We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and what to do if you have a complaint.
This privacy policy does not apply to any third-party websites that may have links to our own website.
Clients of this firm should read this policy alongside our Terms of Business, which provide further information on confidentiality.
1. Who are we and what do we do?
1.1 Brightstone Law LLP is a limited liability partnership authorised and regulated by Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 488665. Contact details can be found at section 16.
1.2 We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so we must comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
1.3 Our services and website are not aimed specifically at children (who are usually represented by their parents or guardians). If you are a child and you want further information about how we might use your data, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ at section 16).
2. Terminology
It would be helpful to explain some key terms used in this policy:
| We, us, our | Brightstone Law LLP |
| Personal data | Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual |
| Special category personal data | Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual |
| Data subject | Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership
Genetic data Biometric data (where used for identification purposes) Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation |
| You, your | As the context dictates, our clients and individuals associated with them, contacts, suppliers and any individuals whose personal data we receive in the course of providing our services |
| Our Data Protection Officer | Jonathan Newman |
3. Personal data we collect
The table below sets out the personal data we will or may collect in the course of advising and/or acting for you.
| Personal data we will collect | Brightstone Law LLP |
|
Your name, address and telephone number Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth or passport details Gender or pronoun preferences Occupation Marital status Electronic contact details, e.g. your email address and mobile phone number Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation. Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, e.g. the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction. Payment details (including card or bank information for transfers and direct debits) Information about how you interact with and use our website, products and services Audio recordings, e.g. calls |
Your National Insurance and tax details Your bank and/or building society details Details of your professional online presence, e.g. LinkedIn profile Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, e.g. if you instruct us on a family matter. Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, e.g. if you instruct us on matter in which your employment status or income is relevant. Your nationality and information from related documents, such as your passport or other identification Details of your pension arrangements, e.g. if you instruct us on a pension matter or in relation to financial arrangements following breakdown of a relationship. Your employment records including, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances (including relevant special category personal data), e.g. if you instruct us on a matter in which your employment records are relevant Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs, e.g. if you instruct us on a matter in which these records are relevant. Personal identifying information, such as your hair or eye colour or your parents’ names, e.g. if you instruct us in a family matter. Your medical records, e.g. if we are acting for you in a personal injury claim. |
The main purpose of collecting and using this information is to provide products and services to our clients. However, we may also collect and use the above information for the purposes set out in section 5.3.
If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing those services to you. You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of all personal data that you supply to us and for notifying us of all and any changes to your personal data.
4. How your personal data is collected
4.1 We collect most of the above information from you.
4.2 However, we may also collect information:
4.2.1 from publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;
- sanctions screening providers;
- credit reference agencies;
- client due diligence providers;
- your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
- consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
- your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;
- your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;
4.2.4 via our website—we use cookies and similar technologies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see our cookies policy on our website) — brightstonelaw.co.uk
- via our case management, document management and time recording systems;
- door entry systems and reception logs;
- through automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, CCTV and access control systems, communications systems, email and instant and instant messaging systems;
5. How and why, we use your personal data
5.1 Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.:
5.1.1 You have given consent – where we need your consent, we will ask for it separately of this privacy policy and you can withdraw consent at any time;
5.1.2 to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
5.1.3 to fulfil our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract or;
5.1.4 for our legitimate interests or those of a third party.
