Privacy Policy

Responsible for the processing of personal data (data that directly or indirectly identifies natural persons) described in this privacy policy is the

SwissLegal Ltd (AG, SA)
Chollerstrasse 4
6302 Zug
privacy@swisslegal.ch

The respective law firm of the SwissLegal Group is responsible for data processing within the scope of the client relationship. Privacy policies for clients of the individual SwissLegal law firms (locations), which can be accessed, for example, on this website under the corresponding location in the “Documents” section or are otherwise communicated, take precedence over this privacy policy.

References in this Privacy Policy (the Policy) to “SwissLegal,” “we,” or “us” are references to SwissLegal AG or, within the scope of the client relationship, the respective law firm of the SwissLegal Group. The terms “clients” or “clientele” refer to potential or existing clients of one or more SwissLegal law firms (locations). SwissLegal AG itself does not provide legal services and, accordingly, does not maintain its own client relationships.

The personal data we process about you includes:

• Your name and contact details (e.g., name, address, phone number, or email address), information about the company you work for, your position or title, and/or your relationship to a person, as well as other basic information;
• identification and background information that you provide to us or that is collected from you as part of our onboarding process;
• Financial information, such as payment information;
• Contract, client, and service data, in particular information disclosed to us by or on behalf of our clients or which we generate in the course of providing services to clients (e.g., correspondence, files, procedural documents, expert opinions, notes, and internal documents); Information provided to us for the purpose of participating in meetings, seminars, or events;
• Special categories of personal data, to the extent that these are necessary in the course of our client representation (e.g., information regarding health status, family circumstances, or criminal matters);
• Technical data, in particular IP addresses, device and browser information, mouse movements, keystrokes, access data, as well as usage and log data related to the use of our website or electronic services;
• Communication data, in particular the content and metadata of communications (e.g., emails, phone calls, video conferences), including information related to documents and communications that we send to you electronically (e.g., use of newsletters or promotional emails);
• Any other information relating to you that you provide to us.

We collect and record this information when you interact with us, for example when you communicate with our employees, register to receive information via email, or when you participate in a meeting, seminar, or other event. We also process personal data that we receive in our correspondence with third parties (namely clients, counterparties, authorities, and courts, as well as their employees or other contacts) within the scope of the client relationship (e.g., name, contact information, and possibly date of birth, details regarding employment status, income situation, family circumstances, or health status). In addition, we collect some personal data ourselves, e.g., from public registers or websites.

We also collect or generate personal data in the course of providing our legal services and when we obtain personal data from other sources, for example, by consulting publicly available sources to update your information.

We process your personal data:

• to communicate with you;
• to initiate and conclude contractual relationships, in particular client relationships, employment, supplier, and service contracts
• to conduct anti-money laundering, conflict of interest, and reputation checks;
• to provide and improve our services to you and our clients, including personal data from third parties that is disclosed to us or that we collect on behalf of our clients, such as the processing of identification and background information as part of our onboarding process, financial data, and data in connection with our administrative and marketing processes and activities;
• to manage the business relationship with you and our clients;
• to organize, conduct, and follow up on events, seminars, webinars, and other occasions, including participant management, communication, documentation, and the creation and use of image, audio, and video recordings, to the extent permitted;
• to maintain, provide, and improve our websites, including monitoring them and analyzing their usage (for further information, see Section 4 below);
• to ensure the security of our IT systems, websites, and communication channels, specifically through access logging, backups, and system monitoring;
• to promote our services, including sending publications, alerts, updates, invitations to events, etc. If you no longer wish to receive promotional communications from us, you may unsubscribe at any time by clicking the appropriate link in the respective emails;
• to comply with our legal, regulatory, and risk management obligations, including the assertion, enforcement, and defense of legal claims.

We process personal data for these purposes on the following basis: when it is necessary for us to fulfill a contract, such as contacting a person to offer legal or other services, to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims, or in legal proceedings; to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, to protect legitimate interests, including the interests mentioned and listed above; and/or based on consent.

We use various technical and organizational measures to help protect your personal data from unauthorized access, unlawful use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

When you visit and use our website, we automatically collect and store relevant log data and device-specific information for a limited period of time. This information includes, among other things, specific details about how you use our website, your IP address, access data and times, hardware and software information, as well as device-specific and other similar information. We process this data to the extent necessary for the operation, maintenance, and improvement of our websites.

You can refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser. Please note, however, that this may affect your ability to use our websites. Further information regarding cookies, including their management, refusal, or deletion, can be found at www.allaboutcookies.org.

