Privacy Policy

Menneh Legal S.A. is a law firm based in Montreal, Quebec. We take the confidentiality of personal information seriously, both because the law requires it and because our work depends on it.

This policy explains what we do with personal information we collect through our websites, our forms, and our dealings with clients, prospective clients, candidates and suppliers. It is written to meet the requirements of Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector, as amended by Law 25, and the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act where that statute applies.

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1. Who we are

Menneh Legal S.A.
1550 Metcalfe Street, Suite 500
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1X6
Telephone: 514-447-9425
Email: [email protected]

In this policy, "we", "us" and "the firm" mean Menneh Legal S.A. "You" means any individual whose personal information we hold.

2. Person responsible for the protection of personal information

Quebec law requires every organization to name a person responsible for the protection of personal information. At Menneh Legal S.A., that person is:

Rita Menneh, Founder & Managing Lawyer
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 514-447-9425
1550 Metcalfe Street, Suite 500, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1X6

Address any question, request or complaint about personal information to that person. We respond to requests within 30 days.

3. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Name, email address, telephone number and mailing address
• The company or organization you represent, and your role there
• The details of the legal matter or question you contact us about
• Documents, correspondence and records you send us in the course of a matter
• Billing and payment information, including banking details where you pay by transfer
• Information in a job application: your resume, cover letter, references and professional history
• Your language preference, French or English

Information we collect automatically

• IP address, browser type and version, operating system and device type
• Pages viewed, time spent on them, and the page or search that sent you to us
• Date and time of your visit

Information from other sources

• Public registries, court records and land registries, where a matter requires it
• Opposing parties, their counsel, and third parties involved in a matter
• Referral sources, where someone refers you to us
• References you name in a job application

We do not buy personal information from data brokers or list vendors.

4. Why we collect it

We collect personal information only for these purposes:

• To respond to you. When you fill in a form, email us or call, we use your details to answer.
• To run a conflicts check. Before we can act, professional rules require us to confirm we have no conflicting interest. This requires the names of the parties involved.
• To provide legal services. Advising, drafting, negotiating and representing you requires the information in your file.
• To bill and get paid, and to keep the accounting records the law requires us to keep.
• To meet our professional and legal obligations, including the rules of the Barreau du Quebec, our trust accounting duties, and anti money laundering identification requirements.
• To consider you for a role, when you apply to work with us.
• To improve our website, using aggregate traffic patterns.
• To send you information you asked for, such as a newsletter or legal update, where you have opted in.

If we ever need to use your information for a purpose not listed here, we will tell you and, where the law requires it, ask your consent first.

5. Consent

We collect, use and disclose personal information with your consent, unless the law permits or requires us to act without it.

Consent can be express, as when you tick a box to receive our updates, or implied, as when you send us an email asking a question and we reply to it. For sensitive personal information, we obtain express consent.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by writing to the person named in section 2. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we did while your consent was in place, and in some cases it will mean we can no longer act for you. Where we are required by law or by professional rules to keep certain records, we will keep them even after you withdraw consent, and we will use them for nothing else.

6. Cookies and analytics

Our website uses cookies, which are small files stored on your device.

• Strictly necessary cookies keep the site working: they hold your session, remember your language choice and protect our forms from abuse. The site cannot function without these.
• Analytics cookies tell us which pages people read and how they found us, in aggregate. We use these only with your consent.

When you first visit, you are asked whether to accept cookies that are not strictly necessary. You can change your answer at any time through the cookie settings link in our website footer, or by clearing cookies in your browser. Most browsers also let you block cookies outright, though parts of the site may stop working if you do.

We do not use cookies to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell information collected through them.

7. Who we share it with

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. We share it only in these situations:

• Service providers who work on our behalf: our practice management and document systems, IT support and hosting, email and communications platforms, payment processors, and accounting support. Each is bound by contract to protect the information, to use it only for the service they provide us, and to return or destroy it when the work ends.
• Parties to your matter, where advancing it requires disclosure: courts, tribunals, registries, opposing counsel, experts, agents and co counsel. We disclose only what the matter requires, and only with your instructions where instructions are needed.
• Where the law compels us: a court order, a subpoena, a search warrant, or a statutory reporting duty. We assert professional secrecy wherever it applies and disclose only what we are legally obliged to disclose.
• Our own professional advisers, including our insurers and auditors, where they need the information and are themselves bound by confidentiality.

