Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Fogarty Oliver Rothschild ("we", "us" or "our") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information that we collect, hold, use and disclose.

This Privacy Policy explains how we manage personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and other applicable privacy and confidentiality obligations.

As a legal practice, we also have professional obligations concerning confidentiality and the handling of client information.

By using our website, contacting us or engaging us to provide legal services, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

2. What personal information do we collect?

The types of personal information we collect will depend on your dealings with us and may include:

• your name, address, telephone number and email address;
• date of birth and identification information;
• information contained in identity documents such as passports and driver’s licences;
• information about your family and personal circumstances;
• financial, banking, taxation, property and employment information;
• information concerning legal proceedings, disputes or transactions;
• correspondence and communications between you and us;
• information concerning other persons relevant to a legal matter;
• information required for verification of identity, electronic conveyancing, trust accounting, regulatory or legal compliance purposes;
• billing and payment information;
• information submitted through our website, enquiry forms, fee calculators and checklists, email, telephone or other communications;
• documents and files you upload through our website;
• the content of your messages to our website chat assistant, and recordings, transcripts and summaries of telephone calls with our scheduling assistant (see sections 8 and 9); and
• technical and website usage information, including the pages you visited, the website or advertisement that referred you and any campaign tracking parameters (see section 7).

Depending upon the nature of a legal matter, we may also collect sensitive information, including information relating to health, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, criminal records or other sensitive matters where this is relevant to providing legal services or otherwise permitted by law.

3. How do we collect personal information?

We may collect personal information:

• directly from you;
• through our website, online enquiry forms, chat assistant and file upload facility;
• by telephone, email, correspondence or meetings, including through our automated scheduling assistant;
• through documents provided to us;
• automatically through cookies, analytics and session recording technologies when you use our website;
• from courts, tribunals and government authorities;
• from other lawyers, conveyancers, accountants, financial advisers and professional advisers;
• from banks, insurers, medical practitioners, experts and service providers;
• from publicly available records and databases; and
• from third parties where authorised by you or permitted or required by law.

Where reasonably practicable, we will collect personal information directly from you.

4. Why do we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information?

We may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for purposes including:

• responding to enquiries;
• determining whether we can act for you, including conducting conflict checks;
• providing legal advice and legal services;
• conducting litigation and representing clients before courts and tribunals;
• conducting conveyancing and property transactions;
• communicating with clients and other parties;
• arranging and scheduling appointments, including through our automated assistant;
• verifying identity and complying with regulatory requirements;
• engaging barristers, experts, consultants and other professional advisers;
• administering client files and our legal practice;
• processing payments and maintaining trust and office accounts;
• issuing invoices and recovering amounts owing;
• maintaining and improving our website and services, including understanding how visitors use the website;
• managing security, fraud prevention and information technology systems;
• complying with our professional, regulatory and legal obligations; and
• any other purpose for which you have provided consent or which is otherwise permitted by law.

We will not use or disclose personal information for an unrelated purpose unless you have consented or the use or disclosure is otherwise authorised or required by law.

5. Disclosure of personal information

Where appropriate, personal information may be disclosed to:

• courts, tribunals and government agencies;
• other solicitors and parties involved in a legal matter;
• barristers;
• mediators and dispute resolution practitioners;
• expert witnesses and consultants;
• accountants, valuers, medical practitioners and other professional advisers;
• banks and financial institutions;
• conveyancers, real estate agents and property professionals;
• electronic conveyancing and verification-of-identity providers;
• insurers;
• process servers and investigators;
• information technology, cloud storage, email delivery, website hosting, analytics, artificial intelligence, telephony, document management and other service providers (see sections 6 to 9);
• regulatory and law enforcement authorities where required or permitted by law; and
• other persons where you have authorised the disclosure or where disclosure is required or permitted by law.

Our disclosure of information is also subject to our professional duties, including our duty of confidentiality to clients.

We do not sell or trade personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

6. Overseas disclosure

Some matters may involve overseas persons, organisations, professional advisers or service providers. We may therefore disclose personal information outside Australia where this is reasonably necessary for the provision of legal services, where you have authorised us to do so, or where otherwise permitted by law.

We also use technology and cloud-based service providers whose systems or infrastructure are located outside Australia, primarily in the United States. These currently include our website hosting and file storage providers, our email delivery and email routing providers, our database provider, our website analytics and session recording providers, and the artificial intelligence and voice technology providers described in sections 8 and 9.

