Privacy Statement

Van Hooff Law B.V. (“VHL”, “we”, “us”) processes personal data in the context of providing legal services and operating its practice.

Confidentiality is a core principle of our practice. Personal data are handled with due care and in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”) and applicable Dutch legislation.

For general firm information, please also see Legal Information.

VHL may process the following categories of personal data:

Depending on the matter, VHL may process special categories of personal data or data relating to criminal convictions where this is necessary for the provision of legal services and permitted under applicable law.

VHL processes personal data on one or more of the following legal grounds:

• performance of a contract or pre-contractual measures;
• compliance with legal and professional obligations (including the Dutch Legal Profession Act and AML legislation);
• legitimate interests, including the proper conduct of legal proceedings and the administration of the practice;
• consent, where applicable.

Where processing is based on consent, consent may be withdrawn at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

Personal data may be processed for the following purposes:

• providing legal advice and representation;
• conducting conflict checks and client identification procedures;
• complying with anti-money laundering and sanctions legislation;
• conducting legal proceedings, restructurings and negotiations;
• administration, invoicing and accounting;
• handling complaints or disputes;
• safeguarding rights and defending legal claims;
• complying with statutory and regulatory obligations.

Personal data may be shared, where necessary, with:

• courts, arbitral tribunals and supervisory authorities;
• counterparties and their advisors;
• experts and other professionals engaged in a matter;
• IT service providers and other suppliers supporting the practice;
• professional advisors such as accountants;
• authorities where required by law.

Where third parties act as data processors, appropriate contractual safeguards are implemented.

Personal data may be transferred outside the European Union where necessary for international matters. In such cases, appropriate safeguards are applied in accordance with the GDPR.

Personal data are retained no longer than necessary for the purposes described above.

Client files are retained in accordance with the Archiving Manual of the Netherlands Bar Association and applicable statutory retention periods.

Personal data may be retained longer where necessary in connection with legal claims or regulatory obligations.

Appropriate technical and organisational measures are implemented to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss or misuse.

VHL uses privacy-friendly website analytics (Plausible Analytics) to understand how the website is used and to improve its performance.

These analytics:

• do not use tracking cookies;
• do not create personal profiles;
• do not engage in cross-site tracking;
• do not store information in the visitor’s browser;
• process only limited technical data (such as anonymised IP address and user agent) in aggregated form.

Plausible Analytics acts as a data processor and processes data exclusively on behalf of VHL under a data processing agreement.

No marketing or advertising cookies are used.

Under the GDPR, you have the right to:

• access your personal data;
• request rectification;
• request erasure (where applicable);
• restrict or object to processing;
• withdraw consent (where applicable);
• request data portability.

Requests may be submitted to job.vanhooff@vhl.law.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens).

This privacy statement may be amended from time to time. The most recent version will be published on this website.

Related documents: General Conditions and Complaints Procedure.