SCHMDT Advocatuur is committed to respect and protect your privacy. We comply with the European Data Protection regulation (EU 2016/679) and the local laws applicable in the countries we operate in.
In this notice, we tell you in detail how we use and share your personal information and explain your rights on this topic.
Who we are
SCHMDT Advocatuur is a law firm with offices in Leiden, the Netherlands and in Vienna, Austria.
The office in (2321 JV) Leiden, Kanaalpark 140, tel: +31 (0)20 320 03 60, email: mail@schmdt.nl is operated by a private limited company under the Laws of the Netherlands `Advocatenpraktijk J.M. Schmidt B.V.´ of which legal entity Mr. J.M. Schmidt acts as attorney at law registered at the Dutch Bar Association (in the Hague).
The office in Vienna, Reisnerstraße 40, 1030 Vienna, is operated by Mr. J.M. Schmidt in the position as registered attorney at law at the Austrian Bar Association (in Vienna) in person.
For the purpose of this privacy statement, Advocatenpraktijk J.M. Schmidt B.V. controls the collection and processing of any personal data that you provide to us in relation to the provision of legal services both in the Netherlands and in Austria.
Please be aware that although we aim for complete compliance with the Regulation several of its obligations are waived, given the size of our organization.
You can contact us via mail@schmdt.nl if you have an enquiry or question.
Personal data that SCHMDT Advocatuur collects
“Personal data” is any information that relates to you and that identifies you either directly from that information or indirectly, by reference to other information that we have access to. The personal data that we collect, and how we collect it, depends upon how you interact with us. Categories of personal data that we collect include:
Contact information such as:
- Name
- email address
- telephone number
Biographical information such as:
- job title
- employer
- the company you render services to
Billing and financial information such as:
- billing address
- bank account and payment information
- chamber of commerce registration number and/or
- VAT identification number
Services information, for example:
- details of services that we deliver to you, have purchased for you or from you.
Special categories of data such as:
- race and ethnicity
- trade union membership
- information about health
- information about political opinions or religious beliefs
- Information relating to children or regarding criminal matters
Personal date we collect from you
We collect personal data directly from you as follows:
When we enter into a service agreement, we will ask you to provide your contact and other relevant information, as well as your communication preferences.
We will ask you as a (potential) client to identify yourself and if the (potential) client is a legal entity to provide us with information necessary to identify that entity and the persons representing that entity as well as ask for or gather (other) information necessary to conduct pre-clearance checks. Such information may consist of collecting copies of your ID and excerpts from the chamber of commerce and other relevant information.
To be able to perform our services we will ask for all the information that we need to provide our services and to handle your case; this information includes contact details, billing information, and information relevant to the services we provide as well as all necessary information of your case. Information provided by a client may include personal data that relates to persons whose information is relevant to the mandate; for example, when we advise on a business transaction or represent a client in a legal dispute.
When you apply for a job with SCHMDT Advocatuur, we will ask you for information relevant to your application. For employees an additional privacy notice is in place.
When you enter into a service agreement or contractual relationship with SCHMDT Advocatuur as a service provider we will ask you for information relevant to the service. This information includes contact details, information from the chamber of commerce, VAT identification number, billing information, information necessary for us to meet our obligation under such agreement and/or contractual relationship with you.
If you provide information to us about another person, you must ensure that you comply with any legal obligations that may apply to your provision of the information to us, and to allow us, where necessary, to share that information with our service providers. We will handle such information in conformity with this privacy statement.
Information we collect from third parties
Most of the personal data that we collect about you will be information that you provide to us voluntarily. In some circumstances, we may also receive information from:
- Other law firms we cooperate with, in Austria this will be especially Schubert Rechstanwälte in Vienna as well as other colleagues we work with on a case to case basis
- our clients, when we handle personal data on their behalf
- regulators
- other companies providing services to us.
Some of these third party sources may include public sources of information.
Date we collect automatically
SCHMDT Advocatuur does not automatically collect personal data from you.
How we use your personal data
We will only use your personal data fairly and where we have a lawful reason to do so.
We are allowed to use your personal data if we have your consent or another legally permitted reason applies. These include fulfilling a contract with you, when we have a legal duty to comply with, or when it is in our legitimate business interest to use your personal data. We can only rely on our legitimate business interest, if it is fair and reasonable to do so.
