Privacy Policy

1. Purpose

This policy sets out Nevett Ford (NF) Lawyers expectations around Privacy.

2. Policy Statement

This policy details how we collect, use and disclose “personal information”, being information or an opinion (whether true or not, and recorded in a material form or not) about an identified, or reasonably identifiable, individual.

3. What Personal Information does NF collect and hold?

NF is a full-service Australian law firm. The types of personal information that NF collects will depend on the nature of your dealings with us. Please note that, while we seek to minimise the personal information we collect, if you do not provide us with the personal information we request, we may not be able to provide you with the services, information or other assistance you seek.

We may collect personal information from you in the following circumstances:

• you, or the company that you work for, engage our services (legal or otherwise);
• you, as the client, purchase or subscribe to client services offered by NF;
• you subscribe to or opt-in to receiving a NF newsletter or other form of NF update (such as our online publications);
• you subscribe to any of our websites or to one of our mailing lists;
• you register for, or attend, a NF seminar, webinar or other hosted event (virtual or in-person);
• you correspond with our employees or Directors;
• you have business dealings with us (whether as one of our suppliers, or as a regulator we deal with, or in the context of a transaction);
• in the course of conducting a matter for a client, including regulatory investigations, litigation proceedings or due diligence, where you are related to the matter in some capacity;
• you, or the company that you work for, is a counterparty, or provides services to a counterparty, of our client;
• you attend an information session or recruitment event with us (e.g. a university careers event) (virtual or in-person);
• you apply, or register your interest for, employment or a work placement opportunity with NF (see Section 10 of this policy);
• you otherwise provide your personal information to us, such as where you supply your business card to us; or
• it is required by law to do so.

For detailed information as to how we collect, use and disclose the personal information of job applicants, please refer to Section 10 of this policy.

The personal information we collect may include your name, title, address and e-mail address and contact numbers (telephone, fax, mobile). If necessary for the purposes of providing advice to you, or for providing you with other information (such as email updates) sometimes we may collect other personal information from you, such as the areas of our practice or related expertise which you are interested in. However, we endeavour not to collect personal information that we do not need.

Generally, we endeavour to collect personal information directly from the individual concerned.  However, if this is not practicable, we may collect personal information about individuals from third parties, including from publicly available sources. If we do, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the individuals concerned are made aware of the collection of their information.

If you are one of NF’s ‘business contacts’ (e.g. a person working for one of our clients or suppliers, or in a government agency or other company with which we deal when you correspond with one of our employees or Directors or a contact person in one of our suppliers, or in a government agency or company with which we deal) we may collect basic business contact information from you (e.g. your name, title and work contact details) automatically using the details in your email signature.

NF will not ask to collect sensitive information about you (such as details of your racial or ethnic origin, political affiliation, religious beliefs, sexual preferences, criminal convictions or health information) except where it is needed for the purposes of providing legal advice, as part of our equal employment opportunities policy, for the purpose of assessing dietary requirements or another reason for which we have your consent and collection is necessary for that purpose.

Identity Verification and Regulatory Compliance

In certain circumstances, NF may collect additional personal information to comply with legal and regulatory obligations. This may include identity documents, passport details, driver’s licence information, beneficial ownership information, trust and company ownership information, source of funds information, source of wealth information and other information reasonably required to verify identity, authority or compliance requirements.

NF may collect and use this information to comply with applicable laws, conduct due diligence, verify identity and provide legal services.

Electronic Verification

NF may engage authorised third-party verification providers to verify identity and related information. Information supplied for verification purposes may be compared against information held by government agencies, credit reporting bodies or other lawful data sources.

Any such information will only be used for verification, fraud prevention, compliance and related purposes.

4. How does NF use Personal Information?

NF’s policy is only to use personal information collected from business contacts for the business purpose for which it was collected, or as otherwise provided for in this policy. Personal information collected from other persons (such as prospective employees, subscriber to our knowledge services, etc) is similarly used to fulfil the purposes for which information was collected in the first place, or occasionally for reasonably related purposes.

