Sherman IP’S Privacy Policy

Who and What Does This Privacy Policy Cover?

Sherman IP LLP’s (Sherman IP) Privacy Policy covers (1) Sherman IP’s website visitors, (2) visitors to Sherman IP’s virtual landing pages, including those related to Sherman IP’s Control Legal practice model, (3) guests at Sherman IP’s offices, (4) inquirers regarding Sherman IP’s legal services, and (5) contacts of Sherman IP for business development and operations. This Privacy Policy describes how Sherman IP might collect, use, and potentially share “Personal Information” (as defined herein) held within Sherman IP’s public facing databases used for non-client and non-legal service communications such as marketing and newsletter communications.
  1. Children. Sherman IP does not knowingly provide services to, market Sherman IP’s website to, nor collect information about minor children under the relevant age where they can provide legal consent to enter into contractual obligations in the jurisdiction where they are resident. Sherman IP does not knowingly collect, keep, or process Personal Information of children under the relevant age of legal contractual consent.
  2. This Privacy Policy Does Not Relate to Our Client Engagements. Sherman IP’s Privacy Policy does not cover Sherman IP’s client’s information, or any information, personal or otherwise, involved in the legal services Sherman IP provides. That information is governed by the terms of Sherman IP’s client Engagement Agreements/Terms and Conditions, which every Sherman IP client is required to execute, and/or the related ethical rules or rules of the forum involved for the matter for which Sherman IP is providing legal services at the time. If you have a relationship with an organization that is a Sherman IP client or is involved in one of our legal matters, that organization’s privacy policy may also be determinative of some privacy rights.

What is Personal Information, and is it Private?

“Personal Information” is information which is reasonably linked to a specific individual or household. Personal Information generally includes contact information and personal identifiers (these may be someone’s name, alias, phone number, email address, driver license number, internet protocol address, or such information), or information that might describe someone’s conditions or behavior (geolocation, purchasing history, internet activity) which could reasonably be linked to a person. Personal Information is private if it is not publicly available. Generally, any aggregated, obfuscated, or de-identified information that cannot be reasonably linked to a specific individual or household is not Personal Information. Aggregated information includes information which is compiled from Personal Information to model business and other trends which do not refer to any specific individual or household. Publicly available Personal Information is not considered private. Personal Information which is publicly available, such as Personal Information which is lawfully available from federal, state and local governmental records or databases, is not considered Personal Information under California law even though such information may generally be referred to as Personal Information herein, merely for descriptive purposes.

Types of Personal Information Sherman IP May Obtain.

Sherman IP may generally obtain the following types of Personal Information:
  1. Identifiers - name, street address, email address, phone number, social media contact, usernames, IP address and similar identifying information.
  2. Professional or Employment Information – job title and business or employer name.
  3. Demographics – age, gender and similar information which might include legally protected classifications.
  4. Internet Activity – device or browser information, any content posted to Sherman IP’s site or shared with us via email, browsing activity, social media content, interactions with Sherman IP’s website or landing pages, including landing pages for Sherman IP’s Control Legal practice model, and interactions with marketing communications sent by us or on our behalf.
  5. Commercial Information – a listing of specific services purchased from Sherman IP or which may have been considered for purchase.
  6. Financial Information – account numbers, taxpayer ID numbers and payment card information used in financial transactions.

How Sherman IP May Obtain Personal Information.

