European Economic Area and United Kingdom Privacy Policy | McDermott Skip to main content

European Economic Area and United Kingdom Privacy Policy

Effective Date: January 1, 2021

This Privacy Policy applies to McDermott Will & Schulte’s processing of Personal Data in the context of its establishments in the EEA, as well as McDermott Will & Schulte’s offering of goods and services, or monitoring the behavior, of individuals located in the EEA. This Privacy Policy describes how McDermott collects and otherwise processes your Personal Data (as defined below) in connection with:

  • Your use of our website and mobile applications;
  • Subscriptions to our newsletters and other marketing messages;
  • Invitations to and participation in our webinars, seminars, and other events;
  • Alumni communications and activities;
  • Recruitment processes;
  • Client and potential client matters;
  • Procurement and potential procurement; and
  • Our use of Personal Data related to the family members, next of kin, and/or dependents of our current and former employees and other McDermott personnel in connection with the provision of benefits and similar services.

For any other use of your Personal Data, please refer to our general Privacy and Cookie Policy.

McDermott as data controller

“McDermott Will & Schulte” or “McDermott” refers to one of the following entities: McDermott Will & Schulte LLP (US), McDermott Will & Schulte AARPI (France), McDermott Will & Schulte Belgium LLP (Belgium), McDermott Will & Schulte Rechtsanwälte Steuerberater LLP (Germany), McDermott Will & Schulte Studio Legale Associato (Italy), and McDermott Will & Schulte UK LLP (UK) as well as McDermott+ Consulting LLC (US) and McDermott Training UG (haftungsbeschränkt) (Germany) including each civil law notary (“Notar”) whose office is within a McDermott office in Germany (each, an “Entity” or together, “Entities”).

This Privacy Policy is provided on behalf of each McDermott Entity, which are not joint controllers with regard to Personal Data collected under this Privacy Policy. Depending on the type of or location where legal or other services are provided, different Entities may be the data controller in relation to your Personal Data. The data controller (“we”, “us”, “our”) is the Entity named when we collect your Personal Data or in the location where McDermott referred you to this Privacy Policy (e.g., the Entity identified in the email signature containing a link to this Privacy Policy).

If no Entity has been clearly identified, the data controller or data controllers may be identified in the following order or precedence:

  • For Personal Data that McDermott collects on or through its websites and mobile applications, McDermott Will & Schulte LLP is the data controller.
  • For Personal Data that is collected in connection with our newsletters and other marketing message, the data controller is identified on the subscription form and in each message.
  • For Personal Data collected in connection with invitations and participation in our webinars, seminars, and other events, the data controller will be the Entity which is organizing such event as identified in the invitation.
  • For alumni communications and activities, the data controller is the Entity that is identified in the respective communication or in the context of the activity.
  • For Personal Data collected in the context of a recruitment process, the data controller is the Entity identified in the job posting or otherwise seeking to source a position.
  • For Personal Data that McDermott collects pursuant to a client or contractor relationship, the McDermott entity with which you have the client or contractor relationship is the data controller. Note that McDermott is an independent data controller with regard to Personal Data we obtain through our client relationships; McDermott will not be a data processor for our clients.
  • For activities in the context of the procurement of products and services, the data controller will be the Entity identified in the order form, agreement, or similar document.

If you have any doubt about the controller or controllers of your Personal Data, please contact us using the information in the section “Contact us” at the end of this Privacy Policy.

Personal data we process

“Personal Data” refers to any information that relates to you directly or indirectly or any other “personal data” as defined in Article 4 point 1 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) (“GDPR”). We process the following categories of Personal Data:

  • Contact information, such as your name, home or business address, email address, and phone number, social media handles, and business contact information;
  • Client information, which includes information provided or made available to us by or on behalf of our clients and information generated by us in the course of providing services to our clients;
  • Technical information, such as data collected about your interaction with our websites, mobile applications, and email communications;
  • Financial information, such as payment card and related information;
  • Recruitment information, such as curriculum vitae/resume, work history, and qualifications;
  • Identification or background information provided by you or collected by us or third parties as part of our recruitment, engagements, business analysis, client onboarding, regulatory compliance checks, and related processes;
  • Family information, such as the demographic and contact information of your family members, dependents, next kin, and other persons related to potential and current McDermott employees or other personnel; and
  • Any other information that you provide us that can be used to identify you.

