Privacy Statement

March 21, 2023

 

Effective as of March 21, 2023.

Mintz values the relationship we have with you.  This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) describes how we collect, use, share, or otherwise process personal information in the course of operating our business, particularly in association with our marketing and business development practices and the operation of our websites (www.mintz.com and www.mintzedge.com).  It also explains your rights under applicable data protection laws, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the United Kingdom’s Data Protection Act 2018 (“UK GDPR”) and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”).  Information relating to the GDPR and the UK GDPR can be found in our GDPR Statement.  Information for California residents about the CCPA can be found here. 

While we may also process personal information during our legal representation of a client, such processing is performed on behalf of and at the direction of our client, subject to our client agreements and professional responsibilities, and is not covered by this Notice.

“Personal information” as used in this Notice means information that identifies, relates to, describes, or can reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, to a specific natural person. It does not include information that is considered anonymous, de-identified, or aggregated by applicable law.

This Notice covers the following topics: 

1. The Types of Information We Collect

2. How We Use the Information We Collect

3. How We May Share the Information We Collect

4. Third-Party Services and Content

5. Protection and Storage of the Information We Collect

6. Your Choices and Rights

7. Additional Information for California Residents

8. Additional Information for Nevada Residents

9. How to Contact Us

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

 

1. The Types of Information We Collect

The types of personal information we collect about you depend on your interactions with us and are described below.

Information You Provide to Us

We collect personal information that you provide to us. For example, we may collect personal information when you contact us, request that we send you newsletters, alerts, or other materials, register for a webinar or event, fill out a form, respond to a survey, apply for an open career position, as a Mintz alumna, or otherwise communicate with us.

Depending on the context of your interactions with us, the categories of personal information we may collect from you include:

  • Unique Identifiers that we can use to identify you as a unique individual, such as your name, telephone number, postal or e-mail address, bar license number, social media identifiers, signature, and government issued identification numbers (such as your social security number or passport number). 
  • Demographic Information, which may include sensitive personal information or information about protected classifications, such as your age, gender, race, sexual orientation, marital status, or veteran status.
  • Professional and Educational Information related to your occupation, such as your current or previous employers, your job title, or other information about the organization with which you are affiliated. You might also provide information about your professional qualifications or your education, such as your bar information, degrees, fields of study, the institutions you’ve attended, languages, professional memberships, qualifications, and certifications.
  • Health Information, such as accessibility requirements and dietary restrictions.
  • Location Information, such as your city, state or province, and country. 
  • Audio and Visual Information, such as your voice and likeness as captured in photographs, video, or audio recordings if you attend our events, visit our offices, or leave us a voicemail.
  • Preferences, such as your stated interests, how frequently you wish to receive our newsletters, or other communications.
  • Any other information you choose to provide.

You generally can visit our websites without providing us with personal information, though we may still collect personal information automatically as described in the next section.

Information We May Collect Automatically or Generate

We may automatically collect and generate information from and about you when you interact with us or our websites, which may include the following categories of personal information:

  • Unique Identifiers: We might automatically collect information that uniquely identifies you or the device through which you interact with our websites, such as your name, e-mail address, username, social media identifiers, IP address, and device and mobile advertising identifiers.
  • Device Information: We might automatically collect information pertaining to the device through which you interact with our websites, such as the type of device used, that device’s operating system and version, your browser type.
  • Interaction Information: We might automatically collect information about your interaction with our websites, such as the content you view and features you access on our web sites, the pages you view immediately before and after you access our websites, whether and how you interact with content available on our websites, and the search terms you enter on our websites. We might also collect information about the events and materials in which you have indicated interest or for which you have registered or requested.

We and our service providers or third parties engaged on our behalf may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (collectively, “Cookies”) to collect information from and store information on your device when you use, access, or otherwise interact with our websites. For information about how we use Cookies and the choices you may have, please see our Privacy Preference Center; We do not currently respond to “Do Not Track” signals.

Information We Collect From Other Sources

We may obtain personal information from other sources, such as our clients, employees, or business partners, or from business contact databases and enrichment services. We may also receive information about you from social media platforms, such as when you interact with us on those platforms or access our social media content. We may collect information about you from publicly available sources, such as public social media profiles, publications, and other websites or materials available through search engines.

We may collect the following categories of information from these other sources:

  • Unique Identifiers, such as name, telephone number, postal or e-mail address, social media identifiers, and device and mobile advertising identifiers.
  • Professional and Educational Information about your occupation and professional activities, such as professional licenses held, employers, business contact information, or information about your education, such as your degrees, fields of study, institutions attended, languages, professional memberships, qualifications, and certifications.
  • User Content you post or make available online, such as your social media posts or publications.

