Privacy Policy

Sunridge Legal, LLP (“we,” “us,” and/or “our”) is a low-overhead, virtual law firm. This Privacy Policy describes how we handle personal information we collect from and about you when you use this website (the “Site”); engage with us through our newsletters, emails, and branded social media accounts; or otherwise interact with us. It also describes how we handle personal information we obtain in the course of managing our business and providing legal services to our clients (collectively, the “Services”).

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means information about an identified or identifiable individual, such as their name or email address and includes “personal information” as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). Some information that is automatically disclosed to us or collected by us through your use of our Services meets this definition.

By using our Services, you confirm you have agreed to our Terms of Use and have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Please be aware that if you have entered into an attorney-client relationship with us, the terms of additional agreements between you and us may apply and will govern in the event of a conflict with this Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect

Information You Voluntarily Provide to Us

We collect some information directly from you in the following ways:

Filling in forms on our website: When you fill in forms on our Site, including when you contact us to explore a potential attorney/client relationship, we may require that you provide us with certain information such as your name, email address and other contact information, company name, job title, and the name and affiliation of the person who referred you to us, if applicable.
Signing up to receive email communications from us, subscribing to our blog, or completing a survey: From time to time, we may offer newsletters, client alerts, legal blogs, surveys, and other informational materials that address legal and industry trends. When you sign up to receive any of these materials, we may collect your name, email address and other contact details, company name, job title, the practice areas and industries that you are interested in, and any additional information you choose to provide.
Contacting us: When you contact us by email; through our Site; or by telephone, SMS, or otherwise, we may collect your name, username, email address and other contact information, company name, job title, and the contents of your communication, which can include any information you choose to provide.
Communicating with us about a legal matter: If you are client of our firm, we will collect your name; email address and other contact information; company name; job title; payment information; the name and affiliation of the person who referred you to us, if applicable; and any other information pertinent to the legal matter you have asked us to help you with. Because of the nature of our legal services, this could include any type of Personal Information. Common types of information we collect in the course of providing our legal services include information about our clients’ employees, customers, and vendors; communications with our clients; and information we obtain from third parties such as public bodies or opposing counsel.

Information We Collect Automatically

We also collect certain information about you automatically as you navigate our Site or interact with our emails. The type of information we collect automatically includes the following:

Business partners and vendors: We may collect your Personal Information, including your name, contact details, and payment information from our business partners and vendors in the context of the partner or vendor relationship. For instance, when you pay for services, we may receive limited information about your payment card from our payment processors, such as the last four digits of your card, the country of issuance, and the expiration date.
Another individual at your organization: We may collect your Personal Information from other individual at your organization who may provide us with your business contact information in the course of communicating with us about a legal matter.
Social media platforms: We may offer social sharing features and other integrated tools such as widgets, which allow you to share content on our Site with third-party social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. If you choose to use these social sharing features, the provider of the third-party social media platform may make certain information available to us. This can include information necessary to facilitate the integration as well as any additional information the provider chooses to share with us or which you have permitted the provider to share through your privacy settings. We encourage you to check the privacy settings and privacy policies of these third-party social media platforms to understand what information might be shared with us.
Professional services organizations: We may collect Personal Information about you from professional services organizations such as PR firms and other law firms in the course of providing you with legal services and marketing our business.
Government entities and opposing counsel: If you are a client of our firm, we may receive Personal Information about you from government entities and opposing counsel in relation to the legal matter with which we are assisting you.
Other sources: We may also obtain Personal Information about you from other sources, including third parties that help us update, expand, and analyze our records and prevent and detect fraud.

Information We Collect from Other Sources

Log information: We may collect log information about your use of our Site including your browser type and language, access times, pages viewed, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, approximate geographic location, and the webpage or online service you visited before navigating to our Site.
Device information: We may collect information about the mobile device you use to access our Services, including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers and mobile network information.
Information collected by cookies and similar technologies: We may use cookies and similar technologies to manage and track your interaction with our website. Cookies are small data files that websites send to a visitor’s computer or other internet-connected device to uniquely identify the visitor’s browser or to store information or settings in the browser. We use these technologies to better serve our users and to enhance this Site. For example, we may use cookies to tell us whether you have visited us before or if you are a new visitor. You can configure most browsers to notify you when you receive a new cookie, to reject new cookies, and to disable existing cookies. You can learn how to do this by consulting the help section of your browser. Please note that if you choose to stop accepting cookies you may not be able to use all features of our Site.
Analytics information: We also use third-party analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends for our Site. These tools collect information sent by your browser as part of a web page request, including the web pages you visit, your browser add-ons, and other information that assist us in improving our Site.

We may combine the information we collect about you from these various sources. If a combination of information that we collect identifies you as an individual, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information.