We collect Personal Data

  • Direct interactions, such as when you enquire about our services, provide us your contact details, register for an event with us, provide us with information in connection with our services, participate in surveys or questionnaires, subscribe to newsletter and blog updates, post comments on our blogs, use our alumni website, or in any way engage with us or our personnel;
  • Cookies and automated technologies, such as when you interact with our website, mobile applications or click on links on our emails;
  • Mobile applications, such as when you use mobile applications that we may offer as part of our services or at certain McDermott events we host;
  • Private third party sources, such as when third parties, including other law firms, banks, or clients provide information to us;
  • Through social media, such as if you link to social media platforms or use social media plug-ins, we may (depending on your user privacy settings on that social media platform) automatically receive information about you from that social media platform;
  • Public sources, such as when we need to collect your Personal Data from publicly available sources including, government and law enforcement agencies, companies and land registries; and
  • Security systems, such as when you visit our offices we may obtain closed circuit television (“CCTV”) footage and other information through electronic means such as security/swipe card records.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Personal Data we obtain through our provision of legal services

We use Personal Data in the course of and in connection with the services we provide to our clients. The legal basis for processing such data will generally be our legitimate interest to provide legal services to our clients or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims of our clients (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). We will process identification and background information as part of our business acceptance, finance, administration and marketing processes, including anti-money laundering, conflict, reputational and financial checks. We will also process Personal Data provided to us by or on behalf of our clients for the purposes of the work we do for them or on their behalf. Such data will be subject to our professional obligation of confidentiality (attorney-client privilege). Personal Data may be disclosed to third parties to the extent necessary in connection with that work.

We may also manage legal claims, subpoenas, and requests in connection with investigations and dispute-resolution processes (“Legal Claims”) for you, our clients, and other third parties who may be involved in the Legal Claims. We will process contact information and any other information that pertains to the Legal Claims. The legal basis of processing will be to fulfill our legal, regulatory and risk management obligations, including establishing, exercising or defending legal claims (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR).

Personal Data we obtain outside of our provision of legal services

Below is a description of the Personal Data we collect outside of our provision of legal services, the likely source of the Personal Data, how we may use it, and for what purposes and pursuant to what legal basis.

Use of your Personal Data

 Categories of Personal Data we Process Source of the Personal Data

Legal Basis
Obtain your subscription preferences and send eNewsletters and similar marketing communications Contact information and other information you provide, such as your topic preferences and areas of interests You Legitimate Interest: To provide you with information you need and other services you request and to efficiently communicate with our client where you are the client or contact person for our client (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)
Respond to inquiries and fulfill requests Contact information and other information you provide, such as your requests You Legitimate Interest: To provide you with information you need and other services you request and to efficiently communicate with our client where you are the client or contact person for our client (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)

Consent: We will send you marketing communications by email and text/SMS pursuant to your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR)

Contract: If you are our client or prospective client (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR)
Conduct surveys and questionnaires Contact information and other information you provide, such as your survey answers You Legitimate interests: To evaluate and take action with regard to your feedback and comments about McDermott’s services (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)

Contract: If you are our client or prospective client (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR)
Register for online and in person events (including CLE programs) and deliver event-related materials Contact information and other information you provide, such as your preferences for the event You Legitimate interests: To enable your attendance at our events and to deliver you event materials (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)

Contract: As may be described on the registration page for the event (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR)
Obtain current contact data and update contact records in our CRM Contact information and other information you provide, such as your relationships to people at McDermott You, including via our alumni website, and public sources such as LinkedIn Legitimate interests: To ensure the integrity of our client and other contact data (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)
Perform website analytics Technical information and other information we collect  demographics, interests, behavior tracking, event tracking First and third party analytics cookies Legitimate interests: To understand more about our website visitors (what pages you view, how long you visit, your devices, etc.) in order to improve our services (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)
Recruit personnel Contact information, recruitment information, identification and background information, and other information relevant to potential recruitment by McDermott, such as your resume, any cover letter/application, work history, qualifications, and reference information. You, your references, your former employers, and public sources Precontractual Measures: To recruit and evaluate potential candidates to join McDermott (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR)

Legal obligations: To comply with applicable legal obligations, including in the field of employment law (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR)

Legitimate interest: To make the best recruitment decisions for our business (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)
Obtain and review security footage Image You Legitimate interest: To ensure the security and safety of our facilities (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR)
Process certain employee/personnel information for the provision of benefits and related services Contact and family information, including names, dates of birth, address, and phone numbers You and/or the employee or personnel member who has a working relationship with McDermott Legitimate interests: To provide attractive and effective benefit packages and related services to our personnel (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)

Special Categories

We only process Special Categories of Personal Data if you give us your explicit consent, the processing is necessary to meet a legal or regulatory obligation, the processing is in connection with the establishment, exercise or defense of our or our client’s legal claims or is otherwise expressly permitted by the GDPR. Special Categories of Personal Data includes information about your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, and data concerning health, sex life, and sexual orientation.

