Priori Legal Privacy Notice & DMCA Copyright Policy

Privacy Notice

Last Updated: April 2024

This Privacy Notice (the “Notice”) describes how Priori Legal, Inc. (“Priori”, “we”, “our” or “us”) handles personal information in operating http://www.priorilegal.com/ (the “Site”), the Priori legal talent platform available at https://app.priorilegal.com/ and related services (collectively, the “Platform”).

Please also review our Terms of Use (https://www.priorilegal.com/terms-of-use) or, as applicable, your Client Agreement, Attorney Terms & Conditions, or other contract between you and Priori, for other details and conditions regarding your use of the Platform.

This Notice specifically applies to: (i) Priori services available to attorneys, lawyers, paralegals, legal operations professionals, and other legal professionals (each a “Platform Legal Professional”), who register to join Priori’s marketplace network on the Platform; (ii) those prospective businesses, firms or counsel (collectively “Clients”) who use the Platform to find, interview and in various cases hire Platform Legal Professionals to provide legal or professional services; and, (iii) Site visitors who are neither Platform Legal Professionals nor Clients, to the limited extent they provide us with personal or other information or to the extent such information is collected by Priori pursuant to our use of Cookies (as defined below).

This Notice explains: how we use information we obtain in connection with the operation of the Platform; with whom we may share such information and why; what information may be collected (whether deemed “personal” or not); how we use common technologies to collect or create information based on use of this website; how we seek to protect such information; and how to contact us with any questions or concerns about this Notice or our handling of personal information. While we have tried to organize and present this Notice in a clear and easily understood format, please feel free to contact us at privacy@priorilegal.com with any suggestions on how we can improve this Notice.

We define “personal information” for purposes of this Notice in keeping with the trend in current data privacy law. Effectively, “personal information” is any information (or combination of information) that relates to or can be associated with a specific living individual, such as name, address, phone number, an identification number, location data, or other online identifier, as well as any information specific to that person’s physical, physiological, mental, genetic, economic, cultural or societal identity. If an applicable legal definition of personal information is more expansive than the above definition then we will always apply the definition that is more protective to your personal information.

Finally, for Clients and some Platform Legal Professionals, a separate Data Processing Addendum may be entered between you and us which details specific processes and procedures we apply to the processing, storage and safeguarding of your information. In the event of a conflict between this Notice and any Data Processing Addendum between you and us, the terms of the Data Processing Addendum shall control.

Please note that if you are usually resident in the European Economic Area or the UK, this Notice is supplemented with the Additional Information for Individuals in Europe and the UK. This Additional Information does not apply if you are usually resident elsewhere. In the event of any conflict between the terms of this Notice and the Additional Information for Individuals in Europe and the UK, the latter shall prevail.

Personal Information We Collect

We obtain different amounts, types and categories of personal information depending on whether you are a site visitor, Client or Platform Legal Professional using our Platform, as described below. Certain features may not be available if you do not provide requested information to us, or if you are not a Platform Legal Professional or a Client.

1. Personal Information We Obtain Directly from Clients

When a Client uses the Platform and completes a form (e.g., RFP, “Get Started” form), we ask for certain personal information and other input that is provided directly to us, including:

Contact information (i.e., name, phone number, email, job title); and
Project details (e.g., project name, description and type, time commitment, required experience and budget).

2. Personal Information We Obtain About Platform Legal Professionals

When a Platform Legal Professional uses the Platform, we may ask for certain personal information and other input to the Platform for the ultimate purpose of matching professionals with appropriate opportunities and then allowing individuals selected to conduct business with Clients and others, including:

Contact information (i.e., name, phone number, email, LinkedIn profile URL);
Account information, such as the account password selected by an individual;
Professional information (e.g., practice area, experience, bar licenses, malpractice insurance details, writing samples, resume details and job history specifics);
Employment history and education information (e.g., degrees received, dates of graduation, school(s) attended);
Personal information submitted in the individual’s Platform profile (e.g, various certifications, data of birth, specializations granted, skills offered, awards received and other similar information);
Location information;
Business information about a legal professionals’ outside clients, if a legal professional is using the Platform to engage with clients outside of the Platform, including recording time spent on matters, invoicing and communicating with outside clients, etc.; and
Information legal professionals give us about others, such as the names and contact information of references. We do not want and you are not authorized to provide this category of information to us about others unless you are authorized or have their affirmative consent to do so.

NOTE: We do not require the collection of any sensitive or special categories of personal information (as defined by applicable law) through this website or the Platform (e.g., your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation, or information about your health or genetic and biometric data.) If you provide any sensitive or special categories of personal information, such submission is completely voluntary.

3. Information Automatically Collected

We may automatically collect usage information when a Client, Platform Legal Professional or site visitor uses our Platform or visits our website. Usage information is data either generated automatically as a matter of course through the Platform or by the Platform infrastructure itself, including through weblogs, cookies, web beacons and other technologies (collectively “Cookies”). We use a limited number of Cookies to help us operate and administer the Platform, understand overall usage patterns and user navigation, improve our content and the organization of content, as well as to aid in monitoring the security of the Platform and help us in the development of existing and future products, services and offerings.

In various cases we may also use Cookies to collect aggregate information about Platform users. The information collected for these purposes (including your IP address) may be disclosed to or collected directly by our third-party web analytics service providers such as Google Analytics.

You may manage your Cookie options on the website by accessing our Consent Management Platform, CookiesYes, through the pop-up at the bottom of the screen or the persistent button in the bottom-left of the screen.

How We Use The Personal Information We Obtain

1. Personal Information About Clients and Platform Legal Professionals

We use the personal information we obtain in connection with the operation of the Platform by Clients and Platform Legal Professionals for a variety of purposes, including:

Providing you with the Platform and the services you request from us, such as matching and connecting Platform Legal Professionals with potentially relevant Clients;
Performing our obligations under a written contract;
Identifying and authenticating user accounts;
Contact by email, telephone calls or other means of communication when necessary;
For our own marketing and advertising purposes;
Communicating with Clients, Platform Legal Professionals, and others about the Platform, Priori’s offerings and to respond to inquiries or requests;
Generating and analyzing statistics about your use of the Platform and offerings (e.g., time spent on the Platform, user activities, etc.) and improving user experience with the Platform; and
Detecting, preventing and responding to fraud or abuse of the Platform.

We also may aggregate the personal information we obtain through the Platform (the “Aggregated Data”) and use such Aggregated Data for analytics, benchmarking, developing insights and other business purposes. Aggregated Data that has been sufficiently “anonymized” or “de-identified”, such that an individual cannot be reasonably identified from that information or when that information is combined with other information, is generally not considered personal information.

2. Interest-Based Advertising

On our Platform, we do not currently collect information about your online activities to provide you with advertising about services or products tailored to your interests (“Interest-Based Advertising”). We will update this Notice if our practices change. To learn more about your rights in relation to interest-based advertising on your browser, including your choice to opt out, you can follow the instructions provided by the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) here and/or the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) here to place an opt-out cookie on your browser. These opt-out Cookies are designed to enable you to block participating companies from installing future Cookies on your computer or browser. However, you should note that Priori has no actual knowledge of or control over whether participating companies honor such opt-out signals.

With Whom We May Share Your Personal Information

We may share the personal information we obtain in connection with the operation of the Platform with the following groups for the following purposes:

With service providers who work on our behalf, business partners and other third-party partners that provide features or functionalities we integrate into our Platform, such as email communication providers, payment processors, etc.;
If a Client engages with or seeks to retain a Platform Legal Professional, Priori may share the relevant PLP’s personal information with the Client (except for personal information in sensitive or special categories that a PLP chooses, through the user’s ‘Matching Information’ screen, to share only with Priori);
As necessary or appropriate, with our attorneys, accountants, auditors, investors other advisors, or with regulators, court officers, law enforcement officials and other public authorities;

In response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements;
To protect our rights or the rights or safety of others, including detecting, investigating, preventing and responding to fraud, illegal activities or misuse of the Platform, intellectual property infringement or other violations of applicable law, the terms of this Notice, our Terms of Use and other Priori policies; or
To the extent reasonably necessary to proceed with the negotiation or completion of a merger, acquisition or sale of all or a portion of our assets (including in the event of a reorganization, dissolution or liquidation); and

For any other purposes if you provide your consent to us in connection with the specific use, processing, sharing or disclosure.

In addition, we may share Aggregated Data with third parties for limited purposes subject to the terms of any written agreements we have with any such third parties.

How We Protect Your Personal Information

We implement and maintain reasonable administrative, technical, operational and physical safeguards designed to safeguard personal information obtained from you or through the Platform. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage, is or can be made 100% secure in all circumstances. Therefore, while we make reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security from unauthorized disclosure.

Retention of Your Personal Information

Our policy is to retain your data containing personal information for the limited time necessary to accomplish the purposes applicable to you as set out in this Notice and in any other terms and agreements between us and you. Separately we may retain and disclose your personal information to the extent necessary to comply with and enforce our legal obligations, address the rights of parties in any dispute resolution, and if necessary to respond to valid requests by law enforcement or legal process.

Your Rights Over Your Personal Information

1. Email Marketing Opt-Out

You may and can opt out of receiving marketing and promotional communications from us by following the unsubscribe link in the relevant email.

2. Analytics Opt-Outs

Like virtually every commercial website, the Platform uses analytics to help improve both the user experience and functionality, including third-party analytics provided by Google Analytics. To opt-out of Google Analytics on your device or browser, please visit here to obtain the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on and follow the instructions provided to install it on your browser.

3. Data Correction, Deletion and Accuracy

If you are a user of the Platform or have provided us with personal information, you have the right to request that we correct or delete any inaccurate personal information in our possession or under our control. You can also delete your account and request that any personal information associated with your account be returned or deleted. Subject to our contractual obligations with you and any associated Clients, any separate legal requirements (i.e., provision of annual tax documents, etc.), the terms of this Notice and the nature of the information at issue we shall either return or delete your personal information as quickly as possible. You should note, however, that despite a request to delete your personal information we may retain certain information if required under applicable law or in connection with separate legal obligations.

4. Do Not Track

As of the date of this Notice, Priori does not respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals, as no uniform standard to respond to such signals has been widely-adopted at this time. Should this situation change, or should applicable law require us to comply with mandated DNT signals, we will do so promptly and update this Notice in connection.

5. Children’s Privacy Rights

The Platform is not directed to, nor does Priori Legal knowingly collect personal information from, children under the age of 16. If you become aware that your child or any child under your care has provided us with personal information without your consent, please contact us as indicated below.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Notice from time to time to reflect changes in our privacy practices or applicable laws. We may, as permitted by law, make such changes without prior notice. We will publish the updated version on the Platform and indicate at the top of the Notice when it was most recently updated. Your use of the Platform will be governed by the current version of this Notice after the effective date of the updated Notice. If we make material changes to this Notice we will use reasonable efforts to provide you with notification prior to the effective date of any materially modified Notice.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Contact Us

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about this Notice or, in accordance with applicable laws, would like to review or request changes to the personal information collected in connection with your use of the Platform, please contact us at privacy@priorilegal.com or by postal mail at:

Priori Legal, Inc.
HearstLab, 300 West 57th Street
40th Floor
New York, NY 10019

Additional Information for European Visitors and Users

In order to address our legal obligations in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom (UK), Priori provides the following additional information for European and UK visitors and users of Priori’s Platform. If you are based elsewhere in the world this additional information does not apply to you.

When we collect and process personal information about you in relation to services we offer to individuals in the UK and EEA, we are subject to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) respectively. For the purposes of the UK GDPR and EU GDPR, if you use or interact with the Priori Platform, then the data controller, or in certain circumstances the data processor, will be Priori Legal, Inc. Contact details for Priori are as follows:

Priori Legal, Inc.
Attention: EU/UK Privacy Team
HearstLab, 300 West 57^thStreet
40th Floor
New York, NY 10019

Email: privacy@priorilegal.com

Platform Legal Professionals, Clients and site visitors in the EEA whose data is obtained by or provided to Priori in connection with the operation of the Platform should contact Priori with any requests or complaints as instructed in the “Contact Us” section above.

Transfer of Your Personal Information

Your personal information provided to us is processed in the United States and may be processed in other places where the parties involved are located. As a result, personal information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those in your home country or jurisdiction.

If you are in either the EEA or the UK, such processing may involve transferring your personal information outside of the EEA or the UK. For such processing, if we transfer your personal information out of the EEA or the UK, we will only transfer your personal data to a country outside the UK or EEA where:

there are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you;
you expressly consent to such transfers; or
a specific exception applies under relevant data protection law.