NF uses your personal information:

• to provide you or a client with our products and services, including the provision of legal advice and management of our client’s legal matters;
• in connection with the fulfillment of a legal or regulatory obligation;
• to send legal or other updates relevant to us or you and to market our products and services to you;
• in connection with your job application (see Section 10 of this policy);
• where we have a legitimate interest that is not overridden by your rights under the law;
• for any reason that you (or your organisation) has provided consent;
• for the performance of a contract with you or your company;
• to respond to any enquiries or complaints; and
• to conduct our business.

We also collect personal information so that we can communicate new legal or firm developments, including advertising products or services (including events) that we offer, to our clients and to those people who have subscribed to our website, alert services or mailing lists.

If, at any time, you do not wish to receive these kinds of communications, please let us know using the contact details set out in Section 9 below.

5. Will Your Personal Information be given to anyone else?

NF does not sell or trade personal information about you to or with third parties. Personal information may be disclosed to others by NF in the circumstances described below:

5.1 Disclosures to external service providers

NF may disclose personal information to external service providers who provide services to you or us, including those who help us operate our business. NF uses trusted technology and service providers to support the delivery of legal services and business operations. These providers may assist with document management, data storage, electronic communications, cybersecurity, identity verification, accounting, client relationship management and other business functions.

Personal information may be disclosed to these service providers where reasonably necessary for the performance of their services and subject to appropriate contractual, privacy and security protections. Examples of our external service providers include: third party data storage providers; IT and other software and systems providers; companies who provide photocopying and archiving services; advertising and marketing agencies who assist us with our campaigns and programs, and research organisations and consultants who conduct research on our behalf. If NF engages external service providers, NF takes steps to ensure that those external service providers: comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) when they handle personal information about you; and are authorised only to use personal information that we provide to them for the purposes specified in our agreement with them.

NF may utilise approved technology solutions, including automation and artificial intelligence tools, to assist with administrative, operational and professional support activities.

Such technologies are used subject to professional, confidentiality, privacy and security obligations and are not intended to diminish the protection afforded to personal information.

5.2 Disclosures overseas

Where NF engages external information technology service providers, we ensure that wherever possible, our data is stored within Australia. Some of our vendors may however store data in overseas locations, such as the UK, New Zealand, USA, and South Africa. In applicable situations, NF takes reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas recipient does not breach the APPs in relation to that information. Such overseas disclosures are only made in connection with the primary purpose for which the personal information has been collected.

5.3 Disclosures required or permitted by law

Otherwise, than in the situations described above, NF will only disclose personal information if this is required or permitted by law including under the Privacy Act. NF is also bound by professional obligations of confidentiality, including in relation to personal information.

6. Security of Personal Information

NF takes reasonable steps to ensure the security of your personal information. Our premises are in secure buildings with access restricted to pass card holders. Our IT systems are secured against external threats by various means, password protected and tested through regular audit and data integrity checks. We frequently update our anti-virus software to protect our systems (and the data contained in those systems) from computer viruses. In addition, all NF employees are required, as a condition of employment, to treat personal information held by NF as confidential.

7. Your Rights

Under the Privacy Act, you have the right to:

• seek access to your personal information handled by NF;
• ask us to update or correct your personal information when it is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date; and
• opt-out of receiving direct marketing communications from us.

If you wish to access the personal information that NF holds about you, please set out your request in writing, and forward this to our Privacy Officer, using the contact details set out at the end of this policy.

To provide you with access to your personal information held by us on our current records, NF can provide you with a copy of the relevant personal information (ordinarily, an electronic print-out or a photocopy). NF will not charge you for the cost of providing this type of access to these current records.

For legal and administrative reasons, NF may also archive non-current records containing personal information, such as back up data files and offsite storage. Please note that if we do provide access to old records, we may charge you for the cost of providing such access.

If you are of the view that personal information about you is inaccurate or out of date, or if you have any other queries about access and correction, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact details set out in Section 11 below.

8. Online Privacy Issues

8.1 Disclosures to external service providers

When you visit our website, a small data file called a “cookie” may be stored on your internet enabled device. We use cookies or similar digital markers to maintain user sessions and track the behaviour of website visitors. This enables us to keep our site relevant and useful. However, generally this information will not identify you. We do not link this information back to your identity or other information that you have provided to us.