5.2 A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests. We must then stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds which override your interests, rights and freedoms or the processing is required to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
5.3 The table below explains what we use (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:
| What we use your personal data for | Our reasons |
| Providing services to our clients | To fulfil our contract with clients or to take steps at their request before entering into a contract |
| Preventing and detecting fraud against you or us | Preventing and detecting fraud against you or us |
| Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes Other activities necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety law or rules issued by our professional regulator |
Depending on the circumstances:
– to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations – for our legitimate interests. |
| To check whether there is any conflict of interest between us and you and/or between you and another client | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| To enforce legal rights or defend or take legal proceedings |
Depending on the circumstances: – to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies | Depending on the circumstances:
– to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring internal business policies are complied with, e.g. policies covering security and internet use | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can be as efficient as we can in the delivery of the service to our clients |
| Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control | For our legitimate interests i.e. to be as efficient as we can in the delivery of the service to our clients |
| Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information | Depending on the circumstances:
– for our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect trade secrets and other commercially valuable information. |
| Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, e.g. in relation to our financial performance, client base, services range or other efficiency measures | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to be as efficient as we can in the delivery of the service to you |
| Protecting the security of the systems and data used to provide services, preventing unauthorised access and changes to our systems | Depending on the circumstances:
– for our legitimate interests, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us |
| Updating and enhancing client records |
Depending on the circumstances: – to fulfil our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
| Statutory returns | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments | Depending on the circumstances:
– to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Marketing our services to: – existing and former clients and third parties. |
Depending on the circumstances:
– for our legitimate interests, i.e. to promote our business |
| Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies | For our legitimate interests |
| To deal with complaints or claims | Depending on the circumstances:
– to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| External audits and quality checks. |
Depending on the circumstances: – for our legitimate interests, i.e. to achieve and maintain relevant accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards |
| To share your personal data with members of our group and third parties that will or may take control or ownership of some or all of our business (and professional advisors acting on our or their behalf) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale or in the event of our insolvency In such cases information will be anonymised where possible and only shared where necessary |
Depending on the circumstances: – to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.
5.4 Where we process special category personal data (see section 2 ‘Terminology’), we will also ensure we are permitted to do so under data protection laws, e.g.:
5.4.1 We have your explicit consent;
5.4.2 the processing is necessary to protect your (or someone else’s) vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent;
5.4.3 the processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
5.4.4 the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
6. Promotional communications
We may use your personal data to send you updates by email, telephone or post about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including any new services that we may be offering.
We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for promotional purposes (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.
We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:
contacting us by emailing Jonathan Newman, our Data Protection Officer [[email protected]]
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation or the structure of our business.
7. Who we share your personal data with
7.1 We routinely share personal data with:
7.1.1 third parties we use to help deliver our services, e.g. providers of our case management and finance system, IT service providers including cloud service providers such as data storage platforms, shared service centres and financial institutions in connection with invoicing and payments;
7.1.2 other third party external advisors or experts engaged in the course of providing services, e.g. barristers, medical professionals accountants, tax advisors, or other experts, technology service providers such as eDiscovery and document review platforms;
7.1.3 other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions e.g. your mortgage provider or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction or Companies House;
7.1.4 companies providing services for money laundering checks and other crime prevention purposes and companies providing similar services, including financial institutions and credit reference agencies;
7.1.5 third parties approved by you, e.g. social media sites you choose to link your account to or third party payment providers;
7.1.6 electronic verification providers;
7.1.7 external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business efficient, e.g. typing services, marketing agencies, document collation or analysis suppliers.
7.1.8 external auditors, e.g. in relation to the audit of our accounts;
7.1.9 our insurers and brokers;
7.1.10 our bank.
7.2 We only allow those organisations to handle your personal data if we are satisfied, they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We ensure all outsourcing providers operate under service agreements that are consistent with our legal and professional obligations, including in relation to confidentiality.
7.3 We or the third parties mentioned above may occasionally also share personal data with:
7.3.1 our and their external auditors, e.g. in relation to the audit of our or their accounts, in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
7.3.2 our and their professional advisors (such as lawyers and other advisors), in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
7.3.3 law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
7.3.4 other parties that have or may acquire control or ownership of our business (and our or their professional advisers) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition or asset sale or in the event of our insolvency—usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible and the recipient of any of your personal data will be bound by confidentiality obligations
7.4 If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us as section 16).
8. Where your personal data is held
8.1 Personal data may be held at our offices, third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described in section 7 ‘Who we share your personal data with’.
8.2 Some of these third parties may be based outside the UK. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see section 10 ‘Transferring your personal data abroad’.
9. How long your personal data will be kept
9.1 We will not keep your personal data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it was collected or as required by law.
