Privacy policy

Protection of personal data of our clients and of other natural persons is of our primary importance. This text is intended to explain the way we at the law office Ulianko & partners, s.r.o., registered office: Nám. SNP 37 960 01 Zvolen, company ID number: 36856517 (hereinafter referred to as “We”) process the personal data in connection with the provision of legal services. Should you have any questions, please contact us by telephone at: +421 908 888 990, by e-mail at: office@akulianko.sk or by a letter sent to our registered office.

We process the personal data primarily in compliance with the general data protection regulation of the EU (“GDPR”) that defines the rights you have as the data subject,[1] in compliance with provisions of the Act on the Protection of Personal Data that apply to us (especially section 78), Act on Advocacy (section 18) as well as other regulations. We follow the Code of Conduct adopted by the Slovak Bar Association (“SAK”) that defines in detail the way lawyers process personal data. The Code of Conduct of SAK is available at: www.sak.sk/gdpr.  

Why do we process the personal data?

We need to process the personal data to be able to: 

• Provide legal services to our clients and to work as advocates;
• Fulfil various statutory, professional and contractual obligations; and
• Protect the legitimate interests of our clients and other persons.

For what purposes do we process the personal data and what is the legal basis?

What is the scope of processing of the personal data?

Pursuant to section 18, par. 6 of the Act on Advocacy: “An advocate processes personal data of clients and other natural persons in the extent needed for the performance of advocacy in compliance with this Act and with the special regulation.”

Pursuant to section 18, par. 7 of the Act on Advocacy: “An advocate shall be entitled to collect and process the personal data needed for the performance of advocacy by copying, scanning or by recording otherwise official documents in data carriers without a consent by the data subject”.

Pursuant to section 18, par. 8 of the Act on Advocacy: “An advocate shall be obligated neither to inform about the processing of personal data, nor to give access to or to permit transfer of the personal data according to the special regulation, if it could lead to a breach of the advocate’s obligation of confidentiality in accordance with this Act.”

To whom do we provide your personal data?

We disclose the personal data of our clients and other natural persons in the necessary extent only e.g. to our employees to persons authorised by us to perform individual legal performances, to deputy advocates or cooperating advocates, to our accounting consultants, to Slovak Bar Association (e.g. in case of an disciplinary proceedings) or to software providers or office support providers, including employees of such persons, while the data recipients shall keep such information confidential.

Although our obligation to disclose your personal data to public authorities is restricted due to our confidentiality obligation[2], we shall prevent any offence, and, at the same time, we shall provide information with the aim to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

To which countries do we transfer your personal data?

We do not intend to transfer your personal data across border to any third parties outside the European Economic Area (EU, Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein).

What automated individual decision-making do we apply?

 “Automated decision-making” means decision-making based exclusively on automated processing, including profiling, having legal effects on you or influencing you otherwise to a significant extent. Our law office does not use automated decision-making and profiling to process your personal data.

For how long do we keep your personal data?

The personal data are kept as long as necessary for the purposes, for which the personal data have been processed. We keep the personal data in compliance with the recommended periods in accordance with the Resolution of the Slovak Bar Association No. 29/11/2011, e.g.:

• After completely filled-in, the book of incoming mail and the book out outgoing mail shall be kept by an advocate for ten years after the date of receipt or the date of sending the last mail recorded in the book;
• Inventory list shall be archived by the advocate for ten years after prepared;
• If an advocate keeps an electronic list of names of his or her clients and electronic client files, at the end of every calendar year the advocate shall prepare a paper version thereof and keep it in his/her office without any time limit;
• Retention period of client files shall be 10 years and it shall start lapsing on the day of meeting all the conditions of depositing the file in archives, then the file would be shredded.

Professional rules that apply to advocates describe the advocates’ obligations pursuant to the Act on Advocacy and define that under certain circumstances the retention period should be extended or shredding should be disallowed due to obvious reasons. E.g.:

• Client file containing original documents that had been submitted to the advocate cannot be shredded;
• Client file protocols and lists of client files cannot be shredded;
• A client file or any part thereof cannot be shredded if it has to be submitted to the state archives;
• A client file cannot be shredded if any proceedings before court, state administration authority, law enforcement authority, Slovak Bar Association in progress relates to the contents of the client file or the proceedings deal with advocate’s action or neglect during the provision of legal services to the client.

How do we collect your personal data?

If you are our client, we usually collect your personal data from you. In such case you submit your personal data voluntarily. Depending on the particular case, a client’s failure to provide his or her personal data can influence our ability to provide legal services of high quality or, in exceptional cases, we can refuse to provide legal service in such case. We can collect personal data about our clients from public sources, from public authorities or from other persons, too.

If you are not our client, we can collect your personal data from our clients or from other public or legal sources, such as from public authorities, from copies of public register records, gathering evidence in favour of a client, etc. In such case we can collect personal data without informing you and even against your will, based on our legitimate authorisation and obligation to perform advocacy in compliance with the Act on Advocacy.

What right do you have as a data subject?

If we process your personal data based on your approval, you are entitled to withdraw such approval anytime.
Without prejudice to the above-mentioned, you shall be entitled anytime to demur the processing of your personal data based on a legitimate interest or public interest, as well as for the purpose of direct marketing, including profiling.

As a client you shall be entitled to request access to your personal data and to rectify such data. If we process any personal data during the provision of legal services, you as the client or as other natural person (e.g. a counterparty) shall not be entitled to demur any such processing pursuant to article 22 of GDPR. Other persons shall not have the right of access to the personal data of any other client (regardless whether the client is a natural person or legal entity), or the right to data portability due to our statutory confidentiality obligation and with reference to art. 15, par. 4 of GDPR; art. 20, par. 4 of GDPR and section 18, par. 8 of the Act on Advocacy: “An advocate shall not be obligated to provide information about processing of the personal data, to allow access to personal data or portability of personal data in compliance with the special regulation, if it could breach the advocate’s confidentiality obligation in accordance with this act.” At the same time, you shall be entitled anytime to file a complaint to the Office for Personal Data Protection or to the Slovak Bar Association.

Change of the privacy policy conditions

Privacy policy is not a one-time issue. Information that we shall provide to you in connection with processing of the personal data, can be subject to a change or can become out of date. Therefore, we reserve the possibility anytime to amend and change the conditions in any extent. In case we change the conditions in a significant way, we will inform you about such change by means of this web site or by e-mail.