Other Uses

Any other purposes for which we wish to use your Personal Data that are not listed above, or any other changes we propose to make to the existing purposes will be notified to you by amending this Privacy Policy in accordance with the Section titled “Changes to this Privacy Policy” below.

If we need to collect Personal Data by law or under the terms of an engagement or contract we have with you and you fail to provide us with the information when requested, subject to our regulatory ethics, we may not be able to continue the engagement or perform the contract we have, or are trying to enter into, with you. We will inform you of any mandatory Personal Data we require from you and the consequences if you fail to provide it.

HOW WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will share your Personal Data within the same McDermott Entity, with other McDermott Entities as may be required, with data processors, and with other controllers. We may also transfer your Personal Data outside of the EEA and/or UK, as applicable.

Recipients within the same McDermott Entity

Your Personal Data will be used by our partners, employees and other staff members for the purposes described above and for accounting, tax and other administrative purposes.

Recipients within other McDermott Entities

Your Personal Data will be used by our partners, employees, and other staff members for the purposes described above and for accounting, tax and other administrative purposes.

Data Processors

We engage other McDermott Entities (in particular, McDermott Will & Schulte LLP (US) for other Entities) as well as third-party service providers for the provision of services that help us in processing Personal Data and providing services to our clients. These will process your personal data as data processors (Article 28 GDPR) solely on our behalf. The categories of such recipients include:

  • service providers for information technology and telecommunications (such as data centers, hosting providers, email service providers);
  • marketing service providers;
  • accounting service providers;
  • forensic service providers;
  • corporate services and litigation support providers;
  • trustee and nominee service providers;
  • expert witnesses;
  • incorporation service providers;
  • cyber security providers; and
  • business process outsourcing providers.

Other Controllers

In addition, we may share your Personal Data with:

  • Any party for whom your consent has been provided or other legal basis obtained, including companies we introduce you to or companies with whom you ask us to share your Personal Data;
  • Third-party law firms that provide legal services necessary to accomplish the processing activities set forth above;
  • Third parties, if necessary in relation to a merger, sale, acquisition, divesture, restructuring, reorganisation, dissolution, bankruptcy, or other change of ownership or control (whether in whole or in part); and
  • Third parties, if we determine that the disclosure is necessary: (i) to comply with any law applicable to us, a request from law enforcement, a regulatory agency, or other legal process; (ii) to our clients in order to satisfy our professional duties towards our clients; (iii) to protect the legitimate rights, privacy, property, interests or safety of McDermott Will & Schulte, our clients, business partners, personnel, or the general public; (iv) to pursue available remedies or limit damages; (v) to enforce our Terms of Use; or (vi) to respond to an emergency.

International Transfer of Personal Data

McDermott is committed to complying with this Privacy Policy and European and UK data protection laws with regard to information transferred from the EEA or UK. The laws in the United States and other countries outside the EEA or UK may not be as protective as the laws in Europe or the UK. Because of this, McDermott has taken steps to protect your privacy and fundamental rights when your Personal Data is transferred to the United States (or to other countries where no adequacy decision of the European Commission or UK, as applicable, exists). For transfers to McDermott Entities outside the EEA or UK, we make use of the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses. For transfers to third parties, we make sure that the recipient is subject to a jurisdiction for which there is an adequacy decision of the European Commission or UK, as applicable, or that there are adequate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses or Binding Corporate Rules in place.

If you would like to know more about how we protect your Personal Data, or obtain a copy of the adequate safeguards, you can contact us using the information in the section “Contact Us” at the end of this Privacy Policy.

Use of our Website

This section only applies to the use of our website from the EEA or UK.

Cookies and Other Data Collection Technology

A “Cookie” is a small text file that is sent to or accessed from your web browser or your computer’s hard drive. A Cookie typically contains the name of the domain (internet location) from which the Cookie originated, the “lifetime” of the Cookie (when it expires), and a randomly generated unique number or other similar identifier. A Cookie may also contain information about your computer, such as user settings, browsing history and activities conducted while using our online services.

A “Web Beacon” (also called a “pixel tag” or “clear GIF”) is a piece of computer code that enables us to monitor user activity and website traffic.

