Privacy Policy for A&O Shearman’s access to education and employment community programs

This Privacy Policy applies to the personal information, including sensitive personal information, that you may provide, or A&O Shearman may obtain, in connection with our access to education and employment community programs, including:

• the Smart Start Experience and bursary program.
• ReStart, our program to help people over the age of 50 return to work.
• our relationships with our partner schools and charities.

Personal information is information that identifies you or may be used to identify you. Sensitive personal information includes information concerning your ethnicity, your religion, your health and any disability requirements.

A&O Shearman refers to Allen Overy Shearman Sterling LLP, its subsidiaries and the other partnerships, corporations, undertakings and entities which are authorized to practice using a name which includes ‘Allen Overy Shearman Sterling’ or ’A&O Shearman’. See the section entitled ‘Who the data controllers are’ below for more information.

This policy describes:

• what personal information we collect and process about you and how we obtain it
• how and on what basis we use your personal information.
• how long we keep your personal information.
• who we share your personal information with and how we protect it.
• which countries we transfer your personal information to.
• your rights regarding your personal information and who the data controllers are in respect of it.
• changes to our Privacy Policy and who to contact with questions or concerns.

What personal information we collect about you

The personal information we collect and generate about you in connection with our access to education and employment community programs includes:

• basic information, such as your name, contact information (postal address, email address and phone numbers), date of birth and gender.
• identification and background information provided by you or collected by us as part of our application processes, including your skills, qualifications, academic details, employment history and
• other experience, career aspirations, details of citizenship and right to remain and study, and a copy of your university application in the case of the Smart Start bursary program.socio-economic information collected by us as part of our application processes, including eligibility for free school meals, whether you are the first in your family to attend university and whether you have been a refugee or an asylum seeker.
• information you provide when you are visiting the offices of A&O Shearman or its business partners, including dietary and access requirements.
• technical information such as information from visiting our websites, using our IT systems, from communications we send to you electronically and in relation to your use of and access to our premises, such as electronic access records and CCTV footage.
• your ethnicity and/or whether you consider yourself to have a disability or long-term health condition, which is sensitive personal information, but only should you choose to provide it.
• bank account information for the purposes of making payments to you or reimbursing any expenses.
• in the case of the Smart Start bursary program, financial information including details of other financial support.
• photographs or video recordings received directly from you or that are taken of you participating in workshops or activities. These may contain sensitive personal information, for instance if they indicate your religion or ethnicity.
• feedback from your school, our staff and third parties involved in delivering the programs.
• contact details for people we need to contact in case of an emergency.
• in the case of the Smart Start Experience, contact details for your teacher.
• any other information relating to you which you provide to us.

Before providing us with personal information about another individual, please make sure that you have their permission to share it with us for the relevant purpose.

How we may obtain your personal information

In relation to your application or participation in our access to education and employment community programs, we collect or obtain your personal information:

• through completion of an application form and as part of our assessment and acceptance procedures.
• during interviews and assessment exercises.
• from third parties working with us on our access to education and employment community programs, such as Causeway Education and Connectr. See the section entitled ‘Who we share your personal information with’ for more information.
• in connection with your attendance at our offices, such as access and dietary requirements provided by you or CCTV footage or electronic access information.
• in the course of any work experience you undertake with us or as a result of participating in workshops, training, seminars or other activities.
• in surveys and feedback sessions with you to get your views on our programs and how they have benefitted you. 
• from A&O Shearman staff and business partners in relation to your participation in our programs and any work experience you undertake.
• when you contact or communicate with us, including by email and through websites or applications (including aoshearman.com).

How we may use your personal information

We will only process the following sensitive personal information:

• your dietary and access requirements in order to cater for your needs when visiting our offices.
• your ethnicity and whether you consider yourself to have a disability or long-term health condition for diversity monitoring and reporting purposes.

We will process and use your personal information more generally in order to run, administer, promote and improve our access to education and employment community programs and to help us consider any new programs we might offer.