Sherman IP may collect Personal Information in the following ways:
  1. From You. If you work with Sherman IP, contact us to consider working with our firm, or work with us to hire one of our partner professional firms, we may collect Personal Information including Identifiers, Financial Information, Professional or Employment Information, and other types of information from you. This may happen if you ask us questions, consult with us, engage us, make a referral to us, pay us, fill out a form on the Sherman IP website or a landing page operated by Sherman IP, visit our offices, sign up for Sherman IP’s newsletters or communications, register for a Sherman IP event, connect with us on social media, or otherwise contact us with questions or feedback.
  2. From Publicly Available Government Databases. Sherman IP may obtain Personal Information from legally accessed, publicly available Governmental Databases. For example, we may collect Identifiers, Professional or Employment Information, or Internet Activity that are publicly available from a governmental entity. Under California law, Personal Information does not include publicly available information such as that lawfully available from federal governmental records or databases.
  3. From Third Parties. Sherman IP may obtain Personal Information from third party sources. For example, if you have chosen to publicly disclose on social media platforms or other publicly available sources your Personal Information, Sherman IP may access Identifiers, Professional or Employment Information, or Internet Activity that you have chosen to disclose to the public.
  4. From Your Device. Sherman IP’s website, landing pages and online platforms may collect user’s information from devices in order to make our sites, pages and platforms function correctly, enhance the user experience, allow us to understand how people work with our site, pages and platforms, and to help us determine how well our marketing efforts are working. Often, we limit this type of collection to Non-Personal Information, but we may gather online Identifiers and Internet Activity in some circumstances. We also may use “cookies” or similar online tracking tools.
    1. A “Cookie” is a small dataset a website or landing page places in a browser which communicates with the website or landing page so that the site, page or platform can function properly when a user is looking at the page with the browser. The Cookie helps to remember user preferences and personalize the user experience when the user accesses the website or landing page. A typical Cookie may contain an ID for the browser. Cookies are sometimes considered Personal Information (Identifiers or Internet Activity). Sherman IP uses Essential and Analytical cookies:
      1. Essential Cookies: Essential Cookies secure pages and enable user navigation.
      2. Analytical Cookies: Analytical Cookies allow Sherman IP to analyze user’s use of our pages to evaluate and improve functionality and performance of those pages.
    2. You can change your browser settings to block, disable or delete Cookies which may limit your ability to view and use our website. Your browser may also offer a Do Not Track (DNT) option which indicates within your browser that you do not want to be tracked by third parties. Even if you engaged a DNT setting, we may still use Cookies because there is not yet a standardized method for DNT settings or a definitive definition of what “tracking” means.
Sherman IP may combine information collected from various sources. To the extent any combined information constitutes Personal Information, Sherman IP will treat it as Personal Information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

Links to Other Websites.

Sherman IP’s websites and landing pages use links between themselves and links to third-party websites and pages. Sherman IP’s Privacy Policy only governs Sherman IP’s use of information. Any Personal Information third party companies collect when you click on their links is governed by their privacy policies, not ours.

How Sherman IP Might Use Personal Information.

Sherman IP may use Personal Information in the following manner:
  1. To communicate with, or on behalf of, our clients;
  2. To respond to your inquiries;
  3. To meet legal obligations and rules of professional conduct;
  4. To identify and communicate with potential clients;
  5. To send marketing or other communications or for business development;
  6. To refer a matter to one of our partner law firms or our associated professional services providers;
  7. To bill for our services or process payments;
  8. To maintain our websites, landing pages and online platforms;
  9. To secure our office locations and online platforms; and
  10. To lawfully protect our staff, attorneys and contractors.

How Sherman IP May Share Personal Information.

Sherman IP may share Personal Information in the following manner:
  1. As You Instruct. If you instruct us to do so, or consent to our doing so, Sherman IP may share your Personal Information with third parties.
  2. With Sherman IP’s Contractors. Sherman IP may share information with our contractors and partners that perform services for/with us, including hosting our website, managing databases, performing analytics, sending Sherman IP’s communications and newsletters, or planning Sherman IP’s events. Sherman IP generally has strict contractual agreements with any parties to prohibit them from retaining, using or disclosing the information we share with them for any purpose other than for the specific purpose they are providing us.
  3. Where Sherman IP Is Legally Required. If Sherman IP has a legal obligation to disclose Personal Information to government authorities or third parties pursuant to an enforceable demand or court order, we will comply. Sherman IP may also disclose Personal Information if we need to protect our legal rights or interests; for example, in civil or criminal legal proceedings.
  4. If Sherman IP Undergoes Any Business Change. If Sherman IP engages in a business transaction where another party needs to conduct due diligence by examining information, Sherman IP may disclose or receive Personal Information.

Right to Opt-Out.

