Privacy Policy

When visiting our website or use our secure portal or client portal, and when you communicate with us, we collect a certain amount of personal information about you.

We may collect and process different types of personal information in the course of operating our business and providing our services. These include:

• Personal information such as first and last name;
• Contact information physical address, email address and telephone number;
• Biographical information such as job title, employer, photograph and video or audio content;
• Marketing, communication preferences and related information such as meal preferences, feedback and survey responses;
• Billing and financial information such as billing address, bank account and payment information;
• Services information such as details of services that we have rendered to you;
• Recruitment information such as your curriculum vitae, your education and employment history, details of professional memberships and other information relevant to potential recruitment or association to or with Fasken;
• Website usage and other technical information such as details of visits to our websites or information collected through cookies, your interaction with our online advertising and content and other tracking technologies. For more information, please refer to our Cookies Policy;
• Information provided to us by or on behalf of our clients or generated by us in the course of providing our services, which may, where relevant, include special categories of personal information (such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, health or sexual orientation, etc.);
• Identification and other background verification data such as a copy of driver’s licence, passports or utility bills or evidence of beneficial ownership or the source of funds to comply with anti-money laundering laws and collected as part of our client acceptance and ongoing monitoring procedures;
• Any other personal information provided. Please note that if you provide personal information to us about other people (such as your customers, directors, officers, shareholders or beneficial owners), you must ensure that you have given those individuals an appropriate notice that you are providing their information to us and have obtained their consent to that disclosure;
• Where applicable, Records of consent given to us (date, time, means of consent), in circumstances where such consent is need for the processing of personal information; and
• Where we need Special Personal Information, it will happen in the ordinary course of business, in accordance with the applicable law and/or for a legitimate purpose.

We do not knowingly collect information from children or other persons who are under 16 years old. If you are a minor under 16 years old, please do not provide us with any personal information without the express consent of a parent or guardian. If you are a parent or guardian and you know that your children have provided us with personal information, please contact us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from minor children without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.

You cannot send us confidential information until we have confirmed in writing that we represent or act for you or your company or organization. Unsolicited emails sent to us from non-clients do not establish a lawyer-client relationship. They may not be privileged and, therefore, are subject to disclosure to third parties.

We collect your personal information from yourself and during interactions with you, in particular:

• During the course of providing legal services to you
• When you register for seminars, training, newsletters

We also collect information publicly available notably in public platforms, including our website.

We use your personal information to provide and improve our services to you.  We also use it to meet our legal obligations.

We may use personal information in the following ways, either with your consent (whether implied or express) or, where applicable, according an other legal basis under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). In each case, we identify the grounds that we rely on to use your personal information:

• To provide our legal and other services 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. Applicable legal basis under the GDPR: contract performance and to carry out actions for the conclusion of the contract;
• To respond to requests for information or enquiries from visitors to our websites. Applicable legal basis under the GDPR: contract performance; 
• To facilitate use of our websites and to ensure content is relevant and to ensure that content from our websites is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device. Applicable legal basis under the GDPR: legitimate interests (to allow us to provide the content and services on the websites);
• For marketing and business development purposes – to provide details of new services, legal updates and invitations to seminars and events where an individual has chosen to receive these. Applicable legal bases under the GDPR: legitimate interests, consent;
• For research and development purposes (including from a security perspective) – analysis in order to better understand our clients’ services and marketing requirements and to better understand our business and develop our services and offerings. Applicable legal basis under the GDPR: legitimate interests (to allow us to improve our services); you may unsubscribe at any time;
• For recruitment purposes – to enable us to process applications for employment and to assess your suitability for any position for which an individual may apply at Fasken. Applicable legal bases under the GDPR: legitimate interests (to ensure that we can make the most appropriate recruitment decisions for Fasken), contract performance (in order for us to take steps to enter into a contract with someone who requested it);
• To fulfil our legal, regulatory, or risk management obligations – to comply with our legal obligations (performing client due diligence/“know your client”, anti-bribery, sanctions or reputational risk screening, identifying conflicts of interests). Applicable legal basis under the GDPR: legal obligation;
• To fight against fraud and/or other relevant background checks, notably as may be required by applicable law and regulation and/or 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). Applicable legal basis under the GDPR: legitimate interests (to cooperate with law enforcement and regulatory authorities, to ensure acceptable risk profile and to assist with the prevention of crime and fraud). Where we process special categories of personal information we may also rely on substantial public interest (prevention or detection of crime) or legal claims;
• To enforce our legal rights, to comply with our legal or regulatory reporting obligations and/or to protect the rights of third parties. Applicable legal basis under the GDPR: legal obligations;
• 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). Applicable legal basis under the GDPR: contract performance;
• To reorganize or make changes to our business – In the event that we undergo a reorganization (for example if we merge, combine or divest a part of our business), we may need to transfer some or all of personal information to the relevant third party (or its advisors) as part of any due diligence process or transfer to that reorganized entity or third party your personal information for the same purposes as set out in this Privacy Policy or for the purpose of analyzing any proposed reorganization. Applicable legal basis under the GDPR: legitimate interests (in order to allow us to change our business).