Where you choose to participate in them, we will use your personal information in relation to other programs that develop employability skills, prepare individuals for the workplace and to provide work experience with A&O Shearman, our clients or business partners.

We may use photographs or video recordings of individuals participating in workshops or other activities and quotes in relation to their experiences:

• in materials and publications created by A&O Shearman for internal events or meetings.
• on A&O Shearman websites and social media available to the general public.
• in A&O Shearman’s annual review or other external publications that are available to the general public.
• in local, national and international newspapers or news programs.
• in any similar promotional media or marketing materials.

How and on what basis we use your personal information

We have set out below the principal purposes for which A&O Shearman use your personal information and the legal basis (as set out in data protection law) that we rely on to do so.

Purpose

To provide information requested by you and to communicate with you.

Legal basis

For our legitimate business purposes (i.e., to provide information that you request and to communicate with you).

Purpose

To process and assess your application and consider your suitability for our access to education and employment community programs.

Legal basis

For our legitimate business purposes (i.e., to assess and consider your application) and to take steps prior to entering into a contract between you and us To comply with any legal obligations that apply to us in relation to this purpose, such as to establish eligibility to remain and study in the UK.

Purpose

To organize and host workshops and exercises, provide training, host events that you attend and provide work experience, where relevant.

Legal basis

For our legitimate business purposes (i.e., for example, we will collect data to facilitate your visit to our premises and maintain the security of our systems and premises) We may also process personal information to ensure compliance with the firm's legal obligations to provide appropriate access to its premises and comply with health and safety requirements.

Purpose

To promote and improve our access to education and employment community programs.

Legal basis

For our legitimate business purposes (i.e., the provision, improvement and promotion of our programs).

Purpose

For diversity and equality monitoring purposes.

Legal basis

For our legitimate interests and for reasons of substantial public interest (i.e., to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our programs and the diversity of its applicants and participants). We will request your consent in circumstances where required by applicable law.

Purpose

For remuneration and reimbursement purposes, in particular to reimburse expenses and, if you are awarded a bursary, to pay the agreed financial support.

Legal basis

For our legitimate business purposes (i.e., to reimburse expenses of those who wish to participate in our access to education and employment community programs) and, depending on the circumstances, to perform a contract between you and us.

Purpose

To audit and monitor the use of our website and other technology tools.

Legal basis

For our legitimate business purposes (i.e., the provision of the website and technology tools and to improve and ensure the security of those resources).

Purpose

To maintain appropriate business records.

Legal basis

For our legitimate interests.

Purpose

To fulfil our legal, regulatory and risk management obligations, including establishing, exercising or defending legal claims.

Legal basis

For our legitimate business purposes and for compliance with legal obligations to which we are subject.

How long we keep your personal information

Your personal information will be retained in accordance with our global data retention policy which categorizes all of the information held by A&O Shearman and specifies the appropriate retention period for each category of data. Those periods are based on the requirements of applicable data protection laws and the purpose for which the information is collected and used taking into account legal and regulatory requirements to retain the information for a minimum period, limitation periods for taking legal action, good practice and A&O Shearman’s business purposes.

Who we share your personal information with

As an international law firm, any personal information that you provide to us may be shared with and processed by any entity in the worldwide network of A&O Shearman and our associated firms. You can see a list of our offices here.

We will also share your personal information with:

• third parties involved in organizing, hosting, delivering or accrediting our education and employment community programs (including our charity partner Causeway Education and our accrediting body City & Guilds in the case of our Smart Start program, and our social enterprise partner Connectr and The Executive Coaching Consultancy in the case of our ReStart program) or monitoring, evaluating, promoting or reporting on diversity, equality and inclusion in those programs.
• our clients and business partners where they provide work experience, mentoring, assist with the delivery of workshops and training or are otherwise involved helping us to deliver our education and employment community programs.
• journalists and publicists reporting on or promoting our education and employment community programs.
• A&O Shearman’s social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) to promote our education and employment community programs.
• IT service providers and suppliers to whom we outsource certain support services such as word processing, photocopying and document review.
• legal and regulatory authorities, courts, tribunals, government agencies and law enforcement agencies; and
• our professional advisers and auditors.