Our use of your personal data depends on how and where you interact with us. Below please find a list of the ways that we use your personal data and the reasons we rely on to do so:
| USE OF PERSONAL DATA | LAWFUL BASIS TO DO SO |
| To conduct client due diligence and conflict checks when entering into a service agreement with a (new) client or periodically while performing our legal services. | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations including compliance with anti-money laundering legislation, fraud, terrorism and crime prevention. |
| To provide legal advice and related relevant services, to manage and administer our business relationships, to communicate with our clients, their employees and representatives, to manage billing and payment and to keep records | To fulfil our contract with our client(s) and to comply with legal and regulatory obligations including accounting, tax and data privacy and because we have a legitimate interest in doing so for operating our daily business and securing our legal interests. |
| Enforcing our terms of engagement and our general terms and conditions | Because we have a legitimate interest in doing so operating our daily business and to protect our legal interests. |
| To manage our supplies, including identifying and maintaining contact with our service providers | Because we have a legitimate interest in doing so to run our daily business and to protect our legal interests. |
| Other purposes | Where we have your consent. |
We will only process special category data where the processing is necessary for the purposes of providing our client with advice regarding obligations or an individual with advice regarding their rights in the field of employment or social security; or where it is necessary to do so in order to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, in civil as well as in criminal defence cases.
Please contact us via mail@schmdt.nl if you have any questions about how we collect and use your personal data.
Sharing and transferring your data
We treat your personal data with respect and do not share it with third parties except as described below.
We may disclose your personal data between different offices of SCHMDT Advocatuur in Leiden and Vienna for the purpose of effectively handling your case and/or providing legal advice and services.
We may disclose personal data relating to our clients, their employees and agents to other legal specialists including attorneys at law, barristers, mediators, arbitrators, consultants or experts engaged in a matter. We may also disclose personal data to third party law firms for the purpose of obtaining (foreign) legal advice and or to effectively cooperate with such law firm, such as for example with Schubert rechtsanwälte in Vienna and/or other colleagues we work together with for example in the Netherlands, Germany and Austria on a case to case basis.
We may share personal data with our suppliers and service providers, like bookkeeping firms and our accountants we employ both in the Netherlands and Austria. We may share personal information when necessary with law enforcement and regulatory authorities
We may also share your personal data when you have consented to us doing so.
How we protect your personal data
We protect your personal data and implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect it against any unauthorised or unlawful processing and against any accidental loss, destruction, or damage
Keeping your personal data
We do not keep your personal data for any longer than is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which we collected it, or to comply with any legal, regulatory or reporting obligations or to assert or defend against legal claims.
Your rights regarding your personal data
You have certain rights regarding how we use and keep your personal data. These are:
- you can require us, to update or correct any inaccurate personal data, or to complete any incomplete personal data, concerning you. If you do, we will take reasonable steps to check the accuracy of, and correct the information. Please let us know if any of your information changes so that we can keep it accurate and up to date;
- you have the right to object to our use of your personal data.
You may also have the right, in certain circumstances to:
- be provided with a copy of any personal data that we hold about you, with certain related information. There are exceptions to this right; for example where information is legally privileged or if providing you with the information would reveal personal data about another person.
- to require us, without undue delay, to delete your personal data. Please be aware that legal obligations may prevent us from doing so in the way you require as well as our legitimate right to assert or defend us against legal claims.
- to “restrict” our use of your information, so that it can only continue subject to restrictions, please be also informed that such a request could as a consequence have that we would not be able to render our legal services to you and/or we would be forced to end our contractual relationship with you; and
- to require personal data which you have provided to us, based on your consent or the performance of a contract with you, to be provided to you in machine readable format so that they can be “ported” to a replacement service provider.
The right to file a complaint via mail@schmdt.nl and If you are not satisfied with the way we handle your personal data and your complaint or if that does not lead to an acceptable solution, to file a complaint at the Dutch Supervisory Authority
You can exercise the above rights, where applicable by contacting us via mail@schmdt.nl. We will require you to provide satisfactory proof of your identity in order to ensure that your rights are respected and protected. This is to ensure that your personal data is disclosed only to you.
As privacy regulations and policies are complex and can change, SCHMDT Advocatuur may alter its privacy statement from time to time.