This means that information you send us through our website, our chat assistant or our telephone assistant may be stored or processed overseas. Where required by applicable privacy law, we take reasonable steps in relation to overseas disclosures of personal information. If you would prefer that your information is not handled through these channels, you are welcome to contact us by telephone or in person using the details in section 17.

7. Website information, cookies and analytics

When you visit our website, certain technical information may be collected automatically, including your IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited and the date and time of your visit. We also record the website or advertisement that referred you and any campaign tracking parameters in the link you followed, and we may store this alongside your enquiry so that we understand how you found us.

Our website uses cookies, analytics services and similar technologies to understand how visitors use the website, maintain website functionality, improve our services and assist with security. Specifically, we use:

• Google Analytics, which uses cookies to report on how visitors use our website; and
• Microsoft Clarity, which records website usage — including page views, clicks, scrolling and mouse movement — and produces session replays and heatmaps so that we can see how our pages are used and where visitors have difficulty.

These services are provided by third parties who handle the information in accordance with their own privacy policies, and they may store it outside Australia. Please avoid entering confidential information about your legal matter into pages of our website other than our enquiry forms and chat assistant, which are handled as described in this policy.

You may be able to disable cookies through your browser settings, although doing so may affect the operation of some website functions. Most browsers also offer a "do not track" setting, and Google and Microsoft each publish opt-out tools for their analytics services.

8. Artificial intelligence and automated tools

We use artificial intelligence tools provided by third parties to help us run our practice efficiently. In particular:

• our website offers a chat assistant that can answer general questions and take your details — the messages you send it, and any contact details you provide, are processed by an artificial intelligence provider and stored in our enquiry records;
• when you submit an enquiry form, the content of your message may be processed by an artificial intelligence provider so that we can send you a prompt acknowledgement and prepare for your call; and
• we use artificial intelligence to summarise enquiries and telephone calls and to identify contact details, so that nothing is missed between your first contact and speaking with Elisa.

These tools assist us; they do not make decisions about your legal matter and they are not a substitute for legal advice from Elisa Rothschild. No automated decision that affects your legal rights is made solely by these tools. Information processed by these providers may be handled outside Australia (see section 6).

Our chat assistant and enquiry forms are not a secure channel for highly sensitive material. Please provide only the information we need in order to understand your situation and contact you, and leave detailed discussion of your matter to your conversation with Elisa.

9. Telephone calls and our scheduling assistant

Our published telephone number is answered by Eliana, an automated scheduling assistant available 24 hours a day, who takes your details and books time with Elisa.

Calls with the scheduling assistant are recorded, transcribed and summarised, and the transcript, summary and your contact details are stored in our enquiry records so that Elisa can follow up with you. The recording and transcription are carried out by a third-party voice technology provider, and this information may be handled outside Australia (see section 6).

If you would prefer that your call is not recorded or transcribed, please do not use the automated assistant — you are welcome to email us, use our enquiry form, or ask to speak with Elisa directly.

10. Direct marketing and follow-up communications

We may occasionally communicate with clients or other persons about legal developments, services, seminars or other information that we consider may be relevant.

If you make an enquiry and we have not been able to reach you, we may send you one or more follow-up messages about that enquiry. These are sent so that your enquiry is not lost, and you can ask us to stop at any time.

Where required by law, we will obtain consent before sending marketing communications. You may opt out of receiving marketing or follow-up communications at any time by contacting us or using any unsubscribe facility provided in the communication.

11. Security of personal information

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

These measures may include physical, electronic and administrative safeguards, access controls, secure information technology systems and professional confidentiality procedures.

However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of information transmitted over the internet.

12. Retention and destruction of information

We retain personal information and client files for as long as reasonably necessary to provide our services and comply with our professional, taxation, regulatory and legal obligations.

When information is no longer required to be retained, we may securely destroy or de-identify it in accordance with applicable legal and professional requirements.

13. Access to and correction of personal information

You may request access to personal information that we hold about you and may request that inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date information be corrected.

In some circumstances, we may be entitled or required by law to refuse access to particular information. If this occurs, we will generally explain the reason for the refusal where we are permitted to do so.

Requests for access or correction should be made using the contact details in section 17.

14. Privacy complaints

If you have a concern or complaint regarding the way we have handled your personal information, please contact us using the details in section 17.

We will consider your complaint and endeavour to respond within a reasonable period.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may be entitled to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), which can be contacted at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

15. Third-party websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security or content of third-party websites. You should review the privacy policies of those websites before providing personal information to them.

16. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our practices, technology or legal obligations.

The current version will be published on our website and will state the date on which it was last updated.

17. Contact us

For questions, requests or complaints concerning privacy or the handling of your personal information, please contact: