Privacy notice: COMBAR

This notice was last updated on 1 November 2023.

About COMBAR

COMBAR, The Commercial Bar Association, is the organisation responsible for the processing of your personal data as set out in this notice.

If you have questions relating to this notice, or wish to exercise your rights, please contact the current Secretary of COMBAR.

What data we process

We process the following information about you.

Members

  • Your name, identity and contact information, and the name of your chambers and a link to your chambers profile page.
  • Information about COMBAR events you attend, and records of payments you have made or are required to make.
  • If you apply for, or are appointed to, a COMBAR committee role, we will also process information which you submit as part of the application process for that role.
  • If you take part in COMBAR’s mentoring scheme, we will also process information about your request to mentor, or be mentored, as well as the information in your equality and diversity monitoring form if you choose to complete one.

Prospective members

  • Your name, identity and contact information, CV, and the name of your chambers.

Suppliers and general enquiries

  • Your name and contact information.

We also generate log files for our IT infrastructure, such as our email server and website. These files will include information sent automatically when you access that infrastructure, which may include your IP address.

Using your information

References to the basis of processing (e.g. “(Basis: Art. 6(1)(f).)”) are a reference to the article of the UK General Data Protection Regulation under which we undertake the processing in question.

Processing your application for membership

If you are a prospective member of COMBAR, we will process your personal data to assess your application for membership.

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(f): processing is necessary for the legitimate interest of operating COMBAR.)

Providing services to our members

If you are a member of COMBAR, we process your personal data to provide our services to you. This includes:

  • putting your name on our website, and linking to your chambers profile
  • communicating with you about your membership, and COMBAR events
  • administering events

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(f): processing is necessary for the legitimate interest of operating COMBAR.)

Non-membership communications

Unless you tell us otherwise, we will send you information about:

  • Bar Council, BSB and other consultations
  • Commercial news that we think would be of interest to you

You can notify us as at any time that you no longer wish to receive communications relating to these. This will not affect communications about your membership, or about COMBAR events.

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(f): processing is necessary for the legitimate interest of keeping you informed of things which, as a member of COMBAR, we feel will be of interest or relevance to you.)

COMBAR mentoring schemes

If you choose to take part in  one of the COMBAR mentoring schemes, whether as a mentor or a mentee, we will process the personal data you give us to match you with a suitable counterpart.

You may, but are not required to, complete our diversity and equality monitoring form. We will use this  to monitor the fair and equal treatment of all applicants for our mentoring schemes. Completion of this form is entirely voluntary and this form plays no role in the allocation of mentors to prospective mentees.

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(a): processing with your consent.)

Committee members

If you stand for a committee position, we will process the information you submit as part of your application, to aid in the appointment process.

If you are appointed to a committee position, we will include your information on our website, along with your committee role.

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(f): processing is necessary for the legitimate interest of operating COMBAR.)

Debt recovery

We very much hope that you will pay sums you owe to COMBAR in a timely manner. If not, we reserve our rights to engage in debt collection activity to recover unpaid sums.

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(f): processing is necessary for the legitimate interest of collecting money owed to us.)

General enquiries

If you contact us (for example, by using the contact details on our website), we will process the personal information you give us (such as your name and contact details) to handle your enquiry.

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(f): processing is necessary for the legitimate interest of operating COMBAR.)

Managing suppliers

If you work for a supplier to COMBAR, we will process your personal data – most likely, your work contact details – to manage our relationship with you and your organisation.

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(f): processing is necessary for the legitimate interest of operating COMBAR.)

Securing our infrastructure

We may use the logs from our servers to assist in protecting COMBAR’s, and our members’ and staff’s, security.

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(c): we have to do this processing to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including those relating to the protection of personal data.)

Preventing and detecting crime, and safeguarding our rights and interests

In the unlikely event that we need to do so, we may process any of your personal data to prevent or detect crime, and to safeguard our rights and interests, including taking legal action.

(Basis: Art. 6(1)(f): for the legitimate interest of safeguarding COMBAR, its staff, and its members.)

Your data and the UK

We do not routinely transfer or process your data outside the UK.

We put our members’ names, and a link to their chambers profile, on our website. Our website is available to the world at large, and we have members and suppliers outside the UK.

Your rights

You have statutory rights in respect of our processing of your personal data. The relevant rights are:

  • to get access to your personal data and information about our processing of it.
  • to require us to rectify inaccurate personal data.
  • the right to data portability, although, in practice, we are unlikely to hold anything capable of being ported.
  • to require us to erase your personal data, or restrict or object to our processing of your personal data, in limited circumstances.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, please contact the current Secretary of COMBAR.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint about our processing with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office.

Third parties

To carry out the activities listed above, we need to share your personal data with third parties.

These include:

  • anyone who visits our website (your name, and chambers profile, only).
  • with your chambers (e.g. in the context of membership arranged through a chambers).
  • our professional advisors.
  • our bank / payment system provider.
  • our suppliers.

In addition:

  • If you owe us money, we may engage with debt collection providers.
  • If we reasonably believe we have a civil right of action against you, we may share your data with our legal advisors, and with the courts system.
  • We may share your data with law enforcement agencies, with courts, or pursuant to a court order or other binding mandate, in the unlikely event that we reasonably believe this is necessary.

Retention periods

Members

  • We will remove your contact details from our website when you cease to be a member of COMBAR.
  • We will keep information relating to your payment of COMBAR’s fees, or other payments relating to COMBAR activities, for six years from the end of the year in which the payment was made.
  • We will delete information relating to monthly lectures, such as your attendance, promptly following the lecture in question.
  • We will keep data relating to our annual conferences (including data as to your attendance) for ten years. Data relating to annual conferences combines data in relation to attendance by Honorary Overseas Members and other COMBAR members. We need to retain that data for ten years to evidence the membership requirement for Honorary Overseas Members that they attend our conferences regularly. We also need to retain the conference programme for ten years to enable us to see what topics have been discussed in the past, and who discussed them.
  • If you apply for a committee position, we will delete your application once we have appointed someone to the position.
  • If you apply to take part in our mentoring scheme, we will delete your application form within two years of receipt, unless you have asked us to delete it immediately on matching you with a mentor/mentee.

Prospective membership

  • We will delete your application for COMBAR membership once we have made a membership decision and communicated it to you.

Suppliers

  • We will delete your information six years after the termination of our relationship with the person with whom we are contracting.

General enquiries

  • We will delete your information once we have handled your enquiry.

Exceptions

  • We may retain your data for a longer period if we reasonably believe we need to retain it to protect COMBAR’s interests (such as in the event of suspected crime or misconduct, or for actual or prospective legal proceedings), in which case we will delete it when it is no longer necessary for us to retain it for this purpose.