Currently, we may use services from the following providers and advertising partners in particular; their contact information and further details regarding individual data processing activities are available in their respective privacy policies. Detailed information on the individual services, particularly regarding purpose, data categories, and recipients, can be found in the “Services” section at the end of this privacy policy:

• Google Analytics:  Privacy Policy: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245
  
  
• Information for Google Accounts: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites?hl=de 
  
  
• Google Maps: Privacy Policy: google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy
  
  
• Google Web Fonts: Privacy Policy: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
  
  
• Google reCAPTCHA for detecting and preventing automated access to our website

We also maintain an online presence on social networks (platforms operated by third parties) and process data about you in this context. In doing so, we receive data from you (e.g., when you communicate with us or comment on our content) and from the platforms (e.g., statistics). The platform providers may analyze your usage and process this data together with other data they hold about you. They also process this data for their own purposes (e.g., marketing and market research purposes and to administer their platforms), and act as separate data controllers for this purpose. For further information regarding the processing by the platform operators, please refer to the privacy policies of the respective platforms.

We currently use the following platform; the identity and contact information of the platform operator can be found in the respective privacy policy:

• LinkedIn:  linkedin.com,
  Privacy Policy: https://de.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

We also use audio and video conferencing services to communicate with clients, external third parties, and internally. In particular, we use audio and video conferences as well as virtual meetings, and we also conduct or participate in online training sessions (e.g., webinars). We only use services that ensure adequate data protection. In addition to this Privacy Policy, any terms and conditions of the services used, such as their terms of use or privacy policies, also apply.

We currently use the following communication tools; the identity and contact details of the platform operator can be found in the respective privacy policy:

• Microsoft Teams (Microsoft 365):  www.microsoft.com/de-ch/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software
  Privacy Policy: https://privacy.microsoft.com/de-de/privacystatement

• Zoom (https://zoom.us/de)
  Privacy Policy: https://explore.zoom.us/de/privacy/

We may share your personal data with trusted recipients, including:

• Clients, counterparties and their legal representatives, business partners with whom we may need to coordinate the provision of legal services, as well as government agencies and courts;
• Vendors to whom we have outsourced certain support services, such as translation work or document reviews;
• external IT and security service providers, in particular providers of cloud solutions, communication services, data analysis, or IT infrastructure services;
• Third parties who have been commissioned, with the prior consent of our clients, to provide services we offer to them, such as other law firms or technology service providers for data room services;
• Banks, insurance companies, collection agencies, and other financial and settlement service providers, to the extent necessary in connection with the management of client matters or contract execution;
• Providers of accounting, fiduciary, and tax services, including external accounting firms, fiduciaries, and tax advisors, to the extent necessary for maintaining our accounting records, processing payments, and complying with legal obligations;
• our auditors;
• other companies or locations within the SwissLegal Group, to the extent necessary for the provision of our services, administrative purposes, or internal organization;
• Acquirers, sellers, advisors, and other parties involved in connection with business combinations, restructurings, or the transfer of businesses or parts thereof;
• Third parties who are also involved in the execution or organization of events and seminars.

For the purposes set forth in this statement and to the extent deemed necessary, we may disclose personal data to courts, law enforcement agencies, supervisory and government authorities, as well as enforcement and execution authorities. Furthermore, we may be required to disclose your personal data to comply with legal provisions and regulatory requirements.

Please note that, in the course of managing client mandates, we rely on external IT service providers and cloud providers with servers located in Switzerland. We also use certain IT services and communication tools that may involve data security risks (e.g., email, video conferencing). It is your responsibility to inform us if you require specific security measures.

We process personal data within our area of responsibility in Switzerland. However, we may transfer personal data to recipients (namely clients, counterparties, or authorities) who, in turn, process the personal data in other countries, including those that do not guarantee a level of data protection comparable to Swiss law. If a recipient is located in a country without an adequate level of data protection, we will implement appropriate safeguards, in particular by entering into standard contractual clauses, including any supplements required by Swiss law. If a recipient is located in the United States and is certified under the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF), we will base the data transfer on this certification. If no suitable safeguards exist, data transfer will only take place if a legal exception applies. Such exceptions may exist, in particular, with your consent, to fulfill a contract, to assert or enforce legal claims, in proceedings before foreign authorities or courts, to protect vital interests, or in the case of publicly available data.

We store your personal data as long as it is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and as long as we have a legitimate interest in retaining personal data, for example, for the implementation or defense of legal claims or for archiving purposes and IT security. We also store your personal data if and as long as this is required in accordance with a legal retention obligation.

In particular, data subjects have the right to obtain information about the personal data stored about them and the purpose of the data processing, the right to rectification as well as to erasure or restriction of the processing of their personal data, the right to object to the processing, the right to seek redress from a competent supervisory authority and to data transmission/transferability. However, please note that conditions and exceptions apply to these rights. To the extent permitted or required by law, we may refuse requests to exercise these rights. For example, we may or must retain or otherwise continue to process personal data despite a request to delete the personal data or restrict processing for legal reasons.

This privacy statement is not part of any contract with you. We may amend this statement at any time. The version published on this website is the current version.

The privacy policy of SwissLegal AG is written in German, French, Italian and English. In the event of any contradictions, the German version shall prevail.