Our Firm

The information on this page is required by the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002.

Smyth Barkham LLP is a Limited Liability Partnership registered in England and Wales with number OC404016.  Its registered office is 1 Mitre Court Buildings, Inner Temple, London EC4Y 7BS.

The Firm’s VAT number is GB 234 5997 73

A list of Members of Smyth Barkham LLP and of any non-members who are designated as Partners or Consultants, is displayed at our place of business, being 1 Mitre Court Buildings, Inner Temple, London EC4Y 7BS.  The word “Partner” used in relation to the LLP, refers to Members of the LLP or any employee of, or consultant to, the LLP who is a lawyer of equivalent standing and qualifications.

Contact Information for Smyth Barkham Lawyers, including email addresses, can be found on this site under ABOUT US.

Our Regulator

Smyth Barkham LLP is an England and Wales law firm authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”).  All SRA regulated businesses are subject to rules and principles of professional conduct.  The link www.sra.org.uk/handbook will enable you to access the SRA Code of Conduct by which the firm and its employees have to abide.  Where the Code is not available online, the following link provides contact information for the SRA which should send details upon request.  England and Wales – www.sra.org.uk

Fees

We operate a transparent cost structure and we will agree the scope of any work to be undertaken and our applicable hourly rates with our clients prior to any commitment.

Our rates will not change unless notified to you.  We are able to provide you with a full schedule of services performed on your accounts.  Our terms and conditions will be set out in our client care letter issued in accordance with our professional rules.

Investment Services

The firm is not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but we are able, in certain circumstances, to offer a limited range of investment services to clients where these are incidental to the professional services we provide.  This is because we are authorised and regulated by the SRA.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

We maintain compulsory professional insurance c/o Lockton Companies LLP, The St Botolph Building, 138 Houndsditch, London EC3A 7AG.  We hold £3 million of insurance with Endurance Worldwide Insurance Ltd (Sompo International) under policy number P0A60133.  We also hold £7 million of insurance under policy number P0B60134 with Markel International Insurance Company Ltd, Lloyds Syndicate 609-ATRIUM, HDI Global Specialty SE-UK.  This insurance is not below the minimum level of cover required by the SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules.  Please ask for a copy of our terms and conditions in order to see any exemptions or exclusions to this.

Anti-money Laundering Regulations

We are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of clients confidential. This obligation, however, is subject to a statutory exception: recent legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Where we know or suspect that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, we may be required to make a money laundering disclosure. If this happens, we may have to stop working on your matter for a period of time and may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or of the reasons for it.

Complaints Procedure

We want to give you the best possible service.  However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues.

If you wish to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure here.  Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

If we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves, the Legal Ombudsman can help you.  Before accepting a complaint for investigation, they will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first.  If you have, then you can take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

• Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint, and
• No more than six years from the date of act / omission; or
• No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint

Some Clients will not have the right to complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.  They include most businesses, charities or clubs with an annual income of more than £1 million and trustees of trusts with assets of more than £1 million.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them:

Visit:       www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call:        0300 555 0333 between 9.00 to 17.00

Email:     enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour.  This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulations Authority www.sra.org.uk

General

Full details of our terms and conditions will be provided to you upon the receipt by us of your instructions.

Privacy Notice

Effective Date: from 25 May 2018

We need to tell you about the types of data we process about you, what we do with your data, and why we do it. The purpose of this Notice is to provide you (whether you are a client or other third party) with helpful information in this regard.

This Privacy Notice explains how SMYTH BARKHAM LLP collect, use and disclose your personal data, and your rights in relation to the personal data we hold.

In this Privacy Notice, “us”, “we” and “our” is the data controller of your personal data and is subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”) and any locally applicable data protection laws.

For all queries regarding this Privacy Notice please contact any of the partners at Smyth Barkham LLP namely Caroline Barkham, Hugh Bradshaw or Paul Edwards:

email: info@smythbarkham.co.uk

telephone: 0207 299 3560

This Privacy Notice supersedes any previous Privacy Notice or equivalent which you may have been provided with or seen prior to the Effective Date stated above.

Your rights

 Under the GDPR you have the following rights:

• To obtain access to, and copies of, the personal data that we hold about you;
• To require that we cease processing your personal data if the processing is causing you damage or distress;
• To require us not to send you marketing communications;
• To require us to erase your personal data;
• To require us to restrict our data processing activities;
• To receive from us the personal data we hold about you which you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you, including for the purpose of you transmitting that personal data to another data controller; and
• To require us to correct the personal data we hold about you if it is incorrect.

Please note that the above rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply.

You can find out more about your rights at www.ico.org.uk.

If you have any questions about how we use your personal data, or you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us as follows:

By post: Smyth Barkham LLP, 1 Mitre Court Buildings, Inner Temple, London EC4Y 7BS

By email: info@smythbarkham.co.uk

By telephone: 0207 299 3560

If you are not satisfied with how we are processing your personal data, you can make a complaint to www.ico.org.uk.

