Boyanov & Co. Law Firm, entered into the Registry of Law Firms at Sofia City Court under company file No. 3762/2005, BULSTAT 131403089, having its seat in Sofia, Bulgaria and its address of management at: 82, Patriarch Evtimii Blvd., 1463 Sofia, Bulgaria (“we“, “us“, “our“), is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
This Policy sets out the basis on which we process your personal data in our capacity as personal data controller, as defined in the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the “GDPR“). Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
We collect personal data from you when you use our website, when we enter into a legal services agreement, as a result of your legal relationship with us, when you contact with our staff or clients, or otherwise in the course of our business activities.
In the context of provision of our professional services or otherwise in the course of our professional activity we may process the following categories of personal data:
• General information about you, such as your name, unified civic number (or other personal identification number, as applicable), industry, company data, position, education and/or professional experience, legal relationship to an organization, power of representation, etc.
• Contact details, such as your e-mail address, phone number, postal address, Skype / Viber / WhatsApp ID, LinkedIn profile, etc.
• Information regarding our contractual relationship, including details about received instructions, performance, accounting and payment data
• Know-your-client identification data
• Personal data provided by or on behalf of our clients in relation to a legal assignment (which may include “sensitive” or “special” categories of personal data)
• Information contained in your CV, motivational letter and other documents you have provided in the course of your application to work for us
• Any other information that you have provided to us
When we request personal data directly from you (e.g. for the purposes of client identification), we kindly ask you to provide us with all categories of requested personal data, as otherwise we would be unable to carry out the processing activities outlined in this Privacy Policy (including, we may be unable to provide you with our legal services).
If you provide us with personal data of other natural persons, we kindly ask you to provide them, prior to such disclosure, with information about the key terms and conditions under which we shall process their personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
We collect and otherwise process your personal data for different purposes and in different manners, primarily in relation to the provision of our professional services. In particular, we use personal data:
a) To provide the legal services requested from us
b) To maintain a contractual relationship with you and our clients
c) To answer your questions
d) To fulfil our legal obligations
e) For the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
f) For non-business communication of general nature
g) For direct marketing purposes
h) For recruitment purposes
i) To provide and improve our website, and to monitor its use
Legal services
We process personal data in the course of and in relation to the legal services contractual relationships with our clients. We also process personal data provided to us by or on behalf of our clients in performance of our legal assignments.
Contractual relationships
We process personal data in relation to the negotiation, entry into, performance and termination of contractual relationships. This may include personal data of our clients and other counterparties such as service providers, their representatives and employees, to the extent relevant.
Answering your questions
When you ask us a question we would process your personal data in order to be able to answer it. The extent of personal data processing would depend on your request.
Legal obligations
We process information on our clients, counterparties, affiliated entities and their respective representatives and ultimate beneficial owners in compliance with our “know-your-client”, accounting, tax and other legal obligations. In our capacity as law firm we also have obligations under the Bulgarian Bar Act.
Legal claims
Personal data collected for other purposes, which do not constitute special categories of personal data, will be also processed for our protection against any legal claims by you or by third parties, as well as to establish and exercise our legitimate rights.
Non-business communication
We may send you non-business communications of general nature. Such messages may include news on the latest developments in the legal world, and other expert resources: articles, webinars, discussions, and interviews. You can always unsubscribe from such communication by following the instructions contained therein or by contacting privacy@boyanov.com.
Direct marketing
If you have provided your consent we may send direct marketing messages in which we offer our services without a specific request for proposal. We will only process personal data that you have provided to us in the course of our work together or by following a link for subscription to our mailing list. You can always withdraw your consent by clicking the unsubscribe link in any marketing communication from us or by contacting privacy@boyanov.com.
Recruitment
When you apply for a job with us, you need to provide us with certain information about you so that we can assess whether you meet the requirements for the position and whether you are the most suitable candidate for it.
Cookies and usage of our website
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by website owners in order to make them work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
We use cookies to collect certain information about the visitors to our website for system administration purposes. In addition, our website uses Google Analytics, a website traffic analysis application that provides real-time statistics and analysis of user interaction, and is used to help us improve our services.
You may refuse to accept cookies by selecting the appropriate privacy settings on your internet browser. As the ways in which you can do this vary from browser to browser, please visit your browser’s help menu for further details. Please note that if you choose to reject cookies, doing so may impair some of our website functionality. For more information on cookies, including how to manage and delete them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org
We use your personal data on the following legal grounds:
a) To enter into and perform a contract, such as a legal services agreement
b) To comply with our legal obligations
c) Consent, for example to send you direct marketing
d) Our legitimate interests, such as:
· to carry out our business activities
· to provide our legal services
· to communicate with you, for example when you ask us a question, or when we send you non-business communications of general nature
· for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or proceedings
· to select the most suitable job applicant in the context of recruitment
We may disclose your personal data to personal data processors acting on our behalf and assisting us with achieving the purposes of processing outlined above, such as providers of certain services (e.g. IT firms or translation agencies, etc.). These entities will be under contractual obligation for protection of your personal data.
We may otherwise disclose your personal data to third parties only if we are under a duty to do so in order to comply with a legal obligation.
In the context of provision of our professional services we may also disclose relevant personal data to courts or arbitration panels or relevant governmental authorities when necessary or recommendable in our professional judgement for protection of your interests.
We will keep your personal data for the duration of the respective legal services agreement, and for an additional period according to our internal rules and our legal obligations as attorneys on data retention.
We may continue to process your personal data for direct marketing purposes until you withdraw your consent. Similarly, we may continue sending you non-business communications of general nature until you choose to object or unsubscribe.
You have the following rights in accordance with the GDPR:
a) Access to personal data
You have the right to obtain confirmation from us as to whether or not your personal data are being processed and if so, to access the data and information on our processing activities. The right to obtain a copy of your personal data, however, shall not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.
b) Right to rectification
You have the right to request from us the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you and to have incomplete personal data completed.
c) Right to erasure (”right to be forgotten”)
You have the right to request from us the erasure of your personal data and we have the obligation to erase your personal data without undue delay where certain legal grounds apply (e.g. when the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected).
d) Right to restriction of processing
In some cases, you may be entitled to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data, for example, if you want to determine the accuracy or the reason for their processing. The restricted processing usually comes down to simply storing your personal data, and any other processing is suspended.
e) Right to data portability
You have the right to receive your personal data, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and you have the right to transmit those data to another controller without our hindrance insofar the processing is carried out by automated means and is based on your consent or on a contract.
f) Right to object
You have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing of your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest or for the purposes of direct marketing. We will no longer process the personal data unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. If you object to processing for direct marketing purposes, your personal data will no longer be processed for such purposes.
You can always unsubscribe from receiving non-business communication of general nature by following the instructions contained in the respective e-mail or by contacting privacy@boyanov.com.
g) Right to withdraw your consent
You can always withdraw your consent related to direct marketing by clicking the unsubscribe link in any marketing communication from us or by writing to privacy@boyanov.com. The withdrawal of your consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before such withdrawal.
h) Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you consider that we have infringed the GDPR in processing your personal data (for Bulgaria the supervisory authority is the Commission on Personal Data Protection – www.cpdp.bg)
In order to exercise your rights in relation to the processing of your personal data, or if you have any comments, questions and requests related to the processing of your personal data, please contact us at privacy@boyanov.com or at 82, Patriarch Evtimii Blvd., 1463 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Any changes we may make to our Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on our website and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.
Last updated: 1 September 2023.