Any changes to the destinations to which we send personal data or to the transfer mechanisms we rely on to transfer personal data internationally will be notified to you in accordance with the section on ‘Changes to this Privacy Notice’ above.

If you would like further information about data transferred outside the UK or EEA, please contact us or our EEA or UK Representatives (see ‘Contact Us’ above).

Please note that international transfers may also be subject to the provisions of separate agreements, including but not limited to a Data Protection Agreement/Addendum.

Legal Bases for Using Your Information

We process personal information obtained in connection with the operation of the Platform for different purposes (as described in the “How We Use Personal Information We Obtain” section, above) on the following legal bases:

To perform our contractual obligations to Clients and Platform Legal Professionals, as appropriate. We and our service providers process your personal information to perform our contractual obligations when we use your personal information to provide you with the Platform and to communicate with you. For example, when a Client submits an RFP, we process the personal information (i.e., name, email, title, phone, project proposal details) as necessary to perform a search for a relevant Platform Legal Professional(s). We also send you informational communications on this basis, including to notify you of a change to the Platform. Failure to provide requested personal information could prevent or delay the fulfillment of our contractual obligations.
To pursue our legitimate interests. We process your information to meet our legitimate interests when we use your personal information to provide you with the Platform, for promotional, advertising and marketing purposes. For example, our legitimate interests include making improvements to, customizing and understanding how Clients, Platform Legal Professionals and others interact with the Platform. We also rely on our legitimate interests to send you communications (e.g., about services we think may be of interest to Clients). To accomplish our legitimate interests, we may share your personal information with our service providers (including for our advertising and marketing purposes) and in the context of a corporate transaction.
To comply with our legal obligations. We process and share your personal information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations. Such uses may include such protecting our rights or the rights of others, sharing your personal information with other parties where required by law or as necessary to protect other users; and
With your consent. We obtain your consent to process your personal information when we are required to do so by law. If consent is the legal basis on which we process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us following the instructions provided in the “Contact Us” section above.

Special Category Data

Special category data, also known as sensitive data, includes personal information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data (where used for identification purposes), data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation. We do not process special category data unless you expressly and voluntarily provide this to us. If we do process special category data, we will always ensure we are permitted to do so under data protection laws, such as on the basis of your explicit consent, the processing is necessary to protect your (or someone else’s) vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent or the processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Marketing

We will use your personal information to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about our Platform, including new services.

We have a legitimate interest in using your personal data for marketing purposes where you have an existing relationship with us or contacted us about our Platform and did not opt-out of such marketing when you provided your personal information to us. In all other cases, we will seek your prior consent to marketing.

You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by:

contacting us at marketing-optout@priorilegal.com;
using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails; or
updating your marketing preferences via your account on the Platform

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

We will always treat your personal information with the utmost respect and never sell or share it with other organisations outside the Priori group for marketing purposes.

Our use of Cookies

In addition to the information provided at Section 3 of the Notice, we use the following categories of Cookies on our Platform:

Strictly Necessary Cookies. These are Cookies that are required for the operation of our Platform. These essential cookies are always enabled because our Platform won’t work properly without them. They include, for example, Cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our platform or make use of e-billing services. You can manage placement of these Cookies via the CookieYes tool available to you when using our Platform or switch off these Cookies in your browser settings. If you switch off these Cookies, you may then not be able to access all or parts of our Platform. Please note that your prior consent is not required for placement of Strictly Necessary Cookies.
Analytical or Performance Cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of users and to see how users move around our Platform when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our Platform works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. We will always seek your prior consent before placing such Cookies on your device.
Functionality Cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our Platform. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences. We will always seek your prior consent before placing such Cookies on your device.
Targeting Cookies. These Cookies record your visit to our Platform, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our Platform more relevant to you. In the future, we may also use Targeting Cookies to tailor advertising displayed on our Platform to known and logged-in users. We will always seek your prior consent before placing such Cookies on your device.

You can find more information about the individual Cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them by navigating to the CookieYes consent management tool at the bottom of your screen (it will display initially as a banner, and subsequently as a small circular button with a “C” in the middle) and reviewing each category of Cookie listed.

