Effective date: April 25, 2025

1. Introduction and Scope

This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) outlines the practices of Fourcand, Tremblay, Kissel, Plante LLP (hereinafter referred to as “FTKP“, “we”, “our”, or “us”) regarding the processing of your personal information, as defined in the Definition of “personal information” section below. Specifically, the purpose of this Policy is to explain how and for what purposes FTKP collects, uses, shares or otherwise processes personal information and how we safeguard the confidentiality of personal information when individuals visit our Website located at https://ftