Privacy policy

Controller

The law office of Maître William LAURENT, avocat registered with the Mulhouse Bar, 24 rue de Stalingrad, 68100 Mulhouse, France, acts as controller within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the French Data Protection Act No. 78-17 of 6 January 1978.

Processing carried out by the office

• handling incoming requests, client relations and appointments (legal basis: legitimate interest, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR);
• handling, preparing and following up the matters entrusted to the office, including advice, litigation and court representation (legal basis: performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps, Article 6(1)(b));
• compliance with the legal and professional obligations of a lawyer, in particular accounting and anti-money laundering obligations (legal basis: legal obligation, Article 6(1)(c));
• communication about the office’s activity (legal basis: legitimate interest, Article 6(1)(f)).

Depending on the matter, some data may fall within special categories (sensitive data or data relating to offences). Such processing is then based on Article 9(2)(f) GDPR (establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims).

Data collected on this website

Contact form. Name, email address, subject and message, used only to answer your request and, where relevant, to arrange a meeting or open a file. Messages are sent to the office by email, through its Microsoft 365 mailbox, and kept for as long as necessary to handle them.

Protection against abuse. The form uses Google’s reCAPTCHA service to distinguish human submissions from automated ones. This service only loads after you accept marketing cookies in the consent banner; otherwise, you can write to the office by email.

Audience measurement. The website uses Google Analytics only if you accept it in the consent banner. You can change your choice at any time from the cookie policy.

Third-party content. The Google Maps map and YouTube videos only load after you consent. Online booking takes place on the consultation platform of the French National Bar Council (consultation.avocat.fr), which processes the data you enter under its own responsibility.

Recipients

Data is accessible only to authorised persons within the office. Where necessary to perform the engagement or required by law, it may be disclosed to recipients acting as independent controllers: courts and court registries, CARPA, judicial officers, notaries, experts, and authorities empowered by law. Technical service providers (hosting, IT tools, online services) act as processors.

Transfers outside the European Union

Some service providers belong to U.S. groups: Google (audience measurement, reCAPTCHA, map and videos) and Microsoft (the office’s email, Microsoft 365). Data may therefore be transferred to the United States. These transfers rely on the European Commission’s adequacy decision of 10 July 2023 on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, under which Google LLC and Microsoft are certified, and, where applicable, on the standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission.

Retention periods

• client files: duration of the engagement plus 5 years, unless a legal obligation or specific need requires longer retention;
• anti-money laundering due diligence data: 5 years after the end of the relationship;
• accounting and tax data: 10 years;
• prospecting data: 3 years from the last contact.

Your rights

You have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability, as well as the right to give instructions regarding your data after your death. Some rights may be limited where the processing is necessary to comply with legal obligations, with the lawyer’s professional secrecy, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

To exercise your rights: william.laurent@avocat.fr or 24 rue de Stalingrad, 68100 Mulhouse, France. Proof of identity may be requested where there is reasonable doubt as to your identity.

The office has not appointed a data protection officer, as it is not legally required to do so. You may lodge a complaint with the French data protection authority (CNIL): www.cnil.fr.