Storing Your Information

We will keep your personal information obtained through the Platform for as long as we have a relationship with you. Once our relationship with you has come to an end, we retain your personal information for a period that enables us to:

● Maintain business records for analysis, understanding market trends and/or audit purposes and to improve the site/Platform;

● Comply with record retention requirements under applicable laws or other relevant legal or regulatory requirements;

● Defend, establish, exercise or bring any existing or potential legal claims;

● Carry out fraud detection and prevention; and

● Deal with any complaints regarding the Platform and services.

Following the end of the of the relevant retention period, we will delete or anonymize your personal information.

Data Breaches

We have procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Your Rights under the GDPR

You have the right under this Notice, and by law if you are usually resident of the EEA or UK, to:

Request access to your Personal Information. The right to access, update or delete the personal information we have for you. Where possible, you can access, update or request deletion of your personal information within your account settings.
Request correction of the Personal Information that we hold about you. You have the right to have any incomplete or inaccurate personal information we hold about you corrected.
Request erasure of your Personal Information (also known as the right to be forgotten). You have the right to ask us to delete or remove personal information when there is no valid reason for us to continue processing it.
Request restriction of processing of Personal Information. You have the right to require us to restrict processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, eg if you contest the accuracy of the data.
Request the transfer of your Personal Information (also known as data portability). We will provide you, or to a third-party you have chosen, your personal information in a commonly used, machine-readable format. This right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to fulfill a contract with you.
Right to object. You have the right to object: (a) at any time to your personal information being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); and (b) in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests unless there are compelling legitimate grounds for the processing to continue or the processing is required for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
Right not to be subject to automated individual decision making. You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
Withdraw your consent. If you have provided us with a consent to use your personal information, you have a right to withdraw that consent easily at any time. If you withdraw your consent, we will likely not be able to provide you with access to the Platform in a usable manner. Withdrawing a consent will not affect the lawfulness of our use of your personal information in reliance on that consent before it was withdrawn.

Exercising Your GDPR Data Protection Rights

You may exercise the rights above by contacting us. Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before completing any such requests. If you make a request, we will endeavor to respond to you within 30 days of receipt of a valid request. We may extend this timeframe in certain situations (for example if you request is complex or if you have made multiple requests) and we will always write to you in advance to explain any extension to this deadline.

How to Complain

Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal data (see above, ‘Contact Us’). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with:

the Information Commissioner in the UK; or
a relevant data protection supervisory authority in the EEA state of your habitual residence, place of work or of an alleged infringement of data protection laws in the EEA.

The UK’s Information Commissioner may be contacted using the details at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by telephone: 0303 123 1113.

For a list of EEA data protection supervisory authorities and their contact details see here : https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Policy

1. Overview

This policy governs how Priori Legal, Inc. (“Priori,” “we”, “our”, “us”) addresses alleged copyright infringement on the Site and Platform Services. It explains how we address takedown notices submitted in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).

2. How Priori Responds to DMCA Notices

Priori respects the intellectual property rights of others, and expect all of our users to do the same.
When we receive a legitimate notice of claimed copyright infringement under the DMCA, as outlined in this policy, we will promptly respond.
We reserve the right to remove user content from the Site or Services that we deem to be infringing the copyright of others.

3. How to Report Alleged Copyright Infringement

If you are a copyright owner, authorized to act on behalf of a copyright owner, or otherwise authorized to act under any exclusive right under copyright, you should report alleged copyright infringement taking place on or through the Site or Platform Services as follows:

Complete a DMCA Notice of Alleged Infringement, as outlined below, and
Deliver this Notice to Priori’s Designated Copyright Agent, either by U.S. mail to the address provided below, or through the web portal linked below.

a. Completing a DMCA Notice of Alleged Infringement

Any DMCA Notice of Alleged Infringement you submit to us must contain the following:

Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed; OR, if multiple copyrighted works are covered in your notice, you may provide a representative list of the copyrighted works that you claim have been infringed;
The URL of the materials claimed to be infringing, or other information reasonably sufficient to enable Priori to locate the material and verify its existence;
Your name, address, telephone number, and email address;

A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law;
A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf; and
Your physical or electronic signature.

Please note that (i) misrepresentations of infringement can result in your liability for monetary damages, and (ii) the information you provide in a Notice may be forwarded to the Priori user responsible for the allegedly infringing content. You may want to consult with an attorney before taking any action pursuant to the DMCA or this policy.

b. Contacting Priori’s Designated Copyright Agent

You can contact Priori’s Designated Copyright Agent at the following address: