This privacy notice explains how Wilson Solicitors LLP collects and uses personal information, and the rights you have over it. It covers our clients and people who ask us for help, other people involved in the matters we handle, visitors to our website, job applicants and our suppliers.
Who we are
Wilson Solicitors LLP is the controller of your personal information. We are a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (number OC347380), with our registered office at 697 High Road, Tottenham, London N17 8AD. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA number 520695).
Our Data Protection Manager is Russell Blakely. You can contact him by email at r.blakely@wilsonllp.co.uk, by phone on 020 8808 7535, or by post at the address above.
The information we collect
Depending on your matter, we may collect:
- your name, contact details, date of birth and identity documents, such as your passport or residence permit;
- details of your immigration status, family and relationships, employment, education, finances and housing;
- information about your case, including correspondence, evidence and court or tribunal papers;
- the information needed to check whether you qualify for legal aid;
- payment details when you pay our bills.
Our work often involves more sensitive information, such as your health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or political beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation, and criminal convictions or allegations. We only collect what we need for your matter.
We collect information from you and, where your matter needs it, from others: for example the Home Office, courts and tribunals, the Legal Aid Agency, local authorities, doctors and other experts, other parties and their representatives, and public records.
If you do not give us information we need, for example to confirm your identity, we may not be able to act for you.
How we use your information, and our legal reasons
We use your information to:
- give you legal advice and represent you, to perform our contract with you (including when you have legal aid);
- meet our legal and regulatory obligations, including identity checks and, where they apply, anti-money laundering checks, conflict checks, accounting and tax records, and our duties to the SRA;
- run our business, which is in our legitimate interests: for example managing our files and fees, meeting the terms of our contracts with the Legal Aid Agency (including its audits), recovering money owed to us, dealing with complaints and claims, insurance, and audits and quality checks;
- answer enquiries and arrange appointments, as a step towards acting for you or in our legitimate interests;
- send you updates about the law or our services, but only if you have agreed. You can unsubscribe at any time.
For sensitive information, we rely on the condition that the processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims (Article 9(2)(f) of the UK GDPR). For information about criminal offences, we rely on the conditions in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 for legal proceedings, obtaining legal advice and establishing, exercising or defending legal rights. Occasionally we may ask for your explicit consent instead; if we do, you can withdraw it at any time.
We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.
Who we share it with
We share your information only where your matter needs it, where the law requires it, or where you have agreed. Depending on your matter, we may share it with:
- the Home Office, courts and tribunals, and other public bodies dealing with your case;
- the Legal Aid Agency, if you have or apply for legal aid. The Agency’s own privacy notice explains how it uses your information;
- barristers, experts, interpreters and translators working on your case;
- other parties and their representatives, where your case needs it;
- our regulators and the Legal Ombudsman, and auditors and quality assessors;
- our insurers and professional advisers;
- service providers who support our business, such as IT, cloud storage, case management, secure archiving, online forms and card payments. They act on our instructions and must keep your information secure.
We may also have to share information when the law requires it, for example with the police. We never sell your personal information.
Information sent outside the UK
Some of our service providers hold information outside the UK; for example, our online form provider is based in the United States. Your case may also need us to send information abroad, for example to obtain evidence from another country. When we send personal information outside the UK, we make sure it is protected, either because UK adequacy regulations cover the country or by using safeguards approved by the Information Commissioner, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement.
Card payments
Card payments are processed by Barclaycard. We use your card details only to complete the payment you ask us to make, and we do not store them on paper or electronically. Payments are handled in line with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
How long we keep it
- Client files: at least six years after your matter ends, because that is how long a claim about our work could be brought. We then destroy them securely.
- Immigration files: up to 15 years, because a full history can matter in future applications or in a dispute with the authorities, and can help if you lose important documents. You can ask us to delete your file sooner.
- Anti-money laundering records: five years after our relationship ends, where the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 apply.
- Enquiries that do not lead to us acting for you: only as long as we need to deal with the enquiry and any questions about it.
We may keep information for longer where the law, our regulators or the Legal Aid Agency require it, or where we need it for a complaint or claim.
Keeping it secure
We keep information in access-controlled premises and password-protected systems, and closed paper files are stored securely off site. Our staff and suppliers are bound by confidentiality, and we require our IT providers to meet recognised security standards. Information about your case is also protected by our professional duty of confidentiality.
Our website
- If you use a contact or enquiry form, we receive the details you enter and use them to reply to you. Some of our forms are provided by Formsite, which processes the information for us.
- Our website uses cookies. We set only essential cookies unless you agree to others, such as analytics cookies that help us understand how the site is used. You can change your choice at any time.
- If you leave us a public review, for example on Google, we may quote a short extract on our website. We do not publish reviewers’ names.
Job applicants
If you apply to work for us, we use your application to assess it, to carry out pre-employment checks if we offer you a job, and to keep records of our recruitment. If you are not successful, we keep your application only as long as we need it for the recruitment process and to deal with any questions or claims about it.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
- ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
- ask us to delete your information, or to restrict how we use it;
- object to our use of your information where we rely on our legitimate interests;
- ask us to transfer information you gave us to another organisation;
- withdraw your consent, where we rely on it.
Some rights are limited for legal work. For example, we cannot delete information the law requires us to keep, or disclose information protected by legal professional privilege. We will tell you if a limit applies. We normally respond to requests within one month.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, please tell our Data Protection Manager first, by email or post using the details above. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you the outcome.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): online at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, by phone on 0303 123 1113, or by post to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
If you give us information about other people
If you give us personal information about someone else, for example as an organisation referring a client to us, you confirm that you are allowed to share it and have told them, where required.
Changes to this notice
We review this notice regularly. It was last updated on 28 October 2026.