Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice addresses the kinds of information that Saul Ewing (“We” or “the firm”) may gather about you when you visit, submit forms on, or request information through www.saul.com or other Saul Ewing websites (“firm websites”).  It outlines how we expect to use that information, and the choices you have regarding our use of the information.

This Privacy Notice is not intended to describe the firm’s information privacy practices with respect to (1) communications with our clients (which are addressed in our client engagement letters and related Standard Terms of Engagement in conformity with applicable law and rules of professional conduct), (2) workplace privacy (which is addressed in our employee handbooks and other policy documents on the firm’s intranet, or (3) information obtained from our service providers (which is addressed in our respective contracts with those providers). 

We reserve the right to change our Privacy Notice at any time and for any reason, as permitted or required by applicable law, by posting changes to this page or a subsequent privacy page.

Nothing contained in this Privacy Notice is intended to create a contract or agreement between the firm and any visitor, form submitter, or information requester, or to create or acknowledge any attorney-client relationship between the firm and any such person.

Details

What Information Do We Collect?

VISITORS: Our firm websites automatically log IP address information transmitted by your server, which may identify your or your Internet service provider’s Internet domain, but which normally would not include individually identifiable information such as your email address. You may browse our firm websites without disclosing any additional information to us, although certain services and features may be unavailable unless you provide us additional information.

FORM SUBMITTERS AND INFORMATION REQUESTERS: You may voluntarily choose to submit forms on our firm websites or send us email to request newsletters, updates, information on our services, or to provide us with feedback. You should NOT send us any confidential information describing your legal problems or requesting advice on legal matters. See our Disclaimer for more information.

PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEES: We collect information provided by you or relevant third parties  in the context of applying for a position with us, such as through the Careers section of our website. This may include your contact details such as name, e-mail address, phone numbers and mailing address, information about the position for which you are applying, information included in your CV, and other information collected through our recruitment process.  For more information on the purposes for processing this type of personal information, please contact us.

Do We Disclose Your Information to Third Parties?

The firm does not disclose identifying information to third parties, except under the following limited circumstances:

  1. Your information may be incidentally accessible to third parties providing system administration, maintenance, or other services for our firm websites, networks, servers, communications, or databases. However, we do not permit such third parties to use that information for other purposes.
  2. We may provide your information to governmental agencies or other third parties as required by laws and regulations, including, for example, responding to subpoenas or other legal process.
  3. We may disclose information as necessary to detect, prevent, or take action in response to fraud or cybersecurity threats or incidents.
  4. We may disclose information submitted by prospective employees as necessary to authenticate such persons, validate their reported credentials, conduct background checks, and carry out other functions incident to recruiting.
  5. We may deidentify and aggregate your information for our business purposes.  Deidentified information is no longer subject to this Privacy Notice.

How Do We Ensure the Accuracy of Your Information?

We use reasonable efforts to record and store data accurately when it is submitted to us through our firm websites. We do not assume any responsibility for verifying the ongoing accuracy of identifying information after it has been submitted. 

How Do We Use Cookies or Similar Technologies?

Firm websites may use “cookies” (small text files used to store information relating to visited web pages) or “web beacons” (small image files that confirm page viewing) primarily to facilitate site navigation or analytics. If you are concerned about cookies or beacons, most web browsers (such as Chrome, Firefox, and Edge) may be set to reject cookies and beacons or to prompt you individually to accept or reject a specific cookie or beacon. If your browser is not set to accept cookies, some pages may not display correctly and some features of the firm websites may not be available to you.

Are You a Visitor from the European Union?

On May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) went into effect in the European Union (“EU”). The GDPR extends to natural persons certain rights involving the privacy of their personal information.

If our collection, use or disclosure of your personal information is subject to GDPR, you have a number of additional rights in relation to your personal information:

  • You can ask us to confirm what personal information we hold about you and to provide you with a copy of that information.
  • You can ask us to correct any personal information about you that is inaccurate.
  • You can ask us to delete your personal information where there is no legal basis for us to continue to hold that information.
  • You can ask us to stop using your personal information temporarily if you are objecting to our right to use it.
  • You can object to our using your personal information unless we can demonstrate a valid reason why we need to continue to hold that data.
  • You can object to our using your personal information for marketing purposes.
  • In circumstances where we use your personal information on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • If we are processing your personal information on the basis of your consent or necessity for a contract, you can ask us to provide you with the personal information that you have provided to us, in a structured and commonly-used electronic format, or to transmit that information directly to another company if that is technically feasible.
  • You have the right to complain to a supervisory authority if you’re not happy with how we have handled your personal information – you can find a list of supervisory authorities here.

Please note that some of these rights may be subject to exceptions under European data protection law and national data protection law (such as exceptions to protect information that is subject to legal professional privilege).

Legal Basis for Personal Information Subject to the GDPR

If our use of your personal information is subject to GDPR, we are required to explain our legal basis for our use of your personal information. We may use or otherwise process your personal information, and this is set out below:

  • To provide services to our clients:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is our legitimate interest in providing legal services and/or our clients’ legitimate interests in receiving those legal services or, where our client is an individual, necessity for performance of a contract with the client or taking steps at the client’s request prior to entering into a contract)
  • To meet our legal and regulatory obligations, such as our obligations under ‘know your customer’ or anti-money laundering rules:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is that it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations)
  • To respond to an application you make for a position with us:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is that it is necessary for taking steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you).

