Privacy Notice
Bhandari Naqvi Riaz (“BNR”) is committed to safeguarding the privacy and security of personal data we may collect from clients to whom we provide legal and other services.
By providing your personal data to us (whether via email, in person or over the phone), you agree to the processing set out in this Privacy Notice.
If you provide your personal data to BNR (either through email, in-person meetings, or over the phone), you consent to the processing of your personal data as outlined in this Privacy Notice.
This Privacy notice does not apply to, and BNR is not responsible for, any third-party websites (if any) which may be accessible through links from BNR’s website. If you follow a link to any of these third-party websites, they will have their own privacy policies and you will need to check these policies before you submit any personal data to such third-party websites.
BNR does not assume responsibility for any third-party websites (if any) that may be reached through links on their website, and this Privacy Notice does not apply to those websites. If you choose to visit these third-party websites, they will have their own privacy policies and it is your responsibility to review and understand those policies before submitting any personal data to them.
This Privacy Notice aims to help you understand our personal data collection, usage, and disclosure practices by explaining:
- Who we are and what we do
BNR is a Pakistani law firm, providing comprehensive dispute resolution, advisory and transaction-related services to a broad spectrum of clients.
- What personal data we collect about you
As part of conducting our business and delivering services to our clients, we may collect and process various categories of personal data. These include:
- Basic personal details (such as your name and job title);
- Contact data (such as your telephone number and postal or email address);
- Financial data (such as payment related information or bank account details);
- Demographic data (such as your address, preferences or interests);
- Personal data from our clients or their representatives or generate it ourselves while providing our services (this may include special categories of personal data)
- Identification, and other background verification data (such as a copy of passports or utility bills or evidence of beneficial ownership or the source of funds to comply with client due diligence);
- Recruitment related data (such as your curriculum vitae, your education and employment history, details of professional memberships, and other information relevant to potential recruitment to BNR);
- Data that you provide us with while registering for and participating in events or meetings; and
- Any other personal data.
- How we obtain the personal data about you
We may gather or obtain your personal data through various means, such as:
- Through email correspondence or other forms of direct communication;
- other email communications sent from or received by BNR;
- Third party sources (such as for “know your client” checks during our client acceptance procedures or for recruitment purposes)
- Publicly available sources, such as LinkedIn, to keep the contact details we have for you up to date or for professional networking purposes.
- How we use your personal data
We will only process your personal data in accordance with applicable laws. We may use your personal data for the following legal reasons:
- Contract performance: when we need your information to enter into or fulfill our contractual obligations to you.
- Legal obligation: when we are required to use your information to comply with our legal obligations.
- Legitimate interests: when we use your information to achieve legitimate interests and the benefits outweigh any harm to your data protection rights.
- Legal claims: when your information is necessary to defend, prosecute or pursue a claim against you, us or a third party.
- Consent: when you have given your consent to us to use of your information (which you may withdraw your consent at any time by informing us).
We may use your personal data in the following ways:
- To provide our legal and other services to you and to conduct our business– to administer and perform our services, including to carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between you and us (please note that our Standard Terms of Engagement apply where we provide legal services);
- For recruitment purposes– to enable us to process applications for employment submitted via email and other modes and to assess your suitability for any position for which you may apply at BNR;
- To fulfil our legal, regulatory, or risk management obligations– to comply with our legal obligations (performing client due diligence/“know your client”, anti-money laundering, anti-bribery, or reputational risk screening, identifying conflicts of interests); for the prevention of fraud and/or other relevant background checks as may be required by applicable law and regulation and best practice at any given time (if false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified or suspected, details may be passed to fraud prevention agencies and may be recorded by us or by them); to enforce our legal rights, to comply with our legal or regulatory reporting obligations and/or to protect the rights of third parties;
- To ensure that we are paid– to recover any payments due to us and where necessary to enforce such recovery through the engagement of debt collection agencies or taking other legal action (including the commencement and carrying out of legal and court proceedings);
- To inform you of changes– to notify you about changes to our services or our Standard Terms of Engagement for legal services or this Privacy Notice;
- To reorganise or make changes to our business-In the event that we are undergo a re-organisation (for example if we merge, combine or divest a part of our business), we may need to transfer some or all of your personal data to the relevant third party (or its advisors) as part of any due diligence process or transfer to that re-organised entity or third party your personal data for the same purposes as set out in this Privacy Notice or for the purpose of analyzing any proposed re-organisation;
- Who we share your personal data with
We may also share your personal data with various third parties, such as:
- Our professional advisors (e.g., legal, financial, business, risk management or other advisors);
- Bankers and Auditors;
- Other third-party advisors such as lawyers and technology service providers (e.g., document review platforms).
We will only share your personal data with third parties in compliance with applicable laws and regulations and subject to appropriate safeguards being in place to protect your personal data.
- Which countries we transfer your personal data to
In most cases your data is not transferred outside of Pakistan. If, in case it is transferred, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as entering into contractual clauses or obtaining the relevant individual’s consent for the transfer. These measures are designed to ensure that your personal data remains protected and that we comply with applicable data protection laws.
- How long we keep your personal data
We will retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purpose it was collected for and any other permitted linked purpose (e.g., certain transaction details and correspondence related to any legal services provided by BNR).
If your personal data is used for multiple purposes, we will retain it until the purpose with the latest period expires. Our retention periods are also based on our business needs and good practice.
- How we protect your personal data
BNR has implemented a range of physical, technical and procedural measures to help protect personal data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction in accordance with data protection law requirements. The ISO/IEC 27001:2013 (ISO 27001) accreditation for IT operations globally is a significant step towards demonstrating the organization’s commitment to information security management in line with best practice. It’s also reassuring to know that everyone at BNR and third-party service providers engaged to process personal data on their behalf are obligated to respect the confidentiality of personal data.
- What rights you have in relation to your personal data
If you have any questions about our use of your personal data, contact details for BNR are provided in section 10. Under certain circumstances and applicable data protection laws, you may have the right to require us to:
- provide you with further details on the use BNR make of your information;
- provide you with a copy of information that we hold about you;
- update any inaccuracies in the personal data BNR hold;
- delete any personal data that BNR no longer have a lawful ground to use;
- where processing is based on consent, to withdraw your consent so that BNR stops that particular processing;
- object to any processing based on the legitimate interests ground unless our reasons for undertaking that processing outweigh any prejudice to your data protection rights; and
- restrict how BNR uses your information whilst a complaint is being investigated.
You may also prevent us from processing your personal data for marketing purposes. We will inform you if we intend to disclose your information to any third-party service provider for this purpose.
You can exercise your right to prevent processing your data at any time by contacting us at [email protected].
While it is our policy to respect the rights of individuals, please be aware that your exercise of these rights is subject to certain exemptions to safeguard the public interest (e.g. the prevention or detection of crime), our interests (e.g. the maintenance of legal privilege) and some of these rights may be limited (for example the right to withdraw consent) where we are required or permitted by law to continue processing your personal data to defend our legal rights or meet our legal and regulatory obligations.
If you contact us to exercise any of these rights, we will check your entitlement and respond in most cases within a month.
- How you can contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how we process your personal data, please contact us by sending an email to: [email protected] or by writing to:
Bhandari Naqvi Riaz
15 Zafar Ali Road
Gulberg V
Lahore 54660
Pakistan
- How we may update this Privacy Notice
We may change the content of our websites and how we use cookies without notice and consequently our Privacy notice may change from time to time in the future. We therefore encourage you to review them when you visit the website to stay informed of how we are using personal data.