Useful information

Money laundering

The law requires us in most cases to ask for evidence of identity.

The information we need to see as evidence of identity as part of our obligations to avoid money laundering is:

Our confidentiality obligations, as set out above, are subject to a statutory exception: recent legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering or terrorist financing, the solicitor may be required to make a money laundering disclosure. If, while we are acting for you, it becomes necessary to make a money laundering disclosure, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or of the reasons for it because the law prohibits ‘tipping-off'. Where the law permits us, we will tell you about any potential money laundering problem and explain what action may need to be taken.

Data protection

In providing legal services in the United Kingdom, we will either act as a data controller or a data processor appointed by you. Where we act as a data controller in relation to any processing or personal data, we will comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. Where we act as a data processor we will take such security measures as are required to enable us to process personal data in compliance with obligations equivalent to those imposed on you by the Seventh Principle of the Data Protection Act 1998.

We may use the information that you provide to contact you or appropriate persons within your organisation about our legal services that may be of interest to you or your organisation. This may include legal updates, seminars, and/or hospitality events. If at any time, you or any member of your organisation no longer wishes to receive this information directly from us, you should contact our marketing department and the relevant contact details will be suppressed for the purpose of receiving this information.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the right upon payment of a fee, to obtain a copy of the personal information we hold about you. If you believe that any information that we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete, you should contact us without delay. Any information which is found to be incorrect or incomplete will be corrected promptly. All correspondence in relation to data protection, including any request for a copy of your personal information, should be in writing to the office with which you are dealing, addressed to the Data Protection Officer.

If your work is being handled by any of our offices based outside the United Kingdom, any personal data and information received from you and your organisation will be handled in accordance with the law which applies in the jurisdiction of that office or offices.

Some of our clients use e-billing services provided by a third party e-billing provider. The activity of e-billing raises important data protection issues.  You should be aware that whilst we adhere to our data protection obligations, we cannot ensure that a third party e-billing provider complies with its legal obligations, e.g. with regard to how it processes your data. This means that we cannot be held liable for any claim made in respect of an e-billing provider’s negligence and/or breach of contract howsoever arising including (without limitation) its failure to process your data in accordance with its legal requirements. Furthermore, if you have engaged an e-billing provider we assume that you have entered into a separate agreement with that e-billing provider and satisfied yourself that it can comply with its legal obligations.

Confidentiality

Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of clients confidential. We shall keep confidential all information regarding your business and affairs unless you instruct us to disclose it or we are compelled to disclose it by law. We may outsource certain of our business support services including, but not limited to, word processing, telephone call handling, photocopying, archiving and deeds storage to third party providers. Where such services are outsourced we obtain undertakings to ensure your information is kept confidential and only processed in accordance with our instructions.

We will normally disclose to you all information material to your affairs and business regardless of the source of that information. However, we will not pass on to you any confidential information about the affairs of any other client.

Insurance mediation and other financial services

We are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority. However, we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Services Authority so that we can carry on insurance mediation activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the Financial Services Authority website at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register.

The provision of our legal services may also involve other regulated activities in relation to investments within the meaning of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Although we are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority under the Act, we may undertake activities such as arranging and advising which are incidental to our legal services or which may reasonably be regarded as a necessary part of our legal services. In doing so we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We cannot provide advice on the merits of financial products but can assist you to execute decisions which you may have made in relation to financial products.

The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society's representative functions. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and the Legal Complaints Service is the independent complaints handling body of the Law Society.

Where we are asked to recommend non-life contracts of insurance, we will not do so on the basis of a fair analysis of the market nor are we contractually obliged to do so. You are entitled to request details of insurance undertakings with which we conduct insurance mediation activities.

Inside information

If you are a listed company and are subject to the Disclosure Rules issued by the United Kingdom's Financial Services Authority, you agree to inform us, when you provide us with any information in relation to your company which you reasonably consider to be inside information, that it is inside information for the purposes of the Disclosure Rules.