We refer to Cookies, web beacons (also known as pixel tags and clear GIFs) and other similar technology as “Data Collection Technology.” To learn more about cookies and web beacons, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

Data Collection Technology helps us improve your experience on our online services. For example, we use Google Analytics, a web-based analytics tool that tracks and reports on the manner in which the website is used to help us to improve it. Google Analytics does this by placing Cookies on your device. The information that the Cookies collect, such as the number of visitors to the website, the pages visited and the length of time spent on the website, is aggregated. We also may use Data Collection Technology to collect information from the computer or device that you use to access our online services, such as your operating system type, browser type, domain and other system settings, as well as the language your system uses and the country and time zone in which your computer or device is located.

We generally use the following types of Data Collection Technologies, which may change from time to time:

Description

 Cookie Name

Category
Cookies used to maintain the session of the user from page to page ASP.NET_SessionId Session cookie
Cookies used to track the number of users on our site _ga

_gat_UA-37285387-3

_gid

siteimproveses

_cfduid

nmstat

LB_website#lang

LB_china#lang

 Third party (Google Analytics, SiteImprove, Load Banner) analytics cookie
Cookies used to determine the current language of our website website#lang

china#lang

 Session cookie
Cookies used for security and performance visid_incap_838721

incap_ses_1060_838721

nlbi_838721

 Third party (Incapsula) security cookie
Cookie used to determine whether a user has accepted our cookie notice cookieAccepted Session cookie

Your Control of Cookies

Some web browsers (including some mobile web browsers) provide settings that allow you to control or reject Cookies or alert you when a Cookies is placed on your device. You may also be able to reject mobile device identifiers by activating the appropriate setting on your mobile device. Although you are not required to accept Cookies or mobile device identifiers, if you block or reject them, you may not have access to all features available through our online services.

Our Policy on Do Not Track Signals

Some web browsers incorporate a “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) or similar feature that signals to websites that a user does not want to have his or her online activity and behavior tracked. If a website that responds to a particular DNT signal receives the DNT signal, the browser can block that website from collecting certain information about the browser’s user. We follow the DNT signals we receive from your browsers.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES AND SERVICES

Our services may include links or references to third party websites and services that we do not operate or control. If you provide your Personal Data to that third party through its websites or services, you will be subject to that third party’s privacy practices and policies. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any Personal Data that you provide to a third party website or service. We recommend that you read the Privacy Policy that applies to that third party website or service. A link or reference to a third party website or service does not mean that we endorse that third party or the quality or accuracy of the information presented on its website or service.

SECURITY

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures designed to ensure your Personal Data in protected from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. For example:

  • Limiting access of your Personal Data to authorized  parties;
  • Limiting our collection and use of your Personal Data to the extent necessary to provide you with our services;
  • If we outsource processing of Personal Data to third parties, basing our selection on said third parties having adequate safeguards in place that meet our data protection and security standards, and regularly auditing their compliance with applicable data protection policies, laws and regulations;
  • Having systems in place designed to ensure that we can restore the availability and access to Personal Data in the event of a physical or technical incident;
  • Periodically inspecting, assessing, and evaluating the effectiveness of our technical and organizational measures designed to ensure the security of our processing; and
  • Regularly training our personnel on data protection and cybersecurity.

If you would like to know more about how we protect your Personal Data, you can contact us using the information in the section “Contact Us” at the end of this Privacy Policy.

RETENTION OF PERSONAL DATA

We will keep your Personal Data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of Personal Data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your Personal Data, the purposes for which we process your Personal Data, whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and all applicable legal requirements.

CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

Our services are not directed to or intended for use by minors. Consistent with the requirements of the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the GDPR, and all other applicable laws and regulations, if we learn that we have received information directly from a child under age 16 without his or her parent or legal guardian’s verified consent, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child (or his or her parent or legal guardian) to inform the child that he or she cannot use our services. Subsequently, we will delete such information.

MARKETING

If you do not wish to receive marketing-related emails from us, please click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of a marketing email, or email us using the information in the section “Contact Us” at the end of this Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from certain marketing topics while staying subscribed to other marketing topics. If you choose to unsubscribe from all marketing emails, that unsubscribe request will apply across all McDermott Entities. Please note that even if we stop all marketing communications, you may still receive administrative, legal, and other important communications from us.

