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Introduction

Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP and our management services company, FMC Services Limited Partnership (both referred to as "FMC" in this policy), recognize the importance of confidentiality and the protection of personal information.  This privacy policy explains how we use and protect, on a Canada-wide basis, personal information we hold, whether it relates to our clients, potential clients, staff, job candidates, partners, former associates or partners, consultants or third party service providers.

What is personal information?

Personal information means information about an identifiable individual or information that permits an individual to be identified.  It does not include business contact information, such as name, title, business address and business telephone number when used for business communications.

Our commitment

FMC takes responsibility for maintaining and protecting the personal information under our control.  We have appointed a Chief Privacy Officer who can be contacted directly by the public and also have privacy officers in each of our Canadian local offices who are responsible for our day to day compliance.  We review this policy and our personal data protection practices on an annual basis to ensure that we are in compliance with applicable legislation and current best practices. 

How we collect, use and disclose personal information

We only collect personal information as required to meet the purposes that we have identified.  We do not indiscriminately collect or retain information.

FMC typically collects personal information that is voluntarily provided by the individual in question.  At times, however, personal information is obtained from other sources, such as government bodies or third parties such as employers, references and service providers, as permitted by law.   Where the purpose for the collection of personal information is unclear, you can ask the FMC representative with whom you are dealing to provide an explanation of the purpose for the data collection.

Our reason for collecting personal information about job candidates, staff, partners and consultants is to establish and maintain the employment, contractual or partnership relationship. 

The purposes for collecting personal information about our clients and prospective clients is primarily to provide legal services and representation, to maintain client relationships, communicate with our clients, maintain mailing lists and avoid conflicts of interest. 

As appropriate, FMC will ask for specific consent to collect, use and disclose personal information.  This may be in writing or orally.  In some cases, consent can be implied through an individual relationship or conduct with us, depending on the sensitivity of the information.

Personal information supplied to us is confidential and we do not disclose the information to any third party except with actual or implied consent, or as permitted or required by law.  We do not exchange or sell personal information.

Our use and disclosure of all information with respect to client matters (including personal information) is also subject to our professional obligation of confidentiality and to the requirements of solicitor-client privilege.

FMC uses third party service providers from time to time to carry out certain functions for us such as printing, storage, shredding or document scanning.  Where we use outside service providers, we require the third party to protect personal information in the same manner in which we protect it and to not use or disclose it for any purposes except as directed by the firm. 

Protecting your personal information

We strive to maintain personal information in as accurate, complete and up-to-date a form as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected.  We protect personal information by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the personal information, regardless of format.  Our security safeguards include premises security and restricted access to files containing personal information.  Depending upon the information under our control, we also use technological safeguards such as security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access, internal passwords and security policies. 

Our website

Our website uses cookies, which are identifying technologies that your computer receives when you visit certain websites. We do not match or correlate this information with any personal information that you submit to FMC. Most browsers can be set to reject all cookies but features of our website may not work as intended if that option is chosen. We use permanent cookies for language preference purposes and to analyze website usage. We use temporary (session based) cookies to improve performance and to determine web trends. Temporary cookies disappear when you close your browser window.

Accessing your personal information

You may write to our Chief Privacy Officer to request access to personal information about you.  FMC will generally inform you if we are holding personal information about you, as well as details about the personal information.  We reserve the right to confirm your identity before complying with any access request.  In responding to an access request, we may charge a reasonable copying or retrieval fee, the amount of which we will provide in advance.  Access to personal information may be denied if required or authorized by law, including in accordance with the requirements of client confidentiality or solicitor-client privilege.  If the request for access is denied, FMC will provide an explanation of the reasons for the refusal. 

If you choose to withdraw your consent to continued collection, use or retention of your personal information, we will explain the consequences of such withdrawal.

You may also challenge the accuracy of personal information about you in our custody and FMC will amend personal information where appropriate.

How to contact us

If you wish to request access to personal information about you, request a correction to information about you or have questions about our privacy policy, you may contact our Chief Privacy Officer as follows:

privacy.officer@fmc-law.com

Chief Privacy Officer
Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP
1 First Canadian Place
100 King Street West
P.O. Box 100
Toronto, ON M5X 1B2

FMC reviews this privacy policy on an annual basis and will post the revised or updated policy from time to time as required.  This policy was last updated on February 28, 2007.