This policy outlines the way in which we manage the personal information we hold about our clients, potential clients, contractors and others. We, us, our, Succeed Legal are defined at the end of this policy.
Succeed Legal is bound by the Privacy Act 2020 (Privacy Act).
In summary, ‘personal information' is information about an identifiable individual.
Why does Succeed Legal collect personal information?
We collect personal information in order to conduct our business, to provide and market our services and to meet our legal obligations, including (but not limited to) in relation to our anti-money laundering and countering of financing terrorism compliance obligations.
Who does Succeed Legal collect personal information about?
We collect and hold personal information about (but not limited to):
- clients, business associates and potential clients and their employees, contractors, owners and directors;
- individuals we deal with in the course of acting for clients and carrying on our business;
- suppliers and their employees and contractors;
- prospective employees, employees and contractors; and
- other people who come into contact with Succeed Legal.
What kinds of personal information does Succeed Legal collect?
In general, and depending upon the nature of the person’s connection with Succeed Legal, the type of personal information we collect and hold includes (but is not limited to): names, addresses, contact details, date of birth, occupations, personal preference payment details, employment history and/or details, education and qualifications, testimonials and feedback, nature of relationship to our client, evidence of source of funds (in some cases) and other information which assists us in conducting our business, providing and marketing our services and meeting our legal obligations.
In some cases, if personal information we request is not provided, it might adversely impact our ability to supply the relevant product or service or to perform our obligation.
How does Succeed Legal collect personal information?
Except as otherwise permitted by law, we will collect personal information:
- from you directly when you provide your details to us;
- from you indirectly (through emails, forms, subscription applications, face-to-face meetings, interviews, registration and attendance at seminars, business cards, telephone conversations and through the use of the services and facilities available through our websites and social media channels);
- from third parties in some instances, for example, we may use third parties to analyse traffic at our websites and social media channels, which may involve the use of cookies. In some circumstances we might collect personal information about an individual from a third party, for example, a report provided by a medical professional or an employment reference from another person; and
- from publicly available websites.
Where we collect personal information about you from a third party, we will take reasonable steps to ensure you are made aware of that collection, the source of the information, and the purpose for which it has been obtained, unless an exception applies under the Privacy Act.
Exceptions may apply where notifying you would be unreasonable or impracticable, would prejudice the purpose of collection, would prejudice the maintenance of the law, would breach legal professional privilege, or is otherwise permitted by law.
Management of personal information
We take reasonable steps to protect the security of personal information. Succeed Legal’s personnel are required to respect the confidentiality of personal information and the privacy of individuals.
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information held by us from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, for example by use of physical security and restricted access to electronic records.
We take reasonable steps to safeguard information submitted through our website. However, no method of transmitting information over the internet is completely secure, and you provide personal information online at your own risk.
Where we no longer require your personal information we will comply with our legal obligations in respect of that information.
How might Succeed Legal collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?
In general, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:
- to conduct our business;
- to provide and market our services to you;
- to provide joint marketing initiatives with other service providers;
- to engage third parties on your behalf;
- to communicate with you;
- to purchase goods or services;
- to help us manage and enhance our services;
- to check your identity against governmental databases, including:
- the National Register of driver licences;
- one or more of the following databases maintained by the Department of Internal Affairs:
- birth or death information recorded under the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995;
- citizenship information recorded under the Citizenship Act 1977; and/or
- travel document information recorded under the Passports Act 1992; and/or
- the records of the Document Verification Service (and related databases) maintained and provided by the Commonwealth of Australia; and
- to comply with our legal obligations, including (but not limited to) in relation to our anti-money laundering and countering of financing of terrorism compliance obligations.
Where personal information is obtained from third parties for any of the purposes described above, Succeed Legal will comply with any applicable notification obligations under the Privacy Act.
To whom might Succeed Legal disclose your personal information?
We may disclose your personal information to:
- other staff members of Succeed Legal;
- other companies or individuals who assist us in providing services or who perform functions on our behalf, such as mailing houses, hosting and data storage providers, specialist consultants and barristers, technology providers such as generative AI technologies to assist us in legal research, document review, document drafting and other legal tasks.
Our technology providers (including generative AI providers) may use your personal information to provide services to us, to administer, maintain, analyse, improve and/or develop their services, to undertake their business processes, to comply with their legal obligations and to conduct research. Unless we state otherwise, our technology providers will not use your personal information to improve AI training models, train, retrain or improve foundation models, improve third party products or services, conduct user profiling, advertising or similar commercial purposes, or to market products and services to you.
Our technology providers may rely on and make your personal information available to their third party providers (which may be located in countries other than New Zealand) in the course of delivering their services to us, including for hosting, cloud storage, email communication and web analytics purposes, such as the Azure OpenAI Service operated by Microsoft. Our technology providers may share your IP address and other information about your device to Microsoft for security reasons. Our technology providers may also share your personal information with their affiliates, any other entity that they merge with or sell their business or assets to, and other third parties (such as government agencies) if legally required to do so.
- other companies or individuals who perform checks that are necessary or desirable under law on our behalf;
- other companies, agencies or individuals that maintain databases against which your identity may be verified, which may include (but is not limited to) the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand Transport Agency, and the Commonwealth of Australia Document Verification Service;
- social media sites on which we have a presence;
- courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities;
- anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it; and
- where we are required to do so by law including for AML/CFT purposes.
How can you access and correct your personal information?
We endeavour to ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date. This includes personal information collected about you from third parties. We encourage you to contact us in order to update any personal information we hold about you. Contact details are set out below. You have the right to correct any personal information we hold about you in accordance with the Privacy Act.
Subject to the exceptions set out in the Privacy Act, you may seek access to the personal information which we hold about you by contacting our Privacy Officer on 04 909 3740.
We will require you to verify your identity and to specify what information you require. A fee may be charged for providing access. If a fee is to be charged, we will advise you of the likely cost in advance.
Privacy breach notification
In the event we discover a privacy breach, we will contain the breach immediately. Once contained we will investigate to assess the seriousness of the breach and consider who needs to be directly notified.
If the breach is likely to cause anyone serious harm we will notify the Privacy Commissioner and the affected individual as soon as possible.
Privacy breach notification – Office of the Privacy Commissioner
How can you make a privacy complaint?
If you have any questions about privacy related issues or wish to complain about the handling of your personal information by us, please contact our Privacy Officer on 04 909 3740. We may ask you to lodge your complaint in writing. Any complaint will be investigated by the Privacy Officer and you will be notified of the decision in relation to your complaint as soon as practicable after it is made, usually within 20 working days.
If we are unable to satisfactorily resolve your concerns about our handling of your personal information, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at: PO Box 10-094, The Terrace, Wellington 6143, phone 0800 803 909, privacy.org.nz.
Address details of Succeed Legal
The address of Succeed Legal, as the person collecting and holding your personal information, is:
Level 5, 119 Featherston StreetPO Box 1847
Wellington
New Zealand 6140
Updates to this Policy
This Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and practices and the changing business environment. The most current version of this Policy can be obtained by contacting our Privacy Officer on 04 909 3740.