The information below applies to Powers, Pyles, Sutter & Verville, P.C. (“Powers”) and its website (“Website” or “Site”) and its business operations. We reserve the right to amend this policy at any time without prior notice.
General Overview:
When reasonably practicable, Powers will attempt to respect your privacy. Powers will not monitor, edit, or disclose any personal information about you, including your use of the Site, without your prior consent unless Powers has a good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (i) comply with legal process or other legal requirements of any governmental authority; (ii) protect and defend the rights or property of Powers; (iii) enforce this Privacy Policy or our website Terms of Use; (iv) protect the interests of users of the Site other than You or any other person; or (v) operate or conduct maintenance and repair of Powers’s services or equipment, including the Site as authorized by law. You have no expectation of privacy with respect to the Internet generally or this Site in particular.
Information We Collect and How We Use It
Powers may collect various types of personal information directly from you and third parties such as clients, prospective clients, former clients, accountants, financial advisors, insurance agents, banking institutions, and other advisors. Powers collects personal information when you, your organization, or a third party that holds your personal information retains Powers to provide legal advice or other services; when you, your company, or a third party that holds your personal information makes inquiries regarding our services; when you use the Powers website or provide personal information during Powers events and webinars; when you provide us with your personal information at professional events or other events; when you or a person who holds your personal information provide information to us for the purpose of recruitment; and when you or your organization provides or offers services to us.
Examples of personal information that we collect are contact information, such as name, physical and email address; financial data (such as bank account or credit card information), and other information reasonably necessary for us to provide you with information or legal advice.
We use your personal data for a number of purposes and activities, such as to provide legal advice and other services for our clients; to evaluate prospective clients in accordance with our professional and legal obligations; to manage our business relationships with our clients and service providers; to analyze and improve the Powers website and our marketing services and communications; to evaluate and interview job applicants, service providers, or other third parties; to comply with our legal obligations, including conducting due diligence, and other compliance obligations; and responding to legal requests for information or court orders; and to protect and manage our business.
We use your personal data only when necessary to enter or perform a contract with you; when necessary to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations; where necessary to pursue our or a third party’s legitimate interests, provided that your fundamental rights and freedoms do not outweigh that interest; or where you have provided your consent. Our legitimate interest in processing your data is to provide legal services to our clients in accordance with applicable law and our professional responsibilities; to secure prompt repayment of fees, costs, and debts; and to promote and market our legal and other client services.
Cookies
We may use cookies to collect information about your browsing activities in order to help us improve our website and provide you with more relevant content and promotional materials. When you receive a marketing email or direct mailing from us, we may use cookies (installed by third party software that we license) to collect information about you in the following ways:
- If you click on a “view as a web page” link in an email, a session cookie is recorded by us so that the web page is personalized in the same way as the email.
- If you click on any web link, we will record a session cookie and automatically log such activity in our database.
- If you click “unsubscribe,” we will automatically log this information on our database. If you unsubscribe from any email invitation or alert, we will continue to store your personal data on a “marketing suppression list” so as to record your preferences.
- In our event invitations and confirmations, we provide buttons to allow you to accept, decline, register, or cancel. Clicking these buttons will generate session cookies and your choice will be recorded in our database to help us manage the event.
Sharing Your Information
Powers does not sell or otherwise share personal information with third-party marketers offering their products and services. Accordingly, you do not need to take any action to prevent disclosure.
We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information about clients, prospective clients, or former clients except as required or permitted by law; as required to provide services to our clients; or in limited situations in which we must defend our legal rights. Under US federal law and GDPR, we are generally permitted to disclose nonpublic personal information under certain circumstances such as: (a) when you consent; (b) when disclosure is necessary to carry out a transaction that you have requested; (c) pursuant to our or a third party’s legitimate interests, provided that your fundamental rights and freedoms do not outweigh that interest; or (d) to comply with a properly authorized subpoena or similar legal process. Even if applicable law permits us to disclose your nonpublic personal information, we will not disclose such information unless we are permitted to do so under the Rules of Professional Conduct of the District of Columbia or other applicable jurisdiction.
Retention of Information
We keep personal information obtained during the course of client representations for a period of time that is consistent with our professional responsibilities and that is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which the data was collected and to protect and defend Powers against legal claims.
For other types of personal information, we will retain the data until no longer reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or until consent to hold the data is revoked, provided that there is no other basis for us to hold the information and the deletion of the personal information is legal and consistent with our professional responsibilities.
No Guarantee
Unfortunately, no information transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Accordingly, despite our efforts, Powers cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us.