Privacy Notice

About this notice

This notice explains how Al Amin & Hargreaves collects, uses, shares and protects personal information through alamiinlaw.com and our consultation intake form.

Al Amin & Hargreaves is responsible for the personal information described in this notice. Our headquarters are in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

For privacy questions or requests, email our privacy contact at D.Hargreaves@alamiinlaw.com.

Information we collect

When you submit a consultation request, we collect:

• Your full name.
• Your email address.
• Your telephone number, if you provide it.
• The primary jurisdiction connected with your enquiry.
• The type of matter.
• Your short, non-confidential summary.
• Information used to detect automated or spam submissions.

Please do not include privileged documents, account numbers, passwords or highly sensitive personal information in your summary. Do not send confidential evidence or sensitive details until we tell you that our conflict and acceptance checks are complete.

We may also collect information that you choose to provide when you contact us about privacy or another matter.

We do not use advertising or analytics cookies. Cookies are not needed to submit the consultation form.

How we use your information

We use personal information to:

• Receive and acknowledge your consultation request.
• Organise your enquiry for lawyer review.
• Conduct conflict checks.
• Decide whether we can accept the matter.
• Communicate with you about your request.
• Protect our systems and prevent spam or misuse.
• Maintain appropriate professional and business records.
• Meet legal, regulatory and professional obligations.
• Establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Submitting the form creates an initial enquiry only. It does not create a lawyer-client relationship, provide legal advice or mean that we have accepted the matter.

Conflict checks and acceptance

We must complete conflict and lawyer-acceptance checks before you send confidential information.

Your request is stored in our database with a reference and the status “awaiting conflict and lawyer review.” We send an acknowledgement to the email address you provide. We also send an internal alert containing only the reference, jurisdiction and matter type.

A lawyer decides whether Al Amin & Hargreaves accepts a matter.

Automated tools and human decisions

We use lawyer-supervised automated tools to structure consultation requests and assist with conflict checks. These tools use models provided by OpenAI in the United States and, at times, Alibaba Cloud in Singapore.

Automated tools support our review. They do not make the final decision about whether we accept a matter. That decision is made by a lawyer.

Legal bases

The legal basis for processing depends on where you are and why we use the information.

We may process personal information because:

• You have asked us to take steps in response to your enquiry.
• Processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in reviewing enquiries, checking conflicts, operating securely, maintaining records and protecting legal rights.
• Processing is necessary to comply with a legal, regulatory or professional obligation.
• You have given consent where consent is required by applicable law.
• Processing is otherwise permitted under applicable data protection law.

Where the UAE Personal Data Protection Law applies, we process information on a lawful basis available under that law.

If you are in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, we rely as appropriate on steps requested before entering into a contract, our legitimate interests, compliance with legal obligations, consent, and the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

If you are in South Africa, Brazil, Colombia or Georgia, we process your information under the lawful grounds available under the applicable local data protection law. These may include your request for services, consent where required, legal or professional obligations, legitimate interests where permitted, and the protection of legal rights.

Please do not send special-category, sensitive or highly sensitive personal information through the intake form. If such information is later required, we will address the applicable legal basis and safeguards at that time.

Sharing information

We disclose personal information only where reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this notice.

Information may be shared with:

• Lawyers and authorised personnel working for Al Amin & Hargreaves.
• Contabo, which provides servers in Germany.
• Providers supporting our automated tools, including OpenAI in the United States and, at times, Alibaba Cloud in Singapore.
• Professional advisers, insurers, auditors or service providers where their involvement is necessary.
• Courts, regulators, law-enforcement bodies or other authorities where disclosure is required or permitted by law.
• Other persons where you direct us to disclose information or give valid consent.

Our email is handled through our own mail server hosted in Germany.

We do not describe Morency & Co. as a bank, and nothing in this notice states that it takes deposits.

International transfers

Al Amin & Hargreaves operates internationally. Your personal information may be processed in countries other than the country where you are located.

The consultation database and email systems are hosted in Germany. Information used by our automated tools may be processed in the United States or Singapore.

Data protection laws differ between countries. Where applicable law requires a transfer mechanism or additional safeguards, we use measures intended to provide the protection required for the transfer.

How long we keep information

If we do not accept your enquiry, we keep its information only for as long as reasonably needed to document the enquiry and conflict review, meet legal or professional obligations, manage complaints, protect legal rights and prevent repeated conflicts or misuse. We then delete or anonymise it when continued identification is no longer necessary.

If we accept a matter, information becomes part of the matter record. We keep that record for as long as reasonably necessary to provide services, comply with legal, regulatory and professional duties, handle conflicts, and establish, exercise or defend legal claims. The appropriate period may depend on the matter, jurisdiction and applicable obligations.

Daily backups of the consultation database are stored as access-restricted files on the same servers and are kept for 14 days. Information deleted from the active database may remain in those backups until the relevant backup expires.

Security

We use organisational and technical measures intended to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

Consultation requests are stored in our own database. Access to database backups is restricted. Internal new-matter alerts contain only the request reference, jurisdiction and matter type.

No method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure. Please use the intake form only for a short, non-confidential summary and follow its warning about sensitive information.

Your rights

Depending on the law that applies to you, you may have rights to:

• Ask whether we process your personal information.
• Request access to your personal information.
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Ask us to delete information.
• Ask us to restrict processing.
• Object to certain processing.
• Withdraw consent where processing depends on consent.
• Receive certain information in a portable form.
• Ask for information about international transfers.
• Complain to the data protection or supervisory authority responsible for your location.

These rights may be limited by legal, regulatory and professional obligations, legal privilege, confidentiality duties, conflict-check requirements and the need to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

To exercise a right, email D.Hargreaves@alamiinlaw.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

If you believe that we have not handled your information properly, please contact us first so that we can investigate. You may also complain to the data protection or supervisory authority with jurisdiction over your complaint.

Changes to this notice

We may update this notice when our practices or legal obligations change. The updated date at the top of this page shows when the notice was last revised.