For the purposes of the Disclosure Rules, your principal contact at Eversheds LLP will be your client partner and we will notify you immediately if there is any change of principal contact. We will make effective arrangement, having regard to any Financial Services Authority guidance, to draw up and maintain an insider list in relation to your company and will provide you with a copy of such insider list as soon as possible on request. We will take such measures as are necessary to ensure that every person whose name is on the insider list acknowledges the legal and regulatory duties in relation to inside information (including dealing restrictions in relation to shares or other financial instruments of your company) and is aware of the sanctions for the misuse or improper circulation of inside information. If, during the course of acting for you, we engage a foreign law firm or another third party to act on your behalf or on your account, we will use our reasonable endeavours to ensure where necessary that the relevant third party agrees, in relation to inside information, substantially the same terms as are set out in this paragraph. In relation to third parties acting for you whom we have not engaged, we will assume that you have secured the necessary agreements in relation to inside information.

We reserve the right to charge you for these additional requirements in accordance with the normal arrangements we have with you.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (the "FSCS") aims to provide individuals and small businesses who deposit monies with an authorised deposit taking institution with some protection in the event that institution collapses. Generally speaking larger businesses are excluded assistance by the FSCS although there are some limited exceptions to this.

The Financial Services Authority retains a register of all authorised deposit taking institutions and as well as deposit takers (eg banks) the register includes, mortgage lenders, mortgage brokers, insurance companies and investment firms.

The maximum level of compensation that can be awarded is £50,000 (FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS) but it is important to be aware that the £50,000 compensation limit applies to each depositor for the total of their deposits with the institution, regardless of how many accounts are held or whether the depositor is a single or joint account holder. This means that any personal monies held by depositor will be aggregated with any monies already deposited by us in the same institution on their behalf.

Please be aware that some deposit taking institutions may trade under several brands meaning that monies may in fact only be deposited with only one institution despite the use of various names. More information can be obtained from the deposit taking institution, the FSA or a financial advisor.

Should a deposit taking institution collapse we will contact the FSCS and provide them with details of all clients for whom money is held in the relevant account. In order to do this we will be required to obtain our clients consent and we will arrange to obtain this should it become necessary.

The FSCS is an independent body, set up under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). For further details please visit the Financial Services Compensation Scheme at www.fscs.org.uk

Where do we hold client monies?

Funds held in connection with matters transacted by Eversheds UK offices are held with those clearing banks who are members of the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company Limited unless we are instructed otherwise. A list of its current members can be found on the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company's website.

The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company Limited is an independent body and Eversheds does not make any recommendation as to the suitability of any of the financial institutions listed. For further details please visit http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/.

Eversheds across the globe

Eversheds LLP has offices in several jurisdictions and it is the founding member of Eversheds International Limited (with registered number 05625509 and with its registered office at Eversheds House, 70 Great Bridgewater Street, Manchester, M1 5ES), which includes firms based across the globe. Eversheds LLP also has strategic alliances and co-operation agreements with selected overseas associated offices.
We do business in the following countries:

*Offices of Eversheds LLP

Eversheds has an association agreement with Stephen Mok and Co (a Hong Kong law firm) (an "Affiliated Office").
For details of how to contact our offices please visit our global homepage.

Our Professional Indemnity Insurance

Eversheds LLP's practice in England, Wales and Scotland has the following professional indemnity insurance which is provided by Qualifying Insurers compliant with the requirements of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in England & Wales and with the requirements of the Law Society of Scotland:

Chubb Insurance Company of Europe SE
106 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 5NB,
Policy number: QF0901096
Primary £1 million any one claim

Zurich Insurance PLC
London Underwriting Centre, 3 Minster Court, Mincing Lane, London, EC3R 7DD
Policy number: QF0901290
£2 million any one claim excess of the Primary £1 million any one claim

Both policies provide cover for work done by the England, Wales and Scotland offices wherever in the world the error or omission occurs.

Policy Period: 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2010

The local insurance arrangements vary for offices in other jurisdictions.

For more information, please contact us.

The Legal Complaints Service

The Legal Complaints Service (LCS) is an independent complaints handling body tasked with investigating complaints about solicitors in England and Wales. For further details please visit the LCS at www.legalcomplaints.org.uk

Please note that towards the end of 2010 the Office for Legal Complaints will take over from the LCS as the main point of contact for consumers who wish to complain about any aspect of legal services provided in England and Wales.