Website Data Protection Notice

According to the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Italian Privacy Code (decreto legislativo n. 196/2013), the Ferranti Law Firm website collects your personal information only to the extent necessary to fulfil precise purposes related to our online legal services. Here below we provide you with some general information regarding the processing of personal data on our website. Specific information about processing activities of the Ferranti Law Firm other than the ones associated with this website will be provided separately.

The Ferranti Law Firm website is our most important online communication tool. Here we communicate information about our history, our background, our education, our areas of expertise, etc. as well as information about the legal services we provide. Some of the online legal services offered on our website require the processing of your personal data. We put in place measures to guarantee that your data are kept up-to-date and processed securely.

Your Rights

The Ferranti Law Firm website collects your personal data only to the extend necessary to fulfil a precise purpose related to our tasks as a law firm website. We do not reuse the information for another purpose that is different to the one stated. We will never divulge your personal data for marketing purposes.

You have the right to access your personal information, to have it corrected and the right to recourse at any time you believe your data protection rights have been breached. You have the right to data portability. The GDPR does not establish a general right to data portability for cases where the processing of personal data is not based on consent or contract. The right to data portability only applies if the data processing is “carried out by automated means”, and therefore does not cover most paper files.

We do not keep your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes for which we collected it.

Interaction Between Professional Secrecy and Data Protection

The protection of the confidentiality of communications between clients and their lawyers arises through the Legal Professional Privilege of the clients. The obligation of professional secrecy which is imposed upon lawyers creates a relationship of professional confidentiality.

Moreover, the relationship of professional confidentiality covers everything a client confides in a lawyer to be best advised and defended. Contrary to a common misconception, the relationship of professional confidentiality is intended to protect the lawyer’s clients.

Indeed, once a client steps into a law firm (also an online law firm), he can say anything to his advisor. This is the condition upon which the advisor will be able to provide him with the best advice or representation. It would be impossible for lawyers to provide such advice or representation if the client, for fear of betrayal of that essential precondition of confidentiality, withholds information from his lawyer. No informed advice or solid defence could possibly be provided based on partial, and thus insufficient, information.

It is the very nature of lawyers to be the recipient of their clients’ confidential communications. Without the safeguard of confidentiality, there can be no trust. The keeping of these confidential communications is recognised as a fundamental and primary duty of lawyers. “The lawyer’s obligation of confidentiality serves the interest of the administration of justice as well as the interest of the client. It is therefore entitled to special protection by the State” (Article 2.3.1 of the Code of Conduct for European Lawyers).

Therefore, the interaction between professional secrecy and data protection is ambivalent. On the one hand, data protection rules and safeguards help ensure professional secrecy. On the other hand, obligations of professional secrecy imposed on controllers and processors in respect of certain personal data may limit rights of the data subjects, notably the right to receive information.

Even though the GDPR contains an extensive list with information that, in principle, needs to be provided to the data subject where personal data have not been obtained from him or her, this disclosure requirement does not apply where the personal data must remain confidential due to an obligation of professional secrecy required by law [according to Article 14 par. 5 let. (d), paragraphs 1 to 4 shall not apply where and insofar as “where the personal data must remain confidential subject to an obligation of professional secrecy regulated by Union or Member State law, including statutory obligation of secrecy”].

Cookies

We use cookies on our website for its technical functioning and for gathering statistics. Cookies are short text files stored on a user’s device (such as a computer, tablet, phone) by a website.

The Ferranti Law Firm is active on one social media platform. Our presence in the Linkedin community strengthens our online presence and visibility. You can follow the link from our website to Linkedin. By clicking on the Linkedin button on our website, you will be re-directed to the Linkedin site, which has its own cookie and privacy policies over which we have no control.

When you visit our website, we may collect some data on your browsing experience such as your IP address, the Ferranti Law Firm page you visited, when you visited and the website page you were redirected from. This information is used to gather aggregated and anonymous statistics with a view to improving our services and to enhance your user experience.

Visit our cookies page for more information about the types of cookies our website uses.