How we collect your data

We collect your personal data in a number of ways, for example:

• From the information you provide to us when you meet us;
• From information about you provided to us by your company or an intermediary;
• When you communicate with us in writing, by telephone, fax, website registration, email or other forms of electronic communication. In this respect, we may monitor, record and store any such communication;
• From your agents, advisers, intermediaries, and custodians of your assets;
• From publicly available sources or from third parties, most commonly where we need to conduct background checks about you.

The categories of personal data we collect

We collect the following categories of personal data about you:

• Your name and contact information such as your home or business address, job title, email address and telephone number;
• Biographical information which may confirm your identity including your date of birth, tax identification number and your passport number or national identity card details, country of domicile and/or your nationality;
• Information relating to your financial situation such as income, expenditure, assets and liabilities, sources of wealth, as well as your bank account details;
• An understanding of your goals and objectives in procuring our services;
• Information about your employment, education, family or personal circumstances, and interests, where relevant; and
• Information to assess whether you may represent a politically exposed person or money laundering risk.
• In some circumstances we may process special categories of personal data about you, in which case we take particular care to only process such data in accordance with the strict legal parameters. This type of data can include information about your health (including information you provide about your dietary requirements when attending meetings); racial or ethnic origin; religious or political beliefs; trade union membership; sex life or sexual orientation; genetic or biometric data; or philosophical beliefs.

The basis for processing your personal data (other than with your consent), how we use that personal data and whom we share it.

(i) Performance of a contract with you

We process your personal data because it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract.

In this respect, we use your personal data for the following:

• To prepare a proposal for you regarding the services we offer;
• To provide you with the services as set out in our Client Care Letter with you or as otherwise agreed with you from time to time;
• To deal with any complaints or feedback you may have;
• For any other purpose for which you provide us with your personal data.

 (ii) Legitimate interests

We also process your personal data because it is necessary for our legitimate interests (including carrying out the business of providing legal services and pursuing our general business interests), or sometimes where it is necessary for the legitimate interests of another person.

In this respect, we use your personal data for the following:

• For marketing to you. In this respect, see the separate section on Marketing below;
• Training our staff or monitoring their performance;
• For the administration and management of our business, including recovering money you owe us, and archiving or statistical analysis;
• Seeking advice on our rights and obligations, such as where we require our own legal advice.

(iii) Legal obligations

We also process your personal data for our compliance with a legal obligation which we are under.

In this respect, we will use your personal data for the following:

• To meet our compliance and regulatory obligations, such as compliance with anti-money laundering laws;
• As required by tax authorities or any competent court or legal authority.

Who do we share your data with

In providing services to our clients and in complying with our legal obligations, we may share the personal data that we obtain about you, insofar as we are permitted by law to do so, with the following third parties:

• third parties involved in any matter, including (without limitation) courts, tribunals, counterparties, experts, private investigators, and other third parties involved in a matter;
• suppliers and service providers used by us in providing services, details of which can be available on request, including (without limitation) postal services, document storage facilities, front of house teams and IT service providers such as cloud providers of software as a service, data room providers and providers of our IT servers;
• financial organisations, debt collection, credit reference and tracing agencies, our auditors, our own legal and other professional advisors, our insurers and insurance brokers; government agencies, regulators and other authorities (including (without limitation) the Information Commissioner and Ombudsmen); and our and your trade associations, professional bodies and business associates.

Marketing

We may send you marketing about services we provide which may be of interest to you, as well as other information in the form of alerts, newsletters and invitations to events or functions which we believe might be of interest to you or in order to update you with information (such as legal or commercial news) which we believe may be relevant to you.

We will communicate this to you in a number of ways including by post, telephone, email or other digital channels. If you object to receiving marketing from us at any time, please contact us:

By post: Smyth Barkham LLP, 1 Mitre Court Buildings Inner Temple London EC4Y 7BS

By email: info@smythbarkham.co.uk

By telephone: 0207 299 3560

If you have given consent and you wish to withdraw it at any time, please contact us.

Transfer and processing of your personal data outside the European Union

When sharing your personal data with third parties as set out in this Privacy Notice, it may be transferred outside the European Union. In these circumstances, your personal data will only be transferred on one of the following bases:

• The country that we send the personal data to is approved by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data;
• The transfer is to a recipient in the United States of America who has registered under the EU/US Privacy Shield;
• The recipient has entered into European Commission standard contractual clauses with us; or
• You have explicitly consented to the same.

To find out more about transfers by us of your personal data outside the European Union and the countries concerned please contact us.

Retention of your data

We keep personal data in accordance with our internal retention procedures, which are determined in accordance with our regulatory obligations and good practice. These retention periods depend on the nature of the information (for example, we apply different retention periods to our staff information as opposed to information on our client files) and are subject to change.

If you have any questions in this regard, or any concerns about how long we keep your information for, please contact us.

Disclaimer

This Site may contain links to external websites.  These links are included to give users the opportunity to access other pages that it is felt may be of assistance to them.  We are not responsible for the content of these Internet sites.

While effort has been taken to ensure that the Site is free from viruses, no warranties are given that it is free from viruses and users are responsible for ensuring that they have installed adequate virus checking software.  We shall not be liable for any viruses or any other computer code, files or programmes designed to interrupt, restrict, destroy or limit the functionality or integrity of the Site or any hardware.