Mathers McHenry & Co. is committed to protecting the privacy of our clients’ personal information. Our obligations, as set out in this policy, are in addition to our professional obligations as lawyers to protect privileged and confidential information.
What is personal information?
Personal information is any information that does or could identify you or others and includes, for example, name, address, phone number, email address, marital status, health, and employment information. It does not generally include business addresses and contact information.
Why and how do we collect and use it?
Mathers McHenry & Co. collects, uses, discloses, and retains personal information so we can serve clients, establish and manage our relationship with clients, share information and announcements relating to our firm, and meet our professional and legal obligations. If you do not consent to the collection, use, disclosure, and retention of personal information, we may not be able to provide services to you.
We do not share your personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected unless we have your consent, or we are required or permitted to do so by law.
We collect information from our clients throughout our professional relationship. We may also collect information from others, including for example your accountant or the opposing party or their lawyer.
Consent
Generally, we obtain personal information directly from clients or from others with the client’s knowledge and consent.
If you do not consent to the collection of certain personal information, we may not be able to provide our services to you. Please do not provide any personal information to us if you do not consent to use for the purposes outlined above. If you withdraw your consent to our use of personal information, it may impact our ability to provide services to you.
We generally do not collect, use, or disclose information about people other than our clients unless that information is provided to us as part of providing services to our clients.
Maintaining accurate information
Clients are given reasonable access to the personal information collected by the firm and may provide updated information or request that changes be made to ensure the information is accurate. We may decline to provide information pertaining to other people and information that cannot reasonably be disclosed.
Do we disclose your personal information?
We will only disclose your personal information with your consent, as required by law, or in connection with the provision of services to you.
Third parties who provide services to the firm (for example, backups and electronic storage of files) are bound by contract to protect your personal information and may not disclose your information to others. Generally, we review where data is stored when considering third party service providers and aim to keep our data in Canada or the European Union.
We may, in appropriate circumstances, disclose personal information to your agent or, in compassionate circumstances, to a family member if, in our reasonable opinion, it is required.
We do not sell or exchange the personal information we hold.
How do we protect your personal information?
Our client’s personal information is only accessed by employees with appropriate authorization, and we take steps to protect it, including maintaining a secure IT system.
Personal information is stored in secured locations and we have taken reasonable steps to protect your personal information against loss, theft, or unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification.
How long do we keep your personal information?
We keep the personal information we collect for the duration of our professional relationship with you and maintain records in accordance with our professional obligations, as well as any legal, regulatory, or accounting requirements. The information may be stored at our offices or at secure offsite locations. We have safeguards in place that are tailored to the sensitivity of the information.
Policy changes and more information
Our Privacy Manager is Kirsti Mathers McHenry. Questions about this policy or concerns or complaints related to privacy issues can be made to the Privacy Manager. If you request information, there may be a reasonable cost imposed for printing or copying as well as staff time to prepare materials. We will do our best to advise you of the cost in advance. In the event that we refuse your request, we will provide our reason for refusing. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner or other authority charged with privacy matters.
We will update this policy from time to time.
Kirsti Mathers McHenry can be reached at Kirsti@mathersmchenryandco.com.