How We Use Your Information

We collect the data described above so that we can:

Determine whether to enter into a business relationship with you;
Provide you with legal services if you are or become a client of ours, including maintaining or servicing accounts, providing legal advice, processing payments, and verifying client information;
Send client alerts, newsletters, and other communications to our clients and business contacts. We will send you communications that are relevant to you, based for example on the practice areas and industries you select when you subscribe to receive our communications. We may also use your Personal Information to register you for and confirm your attendance at events; furnish biographical details to other attendees; and assess the effectiveness of our events, promotional campaigns, and publications;
Post testimonials, with your consent;
Operate and improve our Site, including monitoring and analyzing usage, trends, and activities related to the Site;
Respond to your requests, inquiries, comments, and suggestions;
Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
Identify, fix, and troubleshoot bugs and service errors;
Enhance our communications and the experience we offer you, including requesting feedback about the Site and Services;
Improve our educational, networking, marketing, social, and recruiting strategies;
Support our general business operations;
Notify you about any changes to our Services;
Protect against, identify, investigate, and respond to misuse of our Services or other unlawful behavior; and
Carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the information was collected.

How We Share Your Information

We may share information about you with certain third parties in the following circumstances:

Vendors and service providers: To conduct business operations and to deliver our legal services, we may engage vendors, consultants, and other service providers to work on our behalf. For instance, we may engage accountants, insurance companies, title companies, and other professional experts and advisors to help us with our business operations. We may share Personal Information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide these services.
Legal requirements: We may share Personal Information when we believe it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, to protect our rights and property, to protect the safety of our users, and to defend against legal liability.
Government agencies, regulators, or courts: We may share Personal Information as required by applicable law and/or in the context of legal proceedings.
Consent: We may share Personal Information with your consent and at your direction, including if we notify you that the information you provide will be shared in a particular manner and you provide that information. We also rely on your consent to share information in the course of providing you with legal services, such as sharing information with opposing counsel.

We may also share aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you, for various purposes including compliance with various reporting obligations; for business or marketing purposes; or to assist third parties in understanding our users’ interests, habits, and usage patterns for certain programs, content, services, advertisements, promotions, and/or functionality available through our Services.

Our Legal Reasons for Handling Your Personal Data

Data protection laws in certain jurisdictions require businesses to tell you about the legal grounds they rely on to use or disclose your Personal Information. To the extent those laws apply, our legal grounds are as follows:

Legitimate interest: Most often, we handle Personal Information on the ground that it furthers our legitimate interests in commercial activities such as the following:

Providing legal services pursuant to our contract with our client;
Processing billing and payments;
Marketing our services;
Protecting our clients, contractors, and property;
Analyzing and improving our business;
Processing freelance attorney or other applications; and
Addressing legal and ethical issues.

Legal compliance: We need to use and disclose Personal Information in certain ways to comply with our legal obligations, such as complying with our tax, accounting, and anti-money laundering obligations.
To honor our contractual commitments to an individual: We need to process some Personal Information in order to meet our contractual obligations to the individual to whom the Personal Information pertains.
Consent: Where required by law, and in some other cases, we handle Personal Information on the basis of implied or express consent.

Where we act as a processor of Personal Information on behalf of a client, we process the Personal Information pursuant to our contract with the client and our legal and ethical obligations.

Your Rights and Choices

Depending on applicable law, you may have certain rights and choices with respect to your Personal Information. Those rights may be limited by local law requirements. You may exercise these rights by contacting us as specified below.

Opting out of email marketing. You can opt-out of receiving our promotional emails at any time by following the instructions included in those emails. Please be aware that it may take up to 10 days for us to process your request, and you may continue receiving promotional communications from us during that period. If you opt-out of receiving such communications, please note that we may continue to send you non-promotional emails (such as emails related to our business relationship).
Restricting cookies/Do Not Track. We do not change our behavior in response to web browser “do not track” signals. However, you can configure most browsers to reject cookies or to notify you when you are sent a cookie, giving you a chance to decide whether or not to accept it. You can consult the help section of your browser to find out how to do this. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of our Service.
Limiting Information Available Through Social Media Platforms. If you want to limit or stop receipt of information from third-party social media platforms, you can change your privacy settings on those other websites.

We will consider all requests and provide our response within the time period stated by applicable law. Please note, however, that certain information may be exempt from such requests in some circumstances, which may include if we need to keep processing your information for our legitimate interests or to comply with a legal obligation. We may also request you provide us with additional information to confirm your identity before responding to your request. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the authorities applicable to your situation, though we invite you to contact us with any concern, as we would be happy to try to resolve it directly.