YOUR RIGHTS

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your Personal Data that we process:

  • Right to access to the following information: (a) the purposes of the processing; (b) the categories of personal data concerned; (c) the recipients or categories of recipient to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed, in particular recipients in third countries or international organisations; (d) where possible, the envisaged period for which the personal data will be stored, or, if not possible, the criteria used to determine that period; (e) the existence of the right to request from the controller rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing of personal data concerning the data subject or to object to such processing; (f) the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority; (g) where the personal data has not been collected from you, any available information as to their source; (h) the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling, referred to in Article 22(1) and (4) of the GDPR and, at least in those cases, meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing for the data subject (Article 15 of the GDPR). Please note that we may not be able to provide you with access to your Personal Data that we use in connection with providing legal services to a client that is not you due to laws concerning attorney-client privilege.
  • Right to rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you under as well as, taking into account the purposes of the processing, the right to have incomplete personal data completed, including by means of providing a supplementary statement (Article 16 of the GDPR).
  • Right to erasure (deletion) of personal data concerning you without undue delay where: (a) the personal data is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed; (b) you withdraw your consent and there are no other legal grounds for the processing; (c) you exercise your right to object (see below) and there are no compelling legitimate grounds for the processing; (d) the personal data have been unlawfully processed; or (e) the personal data have to be erased for compliance with a legal obligation applicable to us (Article 17 of the GDPR).
  • Right to restriction of processing (i.e., data will be blocked from normal processing but not erased) where: (a) you contest the accuracy of the personal data, for a period enabling us to verify the accuracy; (b) the processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of the personal data and requests the restriction of their use instead; (c) we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of the processing but they are required by you for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; (d) you exercise your right to object (see below) pending the verification whether our legitimate grounds override those of you (Article 18 of the GDPR).
  • Where processing is based on your consent, the right to withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of the processing prior to such withdrawal (Article 7(3) of the GDPR). Please note that even after you have chosen to withdraw your consent we may be able to continue to process your Personal Data, in some limited circumstances, to the extent required or otherwise permitted by law, or in connection with exercising and defending our legal rights or meeting our legal and regulatory obligations.
  • Where processing is based on your consent, or on a contract, the right to data portability, i.e. the right to obtain a copy of the data concerning you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and the right to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from us.
  • Right to object to the processing of personal data based on legitimate interests of us, other McDermott Entities or any third party under Article 21 of the GDPR based on your particular situation, provided that there are no compelling legitimate grounds for the processing that would override your interests, rights and freedoms or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (Article 21 of the GDPR).

If you wish to exercise any of your rights above, please contact us using the information in the section “Contact Us” at the end of this Privacy Policy. We may charge you a reasonable fee in case you request additional copies of your Personal Data or make other requests that are manifestly unfounded or excessive. If we are unable to honor your request, or before we charge a fee, we will let you know why. In so far as practicable and required under law, we will notify third parties with whom we have shared your Personal Data of any request for correction, deletion, and/or restriction to the processing of your Personal Data. Please note that we cannot guarantee third parties will comply with your requests and we encourage you to contact those third parties directly.

Please note that if you decide to exercise some of your rights, we may be unable to perform the actions necessary to achieve the purposes set out above or you may not be able to use or take full advantage of the services and products we offer.

We must ensure that your Personal Data is accurate and up to date. Therefore, please advise us of any changes to your information by emailing us here.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

The Effective Date of this Privacy Policy is set forth at the top of this webpage. If we materially change the way we collect, use or disclose your Personal Data we will notify you in advance by email and/or by placing a prominent notice on this website. The amended Privacy Policy supersedes all previous versions.

CONTACT US

We welcome your questions and comments about this Privacy Policy or how we process your Personal Data. Please contact each of our Entities who are the data controller using the information on our “Legal Notices/Imprint” page, and we will respond to you as soon as reasonably possible.

You always have the right to lodge a complaint with your local competent supervisory authority or any authority that applies to the McDermott Entities.

Germany:

McDermott Will & Schulte Rechtsanwälte Steuerberater LLP (Germany), and each civil law notary “Notar” whose office is within a McDermott office in Germany, have named a data protection officer (Datenschutzbeauftragter). You may contact the data protection officer using the contact information below:

By Phone: +49 89 12712-372 / 089 12712-372

By Email: datenschutz@mwe.com

Global Privacy Office:

In addition, you may contact our global Privacy Office for any of the McDermott Entities (other than McDermott Will & Schulte Rechtsanwälte Steuerberater LLP) using the contact information below:

By Mail:

McDermott Will & Schulte LLP
Attn: Privacy Office
444 West Lake Street
Chicago, Illinois 60606

By Phone: +1 312 372 2000 / 011-1-312-372-2000
By Email: privacy@mwe.com