2. How We Use the Information We Collect

We may use the information we collect for the various purposes, including:

  • To respond to your inquiries or communications.
  • To operate, troubleshoot, and improve our websites.
  • To send you newsletters, legal updates, marketing communications, and other information or materials that may interest you.
  • To expand and maintain our list of contacts.
  • To understand how people use our services, including by generating and analyzing statistics.
  • To advertise, provide, and assess the effectiveness of our events, promotional campaigns, publications, and services.
  • As we believe reasonably necessary or appropriate to comply with our legal obligations, to respond to legal process or requests for information issued by government authorities or other third parties, or to protect your, our, or others’ rights.

We may use anonymous, de-identified, or aggregate information that does not reasonably identify you for any purpose, as permitted by applicable law.

3. How We May Share the Information We Collect

Mintz does not sell your personal information, and we have not done so within the past 12 months. We also do not share personal information that reasonably identifies you with unaffiliated entities for their independent use except when we have your permission, are doing so at your direction, as needed to comply with our legal obligations, as permitted by applicable law, or as otherwise described in this Notice.

We may also disclose the categories of information we collect to the following categories of recipients in furtherance of the purposes described above:

  • Our affiliates: We may share information with our Mintz offices and business entities located in jurisdictions around the world for any of the purposes listed above.
  • Our service providers: We may share information with third parties that perform services on our behalf, such as web-hosting companies, mailing vendors, analytics providers, event hosting services, and information technology providers pursuant to your consent, or under a written contract with such service providers for our business purposes.
  • Law enforcement, government authorities, or third parties with legal rights: We may share information as may be permitted or required by the laws of any jurisdiction that may apply to us, as provided for under contract, or as we deem reasonably necessary to provide legal services. In these circumstances, we strive to take reasonable efforts to notify you before we disclose information that may reasonably identify you or your organization, unless prior notice is prohibited by applicable law or is not possible or reasonable in the circumstances.
  • Parties in connection with a business transaction: We may share information with service providers, advisors, potential transactional partners, or other third parties in connection with the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another company or we sell, liquidate, or transfer all or a portion of our assets, as well as any bankruptcy or corporate reorganization.
  • Others with your consent or at your direction, including if we notify you that your information may be shared and you provide such information or if you use Mintz to interact with a third party. For example, we may share your name and bar number with your employer or state bar association in connection with an application for CLE credit, or we may share your name and contact information with a business partner who co-sponsors an event you attend or publication you sign up for or with a social media service if you share or like our content.

We may share anonymous, de-identified, or aggregate information that cannot reasonably identify you with others for any purpose, as permitted by applicable law. Please note that any personal information that you post to a profile, blog, comment section, or forum on our Digital Services or social media pages may be available to other users of those forums or, in some cases, made publicly available.

4. Third-Party Services and Content

Our websites may include integrated content or links to content provided by third parties (such as video materials). This Privacy Notice does not address the privacy, security, or other practices of the third parties that provide such content.

Consistent with applicable law, we engage third parties that support the operation of our websites, such as analytics providers. These third parties may track your online activities over time and across different websites and applications. Please see our Privacy Preference Center for more information about such analytics providers and your choices.

5. Protection and Storage of the Information We Collect

We deploy commercially reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to comply with applicable legal requirements and safeguard the information that we collect. This includes, when required or appropriate and feasible, obtaining written assurances from third parties that may access your personal information that they will protect such information with safeguards designed to provide a level of protection equivalent to those adopted by Mintz.

However, no information system can be 100% secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information. Moreover, we are not responsible for the security of information you transmit to us over networks that we do not control, including the Internet and wireless networks.

The websites are controlled and operated by Mintz from the United States. We may store the information we collect in the United States or in other countries where we or our service providers have facilities. We may transfer information to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have data protection laws and regulations that differ from those in your country. In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that country may be able to obtain access to your personal information in accordance with local laws.

We retain the information we collect no longer than as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collect the information and to comply with our legal obligations.  If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, please see our GDPR Statement for further information. 

6. Your Choices and Rights

Marketing Communications. If you no longer wish to receive marketing communications from us, you can let us know by contacting us using the information available in the How to Contact Us section below. Our digital marketing communications may provide unsubscribe or opt-out mechanisms that allow you to modify your communications preferences. Please note that if you opt-out of marketing communications, we may still contact you with non-promotional communications, such as those about ongoing business relations or administrative messages.

Cookies. For information about the choices you may have in regard to our use of Cookies, please see our Privacy Preference Center.

