Privacy policy

SY Advisors Pty Ltd (ABN 68 700 118 252) (“SY Advisors”, “we”, “us”) is an incorporated legal practice in New South Wales. This policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information, consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). We have chosen under s 6EA of that Act to be treated as an organisation, so we are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles. Nothing in this policy displaces our duty of confidentiality to clients or the protection of legal professional privilege.

The personal information we collect depends on how you deal with us. It may include:

• your name, employer, position and contact details;
• information you provide in connection with an enquiry or a matter, which may include financial information and, where relevant to a matter, sensitive information;
• identity verification documents where we are required to collect them; and
• billing and payment records.

We collect personal information directly from you where practicable and otherwise from sources such as your representatives, counterparties, courts, registries and publicly available records. Where we provide designated services, we may also be required to collect and retain identification information under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth).

Where we collect sensitive information we do so with your consent, or where the collection is required or authorised by law or is necessary in connection with legal proceedings. You may deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym where that is lawful and practicable, though we generally cannot act in a matter on that basis.

We do not use analytics on this website and we do not set cookies for advertising or tracking. Our website host records standard server logs which are retained for 90 days.

We use personal information to provide legal services, to manage our relationship with you and to meet our professional and statutory obligations, including under the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW). We also use it to conduct conflict checks, to issue bills and recover costs and to comply with court orders and other legal requirements. We do not use personal information for direct marketing.

We may disclose personal information where it is necessary for the conduct of a matter or the operation of the practice. This includes barristers, experts and other professionals we retain; courts and tribunals; and the other parties to a matter and their representatives. It may also be disclosed to providers of services we use to run the practice, such as website hosting, document management, email and accounting systems. We may disclose it to regulators and government agencies where required or authorised by law, including AUSTRAC, the Law Society of New South Wales and the NSW Legal Services Commissioner. We do not sell personal information.

We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold, including access controls on our electronic systems. Some of our service providers store or process data outside Australia, including in the United States. Where they do, we take reasonable steps to ensure the information is treated consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles. If a data breach involving personal information is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act.

We retain matter files for at least seven years after a matter concludes, in line with our professional obligations. We then take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify the personal information they contain.

You may ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, by writing to office@syadvisors.com.au. We will respond within 30 days. Access or correction may be refused where the law requires or permits us to refuse it, for example where information is subject to legal professional privilege belonging to another client. If we refuse, we will give you written reasons and tell you how to complain. If we refuse to correct information, you may ask us to associate with it a statement that you consider it inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. We will take reasonable steps to make that statement apparent to anyone who later uses the information.

If you believe we have mishandled your personal information, please write to us first using the details under Contact below. We will investigate and respond within a reasonable period, at most 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the OAIC at www.oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version will be published on this page.

For privacy enquiries, access requests and complaints:

SY Advisors Pty Ltd
Level 17, 400 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000
office@syadvisors.com.au
(02) 8211 0669