Privacy Notice

Updated: June 2023

Notice at Collection: If you are a California resident, see the U.S. Privacy Rights section below for important information about your rights under California law.  If you are located in the European Economic Area, UK, or Switzerland, please also see the European Privacy Rights Section below.

WHO WE ARE

Murtha Cullina LLP (“Murtha” or “we”) respects the privacy of its clients and the visitors of its website, www.murthalaw.com and its blogs at www.murthaemploymentlaw.com and www.newyorkemploymentattorneyblog.com (collectively the “Sites”).  This Privacy Notice covers personal information that Murtha may collect from you when you receive or inquire about receiving the services we provide (“Services”), visit or use the Sites, apply for a position with our firm, or request information from us.  This Privacy Notice, together with our Cookie Notice, our U.S. Privacy Rights Notice, and our European Privacy Rights Notice, which are incorporated herein, describes how we collect this personal information, with whom we share it, and what your rights are in connection with the collection and use of your personal information.

TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Personal information is information about you that identifies you as an individual or could be used to identify you, or in some cases, information that could identify a particular household.  Information, including personal information, that we collect depends on how you interact with us and our Sites.  In particular, we collect:

• Information you provide.  We may collect the following personal information that you voluntarily provide to us:

  • a first name and last name.

  • a home or other physical address.

  • an email address.

  • a telephone number.

  • a Social Security Number or tax identification number.  Murtha collects Social Security Numbers (“SSN”) from clients only when it is necessary to perform Services on their behalf.  Additionally, Murtha keeps records of employees’ SSN, as required by law.  SSN are safeguarded by protecting the confidentiality of, prohibiting unlawful disclosure of and limiting access to SSN as described below.

  • any other identifier that permits the physical or online contacting of a specific individual.

  • account registration information including username and password.

  • employment history and information, and education, when you apply for a job posted on our Sites.

  • social media user name/account identifier.

  • information provided to us in email inquiries or in comments on social media platforms.

  • information that is necessary to provide you with our Services, which may include sensitive personal information such as race, ethnicity, religion and citizenship.

• Information as you navigate our Sites.  We may automatically collect certain information, including personal information, through your use of the Sites, such as the following:

  • Location information, including precise or approximate location information provided by a mobile or other device interacting with our Sites, or associated with your IP address or other online or device identifier, where we are permitted by law to process this information;

  • Activity information about your use of our Sites, such as the content you view, how often you visit our Sites, and your preferences; and

  • Usage, viewing, technical, and device data when you visit our Sites, use our applications on third-party sites or platforms, open emails we send, or connect with our wireless Internet access services and other similar technologies, including your browser or device type, unique device identifier, and IP address.

• Third-party information.

  • In certain cases, we may receive certain personal information from you about a third-party.  For example, as part of our registration process to attend a seminar or webinar, or as part of our client intake process, you may provide the name, email address and personal phone number of a third-party.  If you submit any personal information about another individual to us, you are responsible for making sure you have authority to do so and to allow us to use their personal information in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

  • In other instances, we collect additional personal information about you from third-parties, including publicly available sources.  For example, we may use certain third-parties or publicly available sources to verify your address or your business name and status.

HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

• We collect personal information you provide to us when you request or obtain Services from us, apply for a job with us, request information from us, register an account with us, register to attend a seminar or webinar hosted by us, visit our physical properties, or otherwise interact with the Sites using one or more devices. You may provide personal information in a variety of ways, including by writing to us or speaking with us.

• Through our social media properties on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

• We collect personal information through a variety of methods such as, for example, emails, webforms, and client intake forms and we may use technologies such as cookies, Flash cookies, pixels, tags, software development kits, and Web beacons, including when you visit www.murthalaw.com. Please visit our Cookie Notice for further information on cookies.

• We collect personal information automatically by using analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, when you visit our Sites.

• We acquire personal information from other trusted sources to update or supplement the personal information you provided, or we collected automatically, such as when we validate postal address information using third-party services.  Applicable law may require that you authorize the third-party to share your personal information with us before we can acquire it.

USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Murtha is responsible for and may use your personal information for the purposes described in this notice.  We may use personal information collected from you in a manner that is consistent with applicable law and choices and controls that may be available to you.   We may use personal information collected from you, or from devices associated with you, to:

• Provide you with the Services and/or information you request;

• Communicate with you about your job application or career inquiry;

• Communicate with you about your matters or your account and send you information;

• Provide you with targeted advertising based on your activity on our Sites;

  • to learn more about how we use your personal information for personalization and tracking, please visit our Cookie Notice.

• Operate, understand, optimize, develop, or improve Sites, Services and operations, including by using analytics tools;

• Detect, investigate and prevent activities that may violate our policies, pose safety issues, or be fraudulent or illegal;

• Evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, in which personal information held by us about users of our Sites and clients is among the assets transferred; and

• Comply with a law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, to assert legal rights or defend against legal claims.