You can opt-out of our marketing or other communications by using the unsubscribe link in the communication or by emailing your request to info@shermanip.com. You can restrict Cookies in your browser settings.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Statement.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 “CCPA” (California Civil Code Section 1798.100 et seq.), applies to Personal Information of California residents (“consumers”) by certain covered “businesses.” This statement regarding the CCPA supplements Sherman IP’s Privacy Policy with additional disclosures to California residents. Sherman IP is NOT a covered “business” as defined by the CCPA. Although Sherman IP is not a “covered business” as defined by the CCPA, Sherman IP voluntarily provides the following information:
  1. Collection of Personal Information. Sherman IP’s Privacy Policy lists the categories of Personal Information that Sherman IP collects.
  2. Sale of Disclosure of Personal Information. Sherman IP does not sell Personal Information. Within the past 12 months, Sherman IP, for its own business purposes, has disclosed the following categories of Personal Information to its own vendors/contractors: Identifiers, Professional or Employment Information, Demographics, Commercial Information, Internet Activity and Financial Information.
  3. California Consumer Rights. California Consumers may make requests to “covered businesses”: (1) to get information about the collection, disclosure or sale of private Personal Information during the previous 12 months, (2) to request the deletion of private Personal Information, and (3) to opt-out of the sale of private Personal Information.Sherman IP is not a “covered business” under the CCPA. To avoid the unauthorized disclosure of Personal Information, Sherman IP does not provide additional specified information about Personal Information. In this Privacy Policy, Sherman IP has endeavored to generally describe Personal Information it uses, the sources of Personal Information it acquires, its business purposes for using Personal Information and the categories of third parties with whom Sherman IP shares Personal Information. Since Sherman IP does not sell Personal Information, Sherman IP does not provide an opt-out for sale of Personal Information. Sherman IP does accept verifiable requests by consumers to delete Personal Information from its public facing databases so that their Personal Information will not be used for marketing and non-specific communications from Sherman IP.
  4. How Sherman IP Handles Requests to Delete.
    1. Submitting Requests to Delete. All Requests to Delete Personal Information must:
      1. Be submitted in writing by email to info@shermanip.com;
      2. State in the Subject Line of the email that it is a “Request to Delete Personal Information”; and
      3. Provide the following information so that we can ensure that it is a verifiable request:
        1. The full name of the consumer submitting the request;
        2. An email address for the consumer so that they be reached for purposes of the request;
        3. The California county where the consumer lives and resides;
        4. A clear statement that the consumer wants us to delete their Personal Information; and the reason(s) the consumer believes Sherman IP has collected or used their Personal Information within the past 12 months (for example, the consumer has received an identified Sherman IP newsletter or marketing communication).
    2. Processing Requests to Delete. Upon receipt of a Request to Delete, Sherman IP will analyze the information submitted. Sherman IP will first verify that the Request is from the consumer whose Personal Information is requested to be deleted. Our verification method will examine the information we receive as part of the Request, the sensitivity of the information at issue, and the risk of harm to the consumer from unauthorized deletion. If the Request is accepted, then Sherman IP will endeavor to delete the Personal Information from its public facing databases. If the Request can not be verified, it will be denied.Sherman IP does not delete Personal Information from its internal databases used for client services and operations. Sherman IP does not delete Personal Information needed to complete a transaction, provide a service, perform a contract, comply with Sherman IP’s legal or ethical obligations or applicable rules of professional conduct, or for any other operational purpose.
    3. Non-Discrimination. Sherman IP does not discriminate if you ask us to delete your Personal Information.

Data Subjects in the E.E.A. and Elsewhere Outside the United States.

Sherman IP is a law firm in the United States of America, headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Sherman IP does not maintain offices, employees or facilities outside of the United States or in the European Economic Area (EEA) even though our clients may do business outside of the United States or in the EEA. Sherman IP’s’ services are not targeted to natural persons in the EEA. If a user visits Sherman IP’s website, landing pages or otherwise contacts Sherman IP, their Personal Information will be collected and processed in the United States (which has not sought nor received a finding of “adequacy” from the European Commission under Article 25 of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)), and will be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the laws of the United States.

How to Contact Us.

If you have any questions about Sherman IP’s Privacy Policy or practices, please contact us by email at info@shermanip.com, by phone at (424) 229-6800, or at the following address: Sherman IP LLP, 15760 Ventura Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, California 91436.