only for tracking movement within the Website. We do not honor DNT requests, and we do not treat visitors who make DNT requests differently from visitors who do not make DNT requests. We also do not differentiate between visitors who make DNT requests and visitors who do not make such requests, when it comes to the collection or usage of personal information. There are no third parties that conduct online tracking on our Website.

Information Security

  • Commitment to Online Security. We employ physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard the security and integrity of personal information. Billing and payment data is encrypted whenever transmitted or received online.

  • No Liability for Acts of Third Parties. We will exercise all reasonable efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information. However, transmissions protected by industry standard security technology and implemented by human beings cannot be made absolutely secure. Consequently, we are not liable for unauthorized disclosure of personal information due to no fault of ours, including, but not limited to, errors in transmission and unauthorized acts of our staff or third parties.

Privacy Policy Changes and Opt-Out Rights

  • Changes to Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to change our privacy policy statement at any time. A notice of any material change will be posted on the Website home page OR on the Privacy Policy page when we implement any such change.

  • Opt-Out Right. Visitors have the right at any time to cease permitting personal information to be collected, used or disclosed by us and/or by any third parties with whom we have shared and/or transferred such personal information. Right of cancellation may be exercised by contacting us via e-mail. After processing the cancellation, we will delete your personal information from our database. However, ethical rules applicable to attorneys may require that we maintain client files and associated information for a certain period of time. In the case of any conflict between such ethical obligations and a client’s opt-out request, the ethical obligations will prevail.

Special Provisions for European Union Residents

The provisions in this section apply to users who are individuals residing in a European Union country (“EU Residents”). The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is a European Union regulation that governs the relationship between this firm and EU Residents.

In the course of providing legal services, we may collect certain identifying personal data about EU Residents, including name, email address, telephone number, location data, online identifier, etc. Any such personal data that can be used to identify a specific person will be called “Personal Data.” As an EU Resident, you have the following rights, which we call Data Access Rights:

  • You have the right to obtain confirmation from us as to whether we are processing Personal Data concerning you.

  • You have the right to information about the processing of your Personal Data, such as the purposes, the categories of Personal Data, recipients, etc.

  • You have the right to obtain a copy, in electronic format, of any Personal Data concerning you that we hold.

  • You have the right to be forgotten. This means that you have to right to have us erase your Personal Data. You also have the right to have us stop any further dissemination of your Personal Data. However, we have the right to maintain your Personal Data in the following cases:

    • If the Personal Data we hold is needed to exercise the right of freedom of expression;

    • If we have a legal obligation to keep your Personal Data;

    • If we need to maintain your Personal Data for reasons of public interest, such as public health, scientific, statistical, or historical research purposes; or

    • If your Personal Data has undergone an appropriate process of anonymization.

  • You have the right to object to the processing of your Personal Data for specific reasons. In such a case, we will stop processing your Personal Data unless we need to process the Personal Data for

  • reasons that override your rights and freedoms, or if we need the data for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

  • You have the right to object at any time to the processing of your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes.

PLEASE NOTE: It is our position that our ethical obligations under the rules of professional conduct applicable to attorneys provide us with sufficient legal obligation to maintain your Personal Data. Furthermore, our interests with respect to professional liability claims require us to maintain and continue processing your Personal Data. Consequently, we will not honor any requests to delete or stop processing your Personal Data, until we have decided, in our sole discretion, that our legal and ethical obligations have been satisfied in full.

To exercise any of your Data Access Rights, please contact us. Please note that there is no charge for exercising any of your Data Rights. However, if we determine that requests are unfounded or excessive, in particular because of their repetitive nature, we have the right to charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act.

In addition to your Data Access Rights, the GDPR also grants you a Data Portability Right. This is the right to have us transmit your Personal Data to another organization, such as another law firm, in a structured, machine-readable format. You may exercise your Data Portability Right only where we collected your Personal Data in the context of a contract or on the basis of consent, and such data is processed by automated means. To exercise your Data Portability Right, please contact us.