We and our service providers also use cookies and other digital markers (e.g. Clear GIFs’) to assist us with our online marketing services and advertise to our website visitors on other third-party websites or platforms (e.g. Google Ads Services or LinkedIn). Cookies placed on third party websites help us to monitor the efficacy of our business relationships with third parties, improve performance as well as personalise your experience when you visit our and our service providers’ websites. When you visit other websites or platforms, you may see an advertisement for NF’s products or services because you have previously visited our website. NF may disclose the information collected via use of cookies on our websites to third parties for marketing purposes.

By using our website(s) and not opting out of cookies, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. Most web browsers are set by default to accept cookies. However, if you do not wish to receive cookies you may set your browser to either prompt or refuse cookies (including NF’s cookies). If you use your browser settings to block all cookies, you may not be able to access and/or use all or parts of our website.

8.2 Access to other websites

Sometimes our website contains links to other websites, for your convenience and information. When you access a website other than www.nevettford.com.au please understand that NF is not responsible for the privacy practices of that site. We suggest that you review the privacy policies of each site you visit.

9. Making a Complaint

If you wish to make a complaint about how NF handles your personal information, please contact us setting out your complaint in writing, and forward it to our Privacy Officer, using the contact details in Section 11 of this policy.

We will deal with all requests for access to personal information or complaints as quickly as possible and will endeavour to get back to you within a reasonable timeframe.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint you can make a formal complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner through their website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/, by emailing enquiries@oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.

10. How do we handle the personal information of job applicants?

NF collects information about and from individuals who apply for employment with NF, including job placements and internships. The information we collect may include an individual’s personal information, and includes the applicant’s:

• contact details;
• gender;
• in some cases, racial background (see below);
• educational and employment history, and relevant qualifications;
• eligibility to work in Australia; and
• referees’ contact details.

In addition, NF may collect any personal information that an individual chooses to disclose during the process of an application, which could include sensitive information.

We may collect this information directly from the job applicant, such as via the NF Employment Hero platform, in response to an advertised job listing, or indirectly from a third party, including from a recruitment agency. If necessary, we will also collect information about applicants from referees and from other public sources, such as professional social networking sites like LinkedIn.

If the applicant proceeds to the interview stage, we will collect further information about the applicant’s participation in and performance during any interview.

NF is committed to a policy of diversity and inclusion. For this reason, we also collect information as to whether a job applicant identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. We collect this information for the sole purpose of monitoring the implementation of our equal employment opportunities policy. NF will not use this information for any other purpose.

If you do not provide us the information we request, we may not be able to process or assess your job application.

NF uses the personal information we collect about job applicants to assess their eligibility and suitability for employment with the firm. Generally, our assessment of applicants’ personal information will relate to a particular role. However, we may also retain and use applicants’ personal information to assess their suitability for other roles with the firm. We may disclose personal information to service providers that conduct background and eligibility checks on our behalf. In some cases, we may send details of your application to our clients if they are looking to fill a role internally that we believe an applicant may be eligible for.

11. Additional Privacy Information and How to Contact Nevett Ford

This NF Privacy Policy may change from time to time. The NF Privacy Policy will be made available to anyone who requests it, whether at our offices or by use of our website.

If you have any questions or comments about the NF Privacy Policy, please set out your request in writing, and forward this to our Privacy Officer, using the contact details below.

Email: melbourne@nevettford.com.au

Attention: Cameron Scammell, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Post: Nevett Ford Lawyers, Level 16 South Tower, 525 Collins St Melbourne VIC 3000

Telephone: + 61 3 9614 7111

Fax: + 61 3 9614 3192

 This Privacy Policy applies to:

• The Nevett Ford Melbourne Pty Ltd.

Document ID: POL 014	Document Title: External Parties Privacy Policy
Original Release Date: October 2014	Latest Update: 2 July 2026
Changes: Comprehensive re-draft	Next Review Date: November 2027
Approved by:  Cameron Scammell – CEO