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH OTHER ENTITIES

We will not share your personal information with a third-party outside Murtha except in limited circumstances, including:

• When you direct us to share your personal information with another entity to fulfill your request, such as:

  • When you require legal or other professional services outside of practice areas at Murtha and specialized advice is required.

  • When we are directed to or required to provide your personal information to undertake Services for you.

  • Please note that once we share your personal information with another entity in the above circumstances, the information received by the other entity is controlled by that entity and becomes subject to the other entity’s privacy practices.

• When companies perform services on our behalf, like package delivery and marketing; however, these companies are prohibited from using your personal information for purposes other than those requested by us or required by law; and

• When we share your personal information with third parties in connection with the sale or merger of some or all of our assets, to enforce our Terms of Service, to ensure the safety and security of our guests and third parties, to comply with legal process, or in other cases if we believe in good faith that disclosure is required by law.

YOUR CONTROLS AND CHOICES

We provide you the ability to exercise certain controls and choices regarding our collection, use and sharing of your personal information. In accordance with applicable law, your controls and choices may include:

• Correcting, updating, and deleting your personal information;

• Choosing or changing your choices for subscriptions, newsletters, and alerts via our email services;

• Controlling the non-necessary cookies our Site drops on your browsers (by visiting the Cookie Consent Manager);

You may exercise these controls and choices in various ways, including contacting privacyofficer@murthalaw.com, following instructions provided in communications sent to you, or by using your device or other available settings.  You may have additional rights as outlined in our U.S. Privacy Rights Notice and our European Privacy Rights Notice.

Please be aware that if you do not allow us to collect personal information from you, we may not be able to deliver certain Services and information to you. If you have questions about the specific personal information about you that we process or retain, and your rights regarding that personal information, please contact privacyofficer@murthalaw.com.

THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

This Privacy Notice does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of third parties, including social media platforms.  This includes any third-party operating any website or service to which the Sites link.  The inclusion of a link on the Sites is not an endorsement of the linked site by Murtha.

Additionally, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure or security policies or practices of third-party organizations, including social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, or any other third-party operated website or social media platform, that is linked on the Sites.

CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

The Sites are intended for users over the age of 18 and are not intended for children.  If we learn that a child under 18 has submitted information to us through any part of the Sites, we will delete this information as soon as practical.

PRIVACY PROTECTION POLICY REQUIRED BY CGS §42-471 PERTAINING TO CLIENTS

Except as authorized by law and by the client, we do not disclose SSNs of current or former clients or SSNs of customers, candidates, clients, patients or employees of clients that we obtain in the course of representing our clients.  Any disclosure authorized by a client must be consistent with applicable laws, the provisions of the codes of professional responsibility, and rules of ethics governing our conduct as lawyers.

As a general matter, we treat all information we receive from clients as confidential and protect it as such.  Additionally, we configured our document management system to impose certain access limitations for our practice groups that routinely collect SSN.  For these practice groups, we limit access to client information to the attorneys and staff within that practice group.

Access to SSNs of employees or candidates is strictly limited to employees with a business need to access such information, including employees in the Human Resources and Payroll Departments. The limited employees with access to employee or candidate SSN may not disseminate SSN internally or externally, except to fulfill a necessary business function of Murtha such as performing payroll or employee benefit functions, or to comply with a court order, service of process, or other applicable law.

We train all Murtha staff on the importance of the protection of client information and, in particular, of sensitive personal information such as SSN.

DATA SECURITY, INTEGRITY, AND RETENTION

The security, integrity, and confidentiality of your personal information are extremely important to us. We have implemented technical, administrative, and physical security measures that are designed to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, use, and modification. We regularly review our security procedures to consider appropriate new technology and methods. Please be aware that, despite our best efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable.

We will retain your personal information for the length of time needed to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

DATA TRANSFERS AND STORAGE

Murtha is located in the United States, and as such, all personal information will be accessed and stored there, and will be transferred there should you live in another country. Murtha may also contract with cloud service providers located in other countries, and certain personal information may be accessed and stored from additional countries. Where required, we have put in place appropriate safeguards with our service providers, contractors, and other business partners and agents to ensure that transfers of personal information outside the EEA and UK are adequately protected. Unless a jurisdiction is deemed to have adequate safeguards, the safeguards we typically put in place are the Standard Contractual Clauses in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

From time to time, we may change this Privacy Notice to accommodate new technologies, industry practices, regulatory requirements or for other purposes. We will provide notice to you if these changes are material and, where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent. Notice may be by email to you at the last email address you provided us, by posting notice of such changes on our Site, or by other means, consistent with applicable law.

COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS

If you have a comment or question about this Privacy Notice, please contact privacyofficer@murthalaw.com.

U.S. RESIDENTS’ RIGHTS 

Notice to U.S. Residents: If you are a U.S. resident, you may have certain additional privacy rights. Visit our U.S. Privacy Rights Notice for more information.

UK & EU RESIDENTS' RIGHTS 

Notice to UK, Swiss, and EEA Residents: If you are an EEA, Swiss, or UK resident, you may have certain additional privacy rights. Visit our European Privacy Rights Notice for more information.