Privacy policy

About this policy

This policy explains how Kort collects, uses, shares, and protects personal data when you visit our website, contact us, book a consultation, buy a Kontract tailored contract, or instruct us as a client.

For our work in the United Kingdom and for this website, the data controller is Kort Law Firm LTD, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17371018, with its registered office at Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BD. For legal services provided in Lebanon, Hassan Khalil, practising from our Beirut office, is responsible for your personal data.

We comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and, where it applies, Lebanese Law No. 81 of 2018 on Electronic Transactions and Personal Data.

If you have any questions about this policy or your personal data, contact us at info@kortfirm.com.

The personal data we collect

When you contact us or book a consultation: your name, email address, telephone number, the organisation you work for, and the information you give us about your enquiry.

When you buy a Kontract tailored contract: your name and contact details, billing details, and the information you provide in our intake form about the parties, terms, and purpose of the contract. Card payments are processed by our payment provider, Stripe. We do not see or store your full card details.

When you instruct us as a client: the information needed to act for you, which may include identity documents and information required for anti-money-laundering and conflict checks, and information about your matter. Some of this information may concern other people, such as counterparties, employees, or family members.

When you visit our website: our hosting provider records technical information, such as your IP address, browser type, and the pages requested, to deliver and secure the website. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

When you subscribe to our updates: your email address and your consent to receive our emails.

We ask you not to send us sensitive personal data, such as information about health, religion, or criminal matters, unless we have asked for it in connection with your matter.

How and why we use your personal data

We use your personal data only where the law allows us to. We rely on the following legal bases:

• To perform a contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into one: responding to your enquiry, arranging consultations, preparing and delivering Kontract tailored contracts, and providing legal services.
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations: carrying out conflict checks, identity and anti-money-laundering checks where required, keeping accounting and tax records, and meeting our professional obligations as lawyers.
• For our legitimate interests: running and securing our website and business, managing our client relationships, improving our services, and establishing, exercising, or defending legal claims. We only rely on legitimate interests where they are not overridden by your rights and interests.
• With your consent: sending you updates and insights by email. You can withdraw your consent at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us.

Where we process special category data or criminal offence data in connection with a legal matter, we do so where it is necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims, or where another lawful condition applies.

Who we share your personal data with

We share personal data only where necessary, and only with:

• Service providers who support our business, including our website host (Netlify), which also receives the forms you submit on our website, our payment processor (Stripe), our appointment scheduling provider, and our email and IT providers. They process personal data on our instructions and are required to keep it secure.
• Professional advisers and other lawyers, such as barristers, local counsel, experts, and translators, where needed for your matter and with your agreement.
• Our accountants, auditors, and insurers, where needed.
• Courts, regulators, and public authorities, where we are required to by law or where needed to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

We do not sell your personal data.

International transfers

We have offices in London and Beirut, and some of our service providers are based outside the United Kingdom. As a result, your personal data may be transferred to, and stored in, countries outside the UK, including Lebanon and the United States.

Where the UK has not recognised a country as providing adequate protection for personal data, we put appropriate safeguards in place, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or we rely on a lawful exception, for example where the transfer is necessary to perform our contract with you or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. You can contact us for more information about these safeguards.

How long we keep your personal data

We keep personal data only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy:

• Enquiries that do not become matters: up to 12 months after our last contact.
• Client and matter files, including Kontract orders: 7 years after the matter ends, or longer where the law or the nature of the matter requires it.
• Accounting and tax records: at least 6 years after the end of the relevant financial year.
• Mailing list data: until you unsubscribe.

Keeping your personal data secure

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, including encrypted connections, access controls, and secure service providers. No transmission over the internet is completely secure, so please take care when sending us confidential information by email.

Your rights

Under data protection law, you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data;
• ask us to delete your personal data;
• ask us to restrict how we use your personal data;
• object to our use of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests;
• ask us to transfer your personal data to you or to another organisation; and
• withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

Some of these rights are limited, for example where we need to keep information to comply with a legal obligation or where it is protected by legal professional privilege.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@kortfirm.com. We will respond within one month.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us first so that we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at www.ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Children

Our website and services are not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be published on this page, with the date it was last updated.