California Privacy Rights: If you are a resident of California, California law requires us to disclose the following information with respect to our collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information.
Notice of Collection. Although the information we collect is described in greater detail in the “Information We Collect” section above, the categories of Personal Information that we have collected – as described by the CCPA – including in the past 12 months are:

Identifiers, such as name, email address, mailing address, and IP address. We collect this information directly from you, from third-party sources, or indirectly through your actions on our Site or from your devices.
Other individual customer records, such as phone number, billing address, signature, education, employment, bank account and payment card information. This category includes personal information protected under pre-existing California law (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)), and overlaps with other categories listed here. We collect this information directly from you, from third-party sources, or indirectly through your actions on our Site or from your devices.
Commercial information, such as invoicing information and engagement with our Service. We collect this information directly from you.
Demographic information, such as age and gender. We collect this information directly from you, typically in the context of providing legal services.
Biometric information, such as voice recordings. We collect this information directly from you.
Internet activity, such as referring and exiting pages and your interactions with our Service. We collect this information directly from your device.
Geolocation data, such as your precise physical location. We collect this information directly from you or from your device.
Financial Information, such as payment information or financial account numbers in order to provide you with services. We collect this information directly from you.
Employment information, such as company name and job title. We collect this information directly from you or from third-party sources.
Sensory information, such as photos or voice recordings. We collect this information directly from you or from third-party sources.
Inferences, such as information about your interests and preferences. We collect this information directly from you or indirectly from your activity on our Site or from your device.

Business or Commercial Purpose for Collecting and Using Personal Information. We collect each category of Personal Information listed above for the business or commercial purposes described in the “How We Use Your Information” section above.
Categories of Sources of Personal Information. We collect each category of Personal Information listed above directly from you, through automatic data collection means, or through the third-party sources described in the “Information We Collect” section above.
Categories of Personal Information Disclosed. In the preceding 12 months, we have disclosed the categories of Personal Information listed above in the circumstances described in the “How We Share Your Information” section above.
Categories of Third Parties With Whom We Share Personal Information. We may share each category of Personal Information listed above with the third parties described in the “How We Share Your Information” section above.
Right to Know. California residents may request disclosure of the specific pieces and/or categories of Personal Information that we have collected about them, the categories of sources for that Personal Information, the business or commercial purposes for collecting the information, the categories of Personal Information that we have disclosed, and the categories of third parties with which the information was shared. To request this information please contact us at [email protected].
Right to Opt-Out. We do not sell Personal Information to third parties for monetary value. However, the term “sale” is defined broadly in the CCPA. To the extent that “sale” under the CCPA is interpreted to include any of the data uses described in the “How We Use Your Information” section above, California residents are entitled to opt-out of the “sale” of data at any time.
Deletion. You may request that we delete the Personal Information we have collected about you (subject to certain exceptions). Please be aware that we may keep certain information as required or permitted by applicable law. To exercise this right, please contact us at [email protected].
Authorized Agent. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. To do so, you must provide a valid power of attorney, the requester’s valid government-issued identification, and the authorized agent’s valid government-issued identification. To verify the request, we may contact you directly.
Right to Non-Discrimination. Limiting use of, or deleting, your Personal Information may affect features and uses that rely on that information. However, we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights, including denying you goods or services, providing you with a different level or quality of services, or charging you different prices or rates for services.
Shine the Light. California Civil Code § 1798.83, also known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of Personal Information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared Personal Information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below

Links to Other Websites and Third-Party Content

We may provide links to third-party websites, services, and applications that are not operated or controlled by us. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the privacy practices of those third parties. The fact that we link to a website, service, or application is not an endorsement, authorization, or representation of our affiliation with that third party. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party service before providing any information to or through them.

Data Retention

We only keep your Personal Information for so long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, as required by law, or as necessary to resolve disputes and enforce our rights and agreements. We may, however, retain data in copies made for backup or business continuity purposes for additional time. To dispose of personal data, we may anonymize it, delete it, or take other appropriate steps.

Security

We use generally accepted administrative and technical safeguards we believe are appropriate to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your Personal Information. Although we make reasonable efforts to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk in any system for transmitting and storing information electronically. We cannot and does not guarantee absolute security. If you believe your Personal Information has been compromised through your use of our Services, please contact us immediately online.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in the law. If we make changes to this policy, we will post the updated Privacy Policy on our Site and indicate when it was last revised. You are advised to review this policy periodically to stay informed of our practices.

If we make material changes, we may provide you with additional notice, such as posting a statement on our homepage or sending you an email notification, if we have your email address on file. Your continued use of the Services after the revised Privacy Policy has become effective indicates that you have read, understood, and agreed to the current version of this Privacy Policy, to the extent permitted by law.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or how we protect your Personal Information, please contact us online, or you may send mail to the address on file for Sunridge Legal, LLP, with the California Secretary of State.