WHO WE ARE
We are Holmes O’Malley Sexton LLP (“Holmes”), Solicitors of:-
1. Suite 1, Bishopsgate, Henry Street, Limerick
2. Suite 1, 2 Ely Place, Dublin 2
3. Suite 1, 1A South Mall, Cork
4. Suite 1, New London House, 6 London Street, London.
You can contact us at our Limerick address by post or by email at info@holmeslaw.ie.
Our data protection champion may be contacted at dataprotection@hosllp.ie.
This policy relates to the privacy practices of Holmes in connection with this website. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of other websites. Any external links to other websites will be identifiable as such and Holmes will not be responsible for your privacy once you leave this website.
We fully respect your right to privacy and accordingly we will not collect any personal information about you on this website without your clear knowledge and permission. Any personal information which you volunteer to Holmes O’Malley Sexton will be processed in accordance with applicable data protection law including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679. (‘GDPR’) and the Data Protection Acts 1988-2018 (‘the DPA’).
This policy applies to all our websites, domains and apps unless otherwise stated.
WHY WE PROCESS YOUR DATA AND THE LAWFUL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR DATA
For people who view and interact with our website, we will only process your personal data where you provide it to us for a particular reason, including:
- To respond to queries sent through our ‘contact us’ form;
- To provide you with legal services and advice where you make contact with us via the website;
- To sign you up to receiving our newsletter and other legal updates when you are an existing client or when you request subscription through our website;
- To sign you up to our Fittest Company Challenge in accordance with the Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run when you request subscription through our website; and
- To review and process feedback you might provide to us;
- Where you are a job applicant or potential job applicant, to ascertain your suitability for a current/future role and to contact you for this purpose.
The lawful basis upon which we process your personal data will depend on the nature of your relationship with us.
Where you are a client of Holmes, we will process your personal data in accordance with our terms of engagement which you will have received at the outset of our engagement with you.
For all other website visitors, we will process your personal data on the basis of consent in circumstances where you have voluntarily provided your personal data to us for a particular reason. It is important to note that, where we process your personal data on the basis of consent, this consent can be withdrawn at any time. This will not however affect the lawfulness of any processing before such withdrawal.
We will not process personal data obtained through this website for any other reason other than that for which it has been provided to us unless we are required to do so by law or in order to protect your vital interests.
It is also possible to visit or browse our website without providing us with any personal data and this will not affect your ability to view our website. When you visit our website however, certain anonymous data will be available to us automatically via our internet service provider. Such data may include: the domain name you use (for example .ie, .com, .org, .net), the type of browser and operating system you use, the date and time of you accessed our website and the pages you visited. You will not be identifiable from this data.
We use this data mainly for statistical purposes i.e. to monitor usage and trends on our website but also to allow us to make our website more user-friendly and efficient.
We do not use any personal data for the purpose of automated decision-making or profiling.
COOKIES
Cookies help us to improve our website and to deliver a better and more personalised service. For these reasons we may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on your browser or the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. Some of the cookies we use may be essential for the Site to operate.
Currently we use Google Analytics and information on the use of cookies in this respect can be found by clicking the following link.
If you continue to use our website, you consent to our use of cookies for the above mentioned purposes. If you wish to opt out of the use of cookies, you can manage and control them through your browser, including removing cookies by deleting them from your ‘browser history’ when you leave the Site or you can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies.
However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon you visit the website.
WHO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH
Where you are a client of Holmes, your personal data may be shared with third parties as provided for in our terms of engagement. It is important to remember that information communicated in connection with the provision of our services is subject to client confidentiality obligations and may be protected by legal professional privilege.
Where you are a job applicant or a potential job applicant, your personal data might be shared with our recruitment provider in order to help us assess your suitability for a potential role.
Where we feel it is necessary to share your personal data with a third party, such processing will be carried out in accordance with our obligations under the GDPR and the DPA.
For all other visitors to our website, your personal data will generally not be shared with any third party.
In the unlikely event that this business is sold or integrated with another business all website users details may be disclosed to our advisers and any prospective purchasers and their advisers and will be passed on to the new owners of the business.
HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR DATA
Where you are a client of Holmes, your personal data will be retained in accordance with our terms of engagement.
Where you are a job applicant or a potential job applicant, your personal data will be retained for a period of up to 1 year.
For all other visitors to our website, your personal data will be retained for as long as we have your consent to do so.
HOW WE KEEP YOUR DATA SECURE
We will use technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal data to include:-
- we store your personal data on a secure server
- access to central IT servers is restricted in a secure location to a limited number of staff with appropriate procedures for the accompaniment of any non-authorised staff or contractors
- access to personal data is restricted to authorised staff on a ‘need-to-know’ basis in accordance with a defined policy
- access to computer systems is password protected with other factors of authentication as appropriate to the sensitivity of the information
- information on computer screens and manual files are kept hidden from callers to our offices
- a back-up procedure is in operation for computer held data, including off-site back-up
- all reasonable measures are taken to ensure that staff are made aware of the organisation’ s security measures, and comply with them
- all waste papers, printouts, etc. are disposed of carefully
- a designated person is responsible for security and for periodic reviews of the measures and practices in place.
Whilst we will use all reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal data, you acknowledge that the use of the internet is not entirely secure and for this reason we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal data which is transferred from you or to you via the internet.
TRANSFERS OF DATA OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA
Holmes will generally not process your personal data outside the European Economic Area. In the unlikely circumstances where such transfers are required, we will ensure that those transfers are lawful in accordance with Chapter 5 of the GDPR.
YOUR RIGHTS
You have the following rights under the GDPR, in certain circumstances and subject to certain exemptions, in relation to your personal data:
- Access the data – you have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, together with other information about our processing of that personal data.
- Rectification- you have the right to request that any inaccurate data that is held about you is corrected, or if we have incomplete information you may request that we update the information such that it is complete.
- Erasure – you have the right to request us to delete personal data that we hold about you. This is sometimes referred to as the right to be forgotten.
- Restriction of processing or to object to processing – you have the right to request that we no longer process your personal data for particular purposes, or to object to our processing of your personal data for particular purposes.
- Data portability – you have the right to request us to provide you, or a third party, with a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used machine readable format.
In order to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at dataprotection@hosllp.ie.
Please note that in order to exercise these rights, we may be required to verify your identity.
If you are an existing client of Holmes, you also have a right under the Solicitors Acts 1954-2015 to a copy of your full file from us in addition to your rights under data protection legislation. Please note however, that release of your file to you may be dependent on whether you have discharged all outstanding sums due and owing to Holmes at the date of your request.
WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER
When submitting any information via this website, you are warranting that the information is accurate and correct, and does not violate any obligation of confidentiality (or other legal or contractual obligation), break any law or applicable regulation, or subject Holmes to any liability.
To the extent that receipt of any information violates the foregoing warranty or subjects Holmes to any legal action or liability, you hereby agree to defend and hold harmless Holmes from all such legal action or liability.
CONTACT US
If you are unhappy with how we process personal data or if you have any queries or feedback, we ask you to contact us by emailing dataprotection@hosllp.ie so that we can rectify the situation.
You may also lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission at the following address:-
Office of the Data Protection Commission
21 Fitzwilliam Square South
Dublin 2
D02 RD28
Webform: https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/contact/how-contact-us
CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may change this policy from time to time. You should check this policy occasionally to ensure you are aware of the most recent version which will apply each time you access the website.