Protection of your information

We use a variety of technical and organizational measures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction consistent with applicable data protection laws. A&O Shearman’s document management and email systems are certified to the internationally recognized ISO/IEC 27001 security standard. This is an independently verified certification that information security is managed in line with international best practice.

When we engage a third-party service provider to collect or otherwise process personal information on our behalf, the third party is selected carefully and will be required to have appropriate security measures in place.

Transferring information outside the EEA

For the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, we may need to transfer your personal information to locations outside the jurisdiction in which you provide it. This may entail a transfer of your information from a location within the European Economic Area (EEA) to outside the EEA, or from outside the EEA to a location within the EEA. Please see the section entitled ‘Who we share your personal information with’ for more detail on how the information may be shared with A&O Shearman offices and third-party service providers.

The level of data protection in countries outside the EEA may be less than that offered within the EEA. Where this is the case, we will implement appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information remains protected and secure in accordance with applicable data protection laws. EU standard contractual are in place between all A&O Shearman entities that share and process personal information. Where our third-party service providers process personal information outside the EEA in the course of providing services to us, our written agreement with them will include appropriate measures, usually standard contractual clauses. Please contact us using the details at the end of this policy if you would like to see a copy of the safeguards applied to the export of your personal information.

Your rights regarding your personal information

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and other applicable data protection laws provide certain rights for the individuals whose personal information we process.

You are entitled to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and information on how we process it. You may also have a right in accordance with applicable data protection law to have your personal information rectified or deleted, to restrict or our processing of your personal information, to stop unauthorized transfers of your personal information to a third party, to object to our processing of your information and, in some circumstances, to have personal information relating to you transferred to another organization. You may also have the right to lodge a complaint in relation to A&O Shearman’s processing of your personal information with a local supervisory authority.

If you object to the processing of your personal information, or if you have provided your consent to processing and you later choose to withdraw it, we will respect that choice in accordance with our legal obligations.

Your objection (or withdrawal of any previously given consent) could mean that we are unable to perform the actions necessary to achieve the purposes set out above (see section entitled ‘How and on what basis we use your personal information’). Please note that, even after you have chosen to withdraw your consent, we may be able to continue to process your personal information to the extent required or otherwise permitted by law, in particular, in connection with exercising and defending our legal rights or meeting our legal and regulatory obligations.

We must ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. Therefore, please advise us of any changes to your information by emailing us at SocialImpactGroup@aoshearman.com.

Who the data controllers are

A ‘controller’ is the organization that makes the decisions about how and why your personal information is processed.

There are a number of entities through which A&O Shearman provides legal and other services. In most cases, the controller of your personal information in relation to our education and employment community programs will depend on the location of where those programs are provided. Please click here for details of which A&O Shearman entity will be the data controller in each country and, where necessary having regard to local applicable data protection or privacy laws, a country-specific privacy notice.

In certain circumstances, Allen Overy Shearman Sterling LLP, Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US LLP or other A&O Shearman entity may also be a controller of your personal information, for example certain personal information processed using, or accessible via, global systems. 

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we make to this Privacy Policy from time to time will be posted on the Community Impact page of our website. The updated Privacy Policy will take effect as soon as it has been updated or otherwise communicated to you.

This Privacy Policy was last updated in May 2024.

Who to contact with questions or concerns

Application Questions: If you have questions about our education and employment community programs or wish to update the personal information we hold about you, please contact Kate Cavelle.

Privacy Questions/Complaints: If you need further information or have any questions or complaints about our Privacy Policy or practices, please contact:

Chief Privacy Officer A&O Shearman

68 Donegall Quay Belfast

Northern Ireland BT1 3NL

Email: DataPrivacy@aoshearman.com