Privacy Rights. Depending on applicable law, you may have certain rights with respect to your personal information, including, for example, the rights to:

  • Request access to certain personal information of yours that we process.
  • Update or correct your personal information if you believe it is incomplete or inaccurate.
  • Erase or delete your personal information, subject to certain exceptions under local law.
  • Object to our processing of your personal information or otherwise restrict our processing activities.
  • Restrict certain transfers of your personal information to third parties.
  • Withdraw your consent to processing, where we base our processing of your personal information on consent.
  • Not be denied goods or services for exercising your rights under applicable law.
  • Complain to your local supervisory authority.

For information relating to the GDPR and the UK GDPR, please see our GDPR Statement.   To exercise any of your privacy rights under applicable law, please email us at [email protected].

7. Additional Information for California Residents

Disclosures Related to Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Personal Information

Pursuant to the CCPA, we are providing the following additional details regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information about California residents:

  • Categories of Personal Information Collected: In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information: identifiers, characteristics of protected classifications under California or U.S. law, professional and employment-related information, education information, commercial information, internet and electronic network activity, inferences drawn about your preferences, and other categories of personal information that relates to or is reasonably capable of being associated with you. For examples of the data points we collect, please see “The Types of Information We Collect”.
  • Business or Commercial Purpose for Collecting and Using Data: We have collected the above categories of personal information for the business purposes described in the “The Types of Information We Collect” section.
  • Categories of Sources of Personal Information: We may have collected the above categories of personal information directly from you, automatically about your use of the websites, and from third parties, such as clients of our legal services, government and public entities, public records, industry research databases, parties and related parties in litigation matters, and others. For more detail, please see “The Types of Information We Collect”.
  • Categories of Personal Information Disclosed: In the preceding 12 months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information for business or commercial purposes: identifiers, characteristics of protected classifications under California or U.S. law, professional and employment-related information, education information, commercial information, internet and electronic network activity, inferences drawn about your preferences, and other categories of personal information that relates to or is reasonably capable of being associated with you.
  • Categories of Third Parties With Whom We Share Personal Information: We may share your personal information with the third parties as described in the “How We May Share the Information We Collect” section.
  • Sale of Personal Information (as defined by the CCPA): We do not sell, and in the preceding 12 months have not sold, the personal information we have collected.

Your Rights 

To the extent provided for by law and subject to applicable exceptions, including but not limited to attorney-client privilege, California residents have the following privacy rights in relation to the personal information we collect:

  • The right to know what personal information we have collected and how we have used and disclosed that personal information;
  • The right to request deletion of your personal information;
  • The right to opt out of the sale of your personal information; and
  • The right to be free from discrimination relating to the exercise of any of your privacy rights.

Exercising Your Rights

California residents can exercise the above privacy rights by emailing us at [email protected],

or calling us toll-free at + 1-888-908-1933.

Verification: in order to protect your personal information from unauthorized access or deletion, we may ask you to provide additional personal information for verification. If we cannot verify your identity, we will not provide or delete your personal information.

Authorized Agents: you may submit a request to know or a request to delete your personal information through an authorized agent. If you do so, the agent must present signed written permission to act on your behalf and you may also be required to independently verify your identity with us and confirm that you have provided authorization to the agent.

California “Shine the Light” Disclosures

Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1798.83(c)(2), California law requires us to inform California residents who have provided us with personal information that they may request information from us about our disclosures to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To request this information, please contact us at [email protected].  In your request, please specify that this is a “California “Shine the Light” Request.”  Please allow 60 days for a response.

8. Additional Information for Nevada Residents

We do not sell, rent, or otherwise share your data to any third-party for a business or commercial purpose under any circumstances unless you specifically consent to such disclosure. Pursuant to Section 603A of the Nevada Revised Statutes, residents of Nevada may, at any time, submit a request to an operator of a website in Nevada directing the operator not to make any sale of any personal information the operator has collected or will collect about the consumer. If you are a Nevada resident and want to opt-out of the sale of any personal information, please submit an email request to [email protected].  In your request, please specify that you want to “Opt-Out of Sale of Personal Information in Nevada.” Please allow 60 days for a response.

9.  How to Contact Us

We welcome your inquiries and comments. But please note that if you are not a client, we may not be able to treat the information you send us as confidential or privileged. If you wish to contact us regarding legal or other services, please contact an attorney in one of our offices near you. You can find a list of our offices and our attorneys on our main website (www.mintz.com).

If you would like to contact us with questions about our privacy or data protection practices, please contact our Privacy Officer via email at [email protected].

10. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Notice periodically, and will revise the date at the top of this Notice to reflect the date when such update occurred. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share the personal information that you have provided, we will endeavor to provide you with notice before such changes take effect, such as by posting prominent notice on the websites.