    Some of the information that we collect for this purpose may include special categories of personal data under EU data protection law; our additional legal basis under EU data protection law for collecting and using this information is carrying out obligations and exercising rights in the field of employment.

  • To customize the way information on this website is presented to you:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is our legitimate interest in improving the experience of visitors to our website)
  • To evaluate your user experience and improve the quality of our services:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is our legitimate interest in improving the experience of visitors to our website)
  • To provide website content that is relevant and engages our audience:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is our legitimate interest in improving the experience of visitors to our website)
  • To protect our information technology systems and data against fraud, unauthorized use and security threats:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is our legitimate interest in protecting our website and information technology systems and data)
  • If you join one or more of our mailing lists or request information from us, we will use the personal information you provide to send you the information you have requested:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is our legitimate interest in sending you the information that you have requested)
  • If you register for an event, we will use your information for purposes of fulfilling your request:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is our legitimate interest in fulfilling your request)
  • To send you information (such as publications, legal updates, news and events) in which we believe you may be interested:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection law is our legitimate interest in sending you information that may be useful to you)
  • To receive services from our service providers and administer our relationship with them:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection is our legitimate interest in receiving those services)
  • To enforce our contractual and other rights:
    (our legal basis under EU data protection is our legitimate interest in enforcing those rights)

How can you submit a request for access to your personal information or learn more about our Privacy Notice?

If you would like to exercise your rights or have any questions about this Privacy Notice or about any of the personal information that we hold about you, please use the following contact methods:

Depending on the sensitivity of the information, we may need to verify your identity before fulfilling your request. 

How Do We Use Your Information?

We use visitor logs to monitor and improve the performance of our firm websites, including navigation, links, search terms, and page and image load times. For more information on visitor logs and traffic analysis, please contact us.

If you choose to provide us with identifying information through a form or email, we will use it to facilitate fulfillment of your requests. We may also store your identifying information, and may use that information for future communications from Saul Ewing to you, including the firm’s legal updates and newsletters, announcements and other information which may be of interest to you, and any communication reasonably necessary to respond to and process your requests. To update your contact information, unsubscribe to any of our mailing lists, or learn more about our mailing lists, please contact us.

How Long Do We Keep Your Information?

We retain personal information in accordance with applicable law and regulation and our records retention policy based on these laws and regulations.  The period for which we keep your personal information is determined by a number of criteria, including our legal and regulatory obligations, the purposes for which we are using the information, the amount and sensitivity of the information, and the potential risk from any unauthorized use or disclosure of the information. 

We may keep contact information about form submitters and information requesters as long as we deem it appropriate to fulfill the requests, maintain records of delivered information, or conduct marketing activities.

How Do We Secure Your Information?

We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures with the objectives of (i) ensuring a level of security appropriate to the risks that are presented by the firm’s processing of personal data, in particular from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed, and (ii) ensuring the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services for the personal data.  Additionally, the firm maintains certification under ISO/IEC 27001:2013, an international standard for information security management. However, no system, especially a system connected to the Internet, can be guaranteed to be secure. 

How Do We Protect Children's Privacy?

Firm websites are directed to businesses, governmental entities, and adult individuals who may be interested in our legal services or law-related publications. Firm websites are not designed for or directed to children under 14 years of age, and we do not expect children to be attracted to or to use firm websites. We do not knowingly collect or maintain information from children via the firm websites, and will delete any such information if it is brought to our attention.

Are You a Visitor from California?

On January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) went into effect. The CCPA extends to California residents certain rights involving the privacy of your personal information. If our collection, use or disclosure of your personal information is subject to CCPA, you have a number of additional rights in relation to your personal information which are described below:

Access Rights

  • You can ask us to confirm what personal information we hold about you including:
    • The categories of personal information we collected about you;
    • The categories of sources from which the personal information is collected;
    • The business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling (if applicable) your personal information;
    • The categories of third parties with whom we share (if applicable) your personal information;
    • The specific pieces of personal information we collect about you.
  • You can ask us for a copy of this information in a readily usable format.
  • You can ask us to delete the personal information collected from you where there is no legal basis for us to continue to hold that information.
  • In circumstances where we use your personal information on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • You have the right to non-discrimination when exercising these Consumer privacy rights.
  • Please note: the firm does not engage in the selling of personal information.

Categories of Personal Information Collected and/or Disclosed for Business Purposes in the past 12 months

The following categories of California Consumer Personal Information have been collected and/or disclosed for business purposes by the firm (in most cases, not through firm websites, and not necessarily from California residents) in the past 12 months:

  • Identifiers (such as contact information, government IDs, cookies, etc.);
  • Information protected against security breaches (such as names and financial accounts, driver’s license information, social security numbers, user names and passwords, and health/medical information);
  • Protected classification information (like race, gender, ethnicity, etc.);
  • Commercial information;
  • Internet/electronic activity;
  • Geolocation;
  • Audio/video data;
  • Professional or employment related information;
  • Education information;
  • Biometrics; and
  • Inferences from the foregoing.