8. Information held or processed outside Quebec

Some of the service providers we use store or process information outside Quebec, including in other Canadian provinces, the United States and the European Union.

Before entrusting personal information to a provider outside Quebec, we assess whether the information will receive protection that is adequate in light of generally recognized principles of personal information protection. That assessment looks at the sensitivity of the information, the purpose it is used for, the protections the provider has in place including contractual ones, and the legal framework of the country where it will be held. We enter into a written agreement with each such provider.

Once information is in another country, the courts and authorities of that country may in some circumstances compel access to it under that country's law.

To ask which providers we use and where they are located, write to the person named in section 2.

9. How long we keep it

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it, or as long as the law and our professional obligations require.

• Client files: retained in line with the Barreau du Quebec's requirements and our own retention schedule, which reflects limitation periods and the nature of the matter.
• Accounting and trust records: retained for the period required by professional regulation and by tax law.
• Enquiries that do not become matters: retained for the period needed to maintain our conflicts database, then destroyed.
• Job applications: retained for up to 12 months after the posting closes, unless you ask us to destroy them sooner or agree that we may keep them for future openings.
• Website analytics: retained in aggregate form only.

When a retention period ends, we destroy the information securely or anonymize it.

10. How we protect it

We use security measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the information we hold. These include access controls that limit each person at the firm to the files they need, encryption of information in transit and at rest, multi factor authentication on our systems, secure disposal of paper and electronic records, confidentiality obligations binding everyone at the firm, and privacy and security training for our people.

No system is perfectly secure. Email in particular can be intercepted. If you need to send us something highly sensitive, contact us first and we will arrange a secure channel.

11. Your rights

Under Quebec law, you have the following rights over the personal information we hold about you.

• Access. You may ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you and be told how it is used and who it has been shared with.
• Correction. You may ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, incomplete or ambiguous.
• Withdrawal of consent. You may withdraw consent to a use we rely on consent for, subject to section 5.
• Portability. You may ask to receive the computerized personal information you gave us in a structured, commonly used technological format, or to have it sent to another organization.
• De indexation. You may ask us to stop disseminating your personal information, or to de index a hyperlink to it, where the dissemination contravenes the law or a court order, or causes you serious injury that outweighs the public interest in the information and the right to free expression.
• Complaint. You may complain to us about how we handle your information.

To exercise any of these, write to the person named in section 2. We will ask you to confirm your identity before we act, so that we do not disclose your information to someone else. We respond within 30 days and will explain our reasons in writing if we refuse a request, along with how you may seek a review.

These rights have limits. We may refuse access where granting it would reveal personal information about another person, where the information is protected by professional secrecy, or where the law otherwise permits or requires refusal.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may bring the matter to the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec at cai.gouv.qc.ca.

12. Automated decision making

We do not use personal information to make decisions about you based exclusively on automated processing. If that ever changes, we will tell you at or before the time of the decision and give you the opportunity to submit observations to a member of the firm who can review it.

13. Privacy incidents

We keep a register of confidentiality incidents, as the law requires. If an incident involving your personal information presents a risk of serious injury to you, we will notify you and the Commission d'accès à l'information promptly, and take reasonable steps to reduce the risk of harm and prevent a recurrence.

14. Professional secrecy

Information covered by professional secrecy is subject to protections that go beyond this policy. Professional secrecy belongs to the client, not to the firm, and we assert it on your behalf against any demand for disclosure unless you release us or a court orders otherwise. Nothing in this policy reduces that protection or should be read as a waiver of it.

15. Children

Our website is directed to adults and to businesses. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 14 through the site. Where a matter requires information about a minor, we collect it from the parent, tutor or other person legally authorized to provide it.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our practices or the law change. The effective date at the top shows when the current version took effect. Where a change is significant, we will bring it to your attention rather than rely on you noticing it here.