9.2 As a general rule, we will keep your personal data for at least six years from the conclusion of your matter, in case you, or we, need to bring or defend any complaints or claims. However, different retention periods apply for different types of personal data and for different services; e.g.:
9.2.1 wills and related documents may be kept indefinitely;
9.2.2 deeds related to unregistered property may be kept indefinitely as they evidence ownership;
9.2.3 where the matter involves a child, we will keep information for an appropriate period after the child turns 18;
9.3 Following the end of the of the relevant retention period, we will delete or anonymise your personal data.
9.4 If you would like further information about how long we keep your personal data, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us at section 16).
10. Transferring your personal data abroad
10.1 It is sometimes necessary for us to transfer your personal data to countries outside the UK and EEA. This may include countries which do not provide the same level of protection of personal data as the UK or EEA.
10.2 We will transfer your personal data outside the UK and EEA only where:
10.2.1 the UK government or European Commission has decided the recipient country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an adequacy decision); or
10.2.2 there are appropriate safeguards in place (e.g. standard contractual data protection clauses published or approved by the relevant data protection regulator), together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you; or
10.2.3 a specific exception applies under data protection law.
10.3 For more information please contact us using the How to contact us information at section 16:
11. Your rights
11.1 You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
| Access | You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal data. You can request other information such as where we get personal data from and who we share personal data with. There are some exemptions which means you may not receive all the information you ask for. |
| Rectification | You have the right to ask us to correct or delete personal data you think is inaccurate or incomplete. |
| Erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten) | You have the to ask us to delete your personal data—in certain situations |
| Restriction of processing | You have the right to ask us to limit how we use your personal data—in certain situations, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data |
| Data portability | You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal data you gave to us, to another organisation or you – in certain situations |
| To object | You have the right to object:
– at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); – in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interest unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests or for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims. |
| Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making | The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you |
| The right to withdraw consent | When we use your consent as our lawful basis, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time
You may withdraw contacting the Data Protection Officer, Jonathan Newman. See section 16 ‘How to contact us’. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of our use of your personal data in reliance on that consent before it is withdrawn. |
11.2 If you make a request, we must respond to you without undue delay and in any event within one month.
11.3 if you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
11.3.1 complete a data subject access request form – available at request from our Data Protection Officer or
11.3.2 email, call or write to us – see section 16 ‘How to contact us’; and
11.3.3 provide enough information to identify yourself (e.g. your full name, address and client or matter reference number) and any additional identity information we may reasonably request from you;
11.3.4 let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.
12 Keeping your personal data secure
12.1 We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your personal data confidential and secure from unauthorised access, use and disclosure. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your personal data will
12.2 We require our business partners, suppliers and other third parties to implement appropriate security measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, use and disclosure.
12.3 We also have procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are required to do so.
13. How to complain
13.1 Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal data (see ‘How to contact us’ at section 16). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.
13.2 You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (the UK data protection regulator also known as the ICO) and/or the relevant supervisory authority in your jurisdiction.
13.3 The contact details for the ICO are:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
13.4 for more information please contact Jonathan Newman. See section 16 ‘How to contact us’;
14. Changes to this privacy policy
14.1 This privacy policy was published on 13th January 2026 and last updated on 13th January 2026.
14.2We may change this privacy policy from time to time. When we do, we will publish the updated version on our website and ask for your consent to the changes if legally required.
15. Updating your personal data
We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal data remains accurate and up to date. To help us with this, please let us know if any of the personal data you have provided to us has changed, e.g. your surname or address—see ‘How to contact us’ at section 16).
16. How to contact us
16.1 Individuals in the UK
You can contact us and/or our Data Protection Officer by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you, to exercise a right under data protection law or to make a complaint.
Our contact details are shown below:
| Our contact details | Our Data Protection Officer’s contact details |
| Brightstone Law LLP, Brightstone House, 511 Centennial Park, Centennial Avenue, Elstree, Hertfordshire WD6 3FG | Jonathan Newman [email protected] 0208 7313080 |
17. Do you need extra help?
If you would like this policy in another format (for example audio, large print, braille) please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ above).