Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement applies to information that we collect online through our website as well as other methods of collection, for example  information you share with us verbally, in writing, in email messages to our lawyers, consultants or employees, or to information obtained during the course of representing a client.

Information we obtain from visits to our website can be broadly described as the personal information that visitors provide us, as well as technical information that we collect through the use of technology concerning those visits.

Visitors to our website have the opportunity to register for events, seminars or webinars; sign up to receive newsletters, publications and marketing materials; apply for employment; or respond to surveys. From our website, we will collect any information that you voluntarily provide us such as your name, email address, telephone, mobile or fax numbers; your company or firm name; and other business contact information. We will also collect other types of information you might provide such as preferences as to the types of information—such as notice of seminars or events, or publications—that you would like to receive, as well as responses to surveys or questionnaires. We may endeavor to determine whether you are a current or former client of the firm from the information you provide.

You are under no obligation to provide us with your personal information when visiting our website. Whether you provide any personal information is entirely voluntary and is solely within your discretion. You will suffer no legal detriment if you decide not to provide any of the requested personal information. We may be unable to provide you with any services or information you request, however, if you decide not to provide us with some or all of the personal information requested via our website.

You can withdraw your consent to our possession or processing of any of the personal information you provide us, at any time. To do so, you can email us.

We may process the information you provide and that we collect via our website to:

• To fulfill or meet the reasons you provided us the information, including to process your requests, transactions or payments and to prevent transaction fraud.
• Provide invitations to seminars, conferences and other firm programs; register you for events or to sponsor events; provide newsletters, publications, blogs, social media feeds and marketing information; or provide CLE or CPE information.
• To respond to your inquires, process your requests concerning your personal information in our possession, to investigate and address your concerns and to monitor and improve our responses.
• To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our website, products, services, databases, networks, and other technical assets and business.
• Deliver any requested products or services, or provide you with customer support.
• Improve or modify our website; update and maintain client, subscription or email lists; and achieve other internal purposes.
• Respond to requests for information, respond to requests for proposals, or provide information about legal services you request.
• Respond to lawful requests for information through court orders, subpoenas, warrants and other types of legal process or obligations.
• Enforce our website’s terms of use (https://www.madelawgroup.com/disclaimer) or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• Evaluate job applications and compile applicant data for reporting purposes.
• Protect the operations of our law firm, or the safety, security and privacy of our firm, our lawyers and staff, our clients, or third parties. This potentially includes sharing information with others for purposes of fraud protection, information security and related matters.

We will not share or sell your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

We will not use your personal data for making any automated decisions affecting you or your legal rights or for creating profiles other than as described above.

We may share the information you provide us on a confidential basis with contractors, vendors or service providers that support our firm’s operations and our website, but only for those purposes. This may include, for instance, tracking registrations, confirming attendance and providing your biographic information to attendees of our programs. If you are seeking continuing legal or privacy education credit after attending one of our educational offerings, we will provide certain personal information you provide us to the appropriate authorities in the state(s) in which you seek CLE credit or to the International Association of Privacy Professionals (“IAPP”) if you are seeking CPE credit

We may also share your personal information with courts, law enforcement authorities, regulators, attorneys or other parties when it is reasonably necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of a legal or equitable claim, or for purposes of an alternative dispute resolution process; to comply with a subpoena or court order, legal process or other legal requirement, or when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with the law, prevent imminent physical harm or material financial loss; to investigate, or prevent or take action concerning, illegal activities, suspected fraud or threats to our firm, any of its lawyers or our property; or as necessary in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy or other unlawful activity.

In addition to the rights set forth above in this Privacy Statement, if you are an individual who is also a California resident, you are afforded rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which allows you to make certain requests about your personal information in our possession. Specifically, the CCPA allows you to request us to:

• Inform you about the categories of personal information we collect or disclose about you; the categories of sources of such information; the business or commercial purpose for collecting your personal information; and the categories of third parties with whom we share/disclose your personal information.
• Provide access to and/or a copy of certain personal information we hold about you.
• Delete certain personal information we have about you.
• Provide you with information about the financial incentives that we offer to you, if any.

The CCPA further provides you with the right to not be discriminated against (as provided for in applicable law) for exercising your rights.

Please note that certain information may be exempt from such requests under California law. For example, the CCPA provides that we are not required to comply with a request to delete personal information if the information is necessary for our Firm to:

• Comply with a legal obligation.
• Complete the transaction for which the information was collected, provide a good or service you requested, perform a contract with you, to fulfill the terms of a written warranty or product recall conducted in accordance with federal law, or take actions reasonably anticipated in the context of our ongoing business relationship with you.
• Detect security incidents, protect against deceptive, malicious, fraudulent or illegal activity, or to prosecute those responsible for that activity.
• Debug products, services or applications to identify and repair errors that impair existing functionality.
• Exercise free speech, to ensure the rights of others to exercise their free speech rights, or to exercise another right provided by law.
• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code §1546 et. seq.).
• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based upon your relationship with our Firm.
• Make other internal and lawful uses of the information that are compatible with the context in which you provided the information.

Furthermore, we are not obligated under the CCPA to respond to any request where compliance or disclosure would violate an evidentiary privilege under California law, or conflict with federal or state law.

The CCPA, does not require that we provide personal information to a consumer more than twice in a twelve month period.  Any disclosures we make will only cover the twelve (12) month period preceding the request.

Regulations proposed by the California Attorney General prohibit us from disclosing specific pieces of personal information if the disclosure creates a substantial, articulable and unreasonable risk to the security of that information or the security of our systems or networks. These proposed regulations further prohibit us from disclosing in response to a consumer’s request a Social Security number, driver’s license number, other government issued identification number, financial account number, any health insurance or medical identification number, an account password or security questions and answers.

Before we respond to any request involving personal information, the CCPA requires that we confirm the identity of the person making the request, and if the request is made on behalf of another person, his or her authority to make the request on the other person’s behalf.  We are not obligated to provide or to delete any information pursuant to your request if we are unable to adequately verify your identity or the identity of the person making the request on your behalf.  Accordingly, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before responding to a request, which may include, at a minimum, depending on the sensitivity of the information you are requesting and the type of request you are making, verifying your name, email address, and other account information. If we cannot verify your identity, we will not be able to respond to or take action upon such request.

You are also permitted to designate an authorized agent to submit certain requests on your behalf. In order for an authorized agent to be verified, you must provide the authorized agent with signed, written permission to make such requests or a power of attorney. We may also follow up with you to verify your identity before processing the authorized agent’s request.

If there is a discrepancy between any of the other provisions of this Privacy Statement and the requirements of the CCPA involving an individual who is a California resident, the CCPA shall govern our obligations and responses.

In addition, the California Civil Code permits California residents with whom we have an established business relationship to request that we provide you with a list of certain categories of personal information that we have disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. To make such a request, please contact our Privacy Officer as explained at the end of this Privacy Statement and mention that you are making a “California Shine the Light” inquiry.

Our firm’s website is not directed at and is not intended to be visited by minors. No visitor to our website who is a minor or under the age of 18 should provide any personal information to our firm. If you are a minor, do not visit our website (including our blogs and social media sites) and do not send any type of personal information about yourself to our firm or website.

This Privacy Statement was last updated in January 2020. We occasionally will update our Privacy Statement and the terms of our website’s disclaimer. Please periodically check our Privacy Statement and our website’s disclaimer to learn of any changes to our Privacy Statement and disclaimer. This Privacy Statement supersedes all prior versions governing our website.

Nothing contained in this Privacy Statement, or in our website or its disclaimer, is intended to provide legal advice, or to create a contractual or attorney-client relationship. You agree that visiting our website or providing information to our website does not create a contractual or attorney-client relationship.

We welcome your views about our website and our Privacy Statement. If you have any questions about our Privacy Statement, would like to exercise any of your rights, or would like to share any comments with us, please call us toll free at 1-888-438-6233. Submit an online request for information form here.