When we process personal data, we primarily follow Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (the “GDPR”), the relevant provisions of Act No. 18/2018 Coll. on the Protection of Personal Data, Amending and Supplementing Certain Acts (in particular its Section 78), the Act on Advocacy (Section 18), and other laws. We adhere to the Code of Conduct adopted by the Slovak Bar Association (the “SBA”), which explains in more detail the processing of personal data by advocates. The SBA’s Code of Conduct is available at www.sak.sk/gdpr.

The GDPR provides for the rights of data subjects during the processing of personal data in more detail in its Articles 15 to 22.

If you have any questions or requests regarding the processing of your personal data, please contact us at: gdpr@akf.legal

Why do we process personal data?

Processing of personal data is necessary for us in order to:

• provide legal services to our clients and practice advocacy;
• fulfil various statutory, professional and contractual obligations; and
• protect the legitimate interests of us, our clients and others.

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

Categories of processing purposes	Legal basis	Related regulations
Practice of profession (provision of legal services)	Fulfilment of the statutory obligation pursuant to Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR (there may be additional conditions pursuant to Article 9(2)(f) of the GDPR in relation to specific categories of personal data)	the Act on Advocacy, the Code of Advocacy, the Civil Code and the Commercial Code
Provision of services other than legal services	Fulfilment of the statutory obligation pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR and, where appropriate, fulfilment of the statutory obligation pursuant to Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR	the Act on the Register of Public Sector Partners, the Act on e-Government, the Civil Code and the Commercial Code, the Act on Lease of Non-residential Premises
Compliance with laws and regulations of the Slovak Bar Association	Fulfilment of the statutory obligation pursuant to Article (6)(1)(c) of the GDPR, legitimate interest of advocates or third parties pursuant to Article (6)(1)(f) of the GDPR, public interest pursuant to Article (6)(1)(e) of the GDPR or defence of legal claims pursuant to Article (9)(2)(f) of the GDPR	the Act on Advocacy, the Code of Advocacy, the Anti-money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act, the Anti-social Activity Reporting Act, the GDPR
Purposes concerning the protection of legitimate interests	Legitimate interest of advocates or third parties pursuant to Article (6)(1)(f) of the GDPR	the GDPR, the Civil Code and the Commercial Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Criminal Code, the Code of Civil Contentious Procedure, the Code of Civil Non-contentious Procedure, the Code of Administrative Court Procedure, the Administrative Code, the Transgressions Act
Statistical purposes, archiving purposes in the public interest, and historical and scientific research purposes	Article 89 of the GDPR	the Archives Act
Human resources and payroll	Fulfilment of the statutory obligation pursuant to Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR, legitimate interest pursuant to Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR or performance of agreement pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR (there may be additional conditions pursuant to Article 9(2)(b) of the GDPR in relation to specific categories of personal data)	the Labour Code, the Act on Advocacy and other regulations
Accounting and tax purposes	Fulfilment of the statutory obligation pursuant to Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR	Special accounting and tax administration laws

Whom do we make your personal data available to?

We make the personal data of our clients and other natural persons available only to the necessary extent while, at all times, ensuring the confidentiality of the data recipient, e.g. to our employees, the persons we appoint to perform individual acts of legal services, representing or cooperating advocates, the Slovak Bar Association (e.g. in the case of disciplinary proceedings) or providers of software or support to our office, including the employees of these persons.

Even though we are subject to a limited obligation to disclose your personal data to public authorities for confidentiality reasons, we are obliged to prevent a crime from being committed as well as to disclose information useful to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Which countries do we transfer your personal data to?

We do not intend to carry out a cross-border transfer of the personal data of our clients to third countries.

What automated individual decision-making do we perform?

We do not perform any.

For how long do we store your personal data?

We store personal data as long as necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed. When storing personal data, we observe the recommended storage periods pursuant to Resolution of the Presidency of the Slovak Bar Association No. 29/11/2011, e.g.:

• The advocate shall store the incoming and outgoing mail book after being fully populated with entries for ten years from the date of receipt or dispatch of the last mail entered in the book;
• The advocate shall archive the inventory list for ten years after it was drawn up;
• If the advocate shall keep the list of clients and the log of the client’s file electronically, he/she shall prepare a printed form for a calendar year at the end of the calendar year and store it in the office without any time limit;
• The shredding period of the client’s file shall be 10 years and shall run from the day when all the conditions for archiving the file were satisfied.

Advocates are subject to professional regulations interpreting the obligations of advocates pursuant to the Act on Advocacy, according to which there are certain circumstances that prolong our personal data storage periods or that prevent us, for obvious reasons, from shredding some documents. For example:

• It is not possible to shred a client’s file containing originals of documents handed over to the advocate by the client;
• • It is not possible to shred logs of client’s files and the register of client’s files;
• It is not possible to shred a client’s file or a part thereof, which the advocate shall hand over to the state archive;
• It is not possible to shred a client’s file if any proceedings before a court, a state administration body, law enforcement authorities or the Slovak Bar Association are ongoing whose content is related to the content of the client’s file, or whose subject-matter is the advocate’s conduct or his/her omission to provide legal assistance in the matter to the client.

How do we collect your personal data?

If you are our client, we most often collect your personal data directly from you. In such a case, the collection of your personal data is voluntary. Depending on the case, failure to provide personal data by the client may affect our ability to provide high-quality legal advice or, in exceptional cases, our obligation to refuse legal advice. We may also collect personal data about our clients from publicly available sources, public authorities or other persons.

If you are not our client, we most often collect your personal data from our clients or from other public or legal sources such as requesting them from public authorities, from extracts from public registers, collecting evidence in favour of the client, etc.. In such a case, we may collect your personal data without informing you and even against your will, based on our statutory authorisation and obligation to practice advocacy in accordance with the Act on Advocacy.

What rights do you have as data subject?

Where we process your personal data on the basis of your consent to the processing of personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Regardless, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of your personal data on the basis of legitimate or public interest as well as for direct marketing purposes, including profiling.

As a client, you have the right to request access to, and rectification of, your personal data. If we process personal data during the provision of legal services, under Article 22 of the GDPR, you have no right to object to such processing either as a client or as another natural person (e.g. a counterparty). If the personal data relates to a client (regardless of whether the client is a legal or natural person), other persons have neither the right to access to the data nor the right to the portability due to our statutory obligation of confidentiality and by reference to Article 15(4) of the GDPR, Article 20(4) of the GDPR and Section 18(8) of the Act on Advocacy: “An advocate shall not be obliged to provide information on the processing of personal data, to grant access or portability of personal data under a special regulation if it could lead to a breach of the advocate’s obligation of confidentiality under this Act.” You also have the right to file a complaint with the Office for Personal Data Protection or the Slovak Bar Association at any time.

Changes to the privacy policy

Protection of personal data is no one-off affair for us. The information we shall provide to you due to our processing of personal data may change or cease to be up-to-date. For that reason, we reserve the right to modify these terms and conditions at any time. If these terms and conditions change substantially, we will bring this change to your attention, for example by a general announcement on this website or a special announcement via e-mail.