Privacy Policy

Data protection declaration

Our data protection declaration applies to the processing of personal data that we receive in the course of our business activities. Personal data includes the name and contact details of a person as well as other information that can be assigned to a person, in particular date of birth, income and asset situation, family circumstances, state of health, employment relationship and involvement in ongoing civil, criminal and administrative proceedings.

1. Person responsible

The responsible partner for the respective data processing is the partner in charge of the mandate.

If we receive personal data from you about other persons (e.g. employees), you are responsible for informing the person concerned accordingly.

If you have any questions about our handling of personal data, you can contact us at our business address.

2. Processed personal data and processing purposes

2.1 In general

We would like to point out that all lawyers are subject to professional secrecy pursuant to art. 13 of the Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers (FMLA) as well as art. 321 of the Swiss Criminal Code (SCC) and are thus bound by law to maintain confidentiality.

We process personal data that we receive or collect from our clients and business partners and other services and authorities in the course of our business relations. Our data processing serves the fulfillment of our contractual obligations towards you or the fulfillment of our legal obligations (in particular retention obligations), but also applies to inquiries of all kinds to our law firm if no contractual or client relationship exists or comes into being.

2.2 Communication with you

We obtain personal data from you when you contact and communicate with us by telephone, by mail, through our email addresses or otherwise. This data includes in particular your name, your contact details, information about your role in the organization in which you work or on whose behalf you communicate with us, your communication to us (e.g. information about your concerns and the interests you have expressed). This data is stored and processed for the purpose of handling your request or communicating with you.

If you communicate with us by e-mail, you do so at your own risk, especially since the attorneyclient privilege cannot be guaranteed in this case. We assume that if you communicate with us by e-mail, you agree that we may contact you by e-mail.

2.3 Client relationship

Within the scope of a client relationship, we process personal data which we receive from you or involved third parties or authorities or which we collect ourselves. This includes in particular:

Client data and data for mandate management: first and last name as well as contact details of the contact persons, position and title, associated company/position, industry, any connections (e.g. shareholders or related persons) and further background information from publicly accessible sources (e.g. commercial register or land register), any assigning person, contents of inquiries and mandate, counterparties and their representatives as well as further details for checking any conflicts of interest;
Case related data: Communication with clients, opposing counsel and third parties as well as courts or authorities, advisory documentation, information disclosed to us by or on behalf of clients, opposing parties, courts, authorities and other parties to proceedings in the course of our services or which we prepare in the course of our services, in particular legal documents, opinions, rulings and correspondence of all kinds;
Service and billing data: Information about the services provided and billed, invoice data, proof of services, expenses, advances, invoices, payments, bank details.

We process personal data in order to provide, document and invoice our services to you. This includes processing in order to comply with legal requirements (e.g. to check for any conflicts of interest or for comparison with sanctions lists) and to enforce or defend against legal claims. We also process the personal data of our clients in order to communicate with them, to answer their inquiries and to provide them with information about our firm.

2.4 Contract performance

In connection with the conclusion and execution of contracts, we collect in particular contact data, information for the execution of contracts as well as interactions and communications with the contractual partners. The processing of contracts includes everything that is necessary or expedient to select a contractual partner, to conclude, implement, fulfill and enforce a contract. It also includes processing for record keeping, to address contractor concerns and the concerns of others, to provide our services, to communicate with you, to comply with legal ob-ligations, to protect and enforce our rights, and to defend ourselves against claims by others.

If you participate in an audio or video conference, the terms of use and data protection declaration of the respective video platforms and providers, which are available on the websites or apps of the respective providers, also apply.

2.5 Job applications

If you apply for a job with us, we will process your CV and other data in your application file and from interviews. With your authorization, we will also obtain information from the reference persons you have named. We need this data for the application process.

If the application does not lead to an employment relationship, the application documents will be deleted no later than six months after completion of the application process, unless you have agreed to a longer retention period or we have a legitimate interest in deleting the data.

If you apply online via a job exchange or a job mediator, the respective data protection conditions of these platforms and providers also apply.

2.6 Use of our websites

When visiting and using our websites, certain technical information is automatically collected by our web hoster and stored in log files. This technical information may include in particular IP address, date and time of access to our websites, device information (hardware model, operat-ing system version, device identification, etc.), visited website, system activities, browser type, browser language, URL of the previously visited website, name of the retrieved file, etc. This data is not processed by us and we do not use cookies (other than the “__cf_bm” cookie from myfonts.net which is required in order for our website to function properly).

2.7 Other purposes

In addition to the purposes described above, we may also use the personal information we collect to comply with our legal obligations (including accounting), to protect and enforce our rights, to defend ourselves in connection with legal disputes and governmental proceedings, and to prevent and investigate criminal offenses and misuse of our services.

3. Disclosure of personal data by us

We disclose personal data to third parties, in particular courts and authorities, in the following situations:

if the person concerned has given his or her consent to this,
if this is done in connection with the processing of the mandate or is necessary for other purposes described in this data protection declaration,
if this is provided for by law or we are required to do so by law,
if this is necessary to protect legitimate interests, such as combating abuse or safeguarding rights on our part or in emergency situations.

In connection with the processing of the mandate, information may be disclosed in particular to courts and authorities, counterparties, correspondent attorneys, legal protection insurers and other experts or consultants.

For certain services, such as the operation of IT systems and applications, we may also in-volve external Swiss service providers. In order to provide their services, these service providers may receive access to your personal data. In doing so, we strive to ensure that your data is treated confidentially, protected from unauthorized access and use and disclosure, and not used for purposes other than to provide the services on our express instructions.

We process personal data in our area of responsibility in Switzerland. However, we may transfer personal data to recipients (namely clients, counterparties or authorities or otherwise in accordance with this data protection declaration) who process the personal data in other countries, including countries that do not ensure a level of data protection comparable to Swiss law. If we transfer data to a country without a comparable level of data protection, we will, as required by law, ensure an adequate level of protection by using appropriate contracts (in par-ticular on the basis of the so-called standard contractual clauses) or rely on the legal exceptions such as your consent (e.g. when using audio and video telephony solutions), the conclusion or execution of the contract, the establishment, exercise or enforcement of legal claims.

4. Your rights

Persons whose data we process have the right, within the scope of the data protection law applicable to them, to request information about the personal data concerning them and to request that it be corrected or deleted. Insofar as our processing is based on consent, every data subject also has the right to revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future.

To exercise such rights, please contact the responsible person named in section 1 in writing (telephone inquiries will not be answered).

Please note that we may – to the extent legally permissible or necessary – refuse requests to exercise these rights. In particular, we must retain or further process personal data for legal reasons (in particular in accordance with the Cantonal Lawyers Act of the Canton of Berne and in accordance with Art. 958 et seq. OR) despite requests to delete it or to restrict processing.