If you no longer want to receive marketing-related emails from us, such as our newsletter, you may opt-out of receiving marketing-related emails by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email you receive from us, or, if you created an online account when you registered to receive our emails, you may log-in to your account and make changes to your communication preferences. You may also opt-out by contacting us directly using the contact information in the “How to Contact Us” section below.

We will endeavour to respond to your opt-out request promptly, but we ask that you please allow us a reasonable time to process your request. Please note that if you opt-out from receiving marketing-related emails, we may still need to send you communications about your use of our products or services, or other matters.

We may provide your personal information to our service providers and partners.  We may also disclose your personal information to fulfill a legal obligation or to enforce our rights.

Fasken is a global law firm and as such, any personal information that we collect may be shared with and processed by any Fasken entity within our network. We may also share personal information with certain third parties such as:

• Third-party service providers and/or vendors who provide website, application development, hosting, maintenance, and other technological services to us. Other third-party service providers and/or vendors assist us with human resources management and marketing activities. These third parties may have access to, or process personal information as part of providing those services for us. We limit the information provided to these service providers to that which is reasonably necessary for them to perform their functions, and our contracts with them require them to maintain the confidentiality of such information;
• Law enforcement and governmental entities when required by law. For greater clarity, we may disclose personal information or other information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with applicable laws, in response to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena or warrant, or to otherwise cooperate with law enforcement or other governmental agencies;
• An acquirer, successor or assignee as part of any merger, acquisition, debt financing, sale of assets, or similar transaction, as well as in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our business assets; and
• We will only use personal information to fulfil the primary purpose and applicable legitimate purpose it was collected for, or for a purpose compatible with that primary purpose.

Your personal information is currently hosted in Canada.

As a global law firm, personal information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage third party service providers (i.e. Canada, United States, United Kingdom and South Africa). You consent to the transfer of information to countries outside your country of residence, which may have different data protection rules than in your country of residence. While such information is outside of your country of residence, it is subject to the laws of the country in which it is held, and may be subject to disclosure to the governments, courts or law enforcement or regulatory agencies of such other country, pursuant to the laws of such country.

However, our practices regarding your personal information will at all times continue to be governed by this Privacy Policy and, if applicable, we will comply with, where applicable, the GDPR and/or the South African Protection of Personal Information Act requirements providing adequate protection for the transfer of personal information from the EU/EEA/South Africa to third country, notably by implementing appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses. Fasken will hold organizations outside Canada accountable under Canadian law for any personal information which may be transferred to them.

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. We maintain appropriate physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, misuse, and any other unlawful form of processing of the personal information in our possession. We have taken steps to ensure that the only personnel, under a duty of confidentiality, who are granted access to your personal information are those with a business ‘need-to-know’ or whose duties reasonably require such information.

However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. We cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit or provide to us, and you do so at your own risk. We also cannot guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or administrative safeguards. If you believe personal information has been compromised, please contact us as set forth in the “How to contact us?” section.

You have a certain number of rights with respect to your personal information.

Under certain circumstances and in accordance with applicable data protection laws, an individual may have the following rights:

• Access: entitled to ask if we are processing information and, if we are, request access to personal information. Subject to applicable law and, where applicable, payment of a possible fee, this enables the individual to receive a copy of the personal information we hold and certain other information about him or her or it;
• Accuracy: we are required to take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information in our possession is accurate, complete, not misleading and up to date; 
• Automated decisions: contest any automated decision made where this has a legal or similar significant effect and ask for it to be reconsidered;
• Correction: entitled to request that any incomplete or inaccurate personal information we hold be corrected.
• Erasure: entitled to ask us to delete, destroy or remove personal information in certain circumstances. There are certain exceptions where we may refuse a request for erasure or destruction, for example, where the personal information is required for compliance with law or in connection with claims or required by contract between the parties;
• Objection: one may challenge when we are processing personal information based on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) or for certain direct marketing purposes. However, we may be entitled to continue processing information;
• Portability: request the transfer of certain personal information to another party;
• Restriction: entitles to ask us to suspend the processing of certain personal information, for example to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it; and
• Withdrawal of consent: entitles to ask us to stop disclosing or using your personal information.

Finally, you have also a right to make a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the country/province/state where you normally reside, where we are based or where an alleged infringement of data protection law has taken place.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us as set forth in the “How to contact us?” section.

For any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or personal information, to exercise any applicable rights, to make a complaint, or to obtain information about our policies and practices with respect to any service providers outside Canada, our Privacy Officer can be reached by email at privacy@fasken.com or by mail using the following contact information:

Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP

Attn: Privacy Officer

800, Place Victoria, Suite 3500

Montréal, Québec, H3C 0B4, Canada

We may change the content of our websites and how we use cookies without notice and consequently our Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy may change from time to time in the future. We therefore encourage you to review them whenever you visit the website to stay informed of how we are processing personal information.

This Privacy Policy was last updated November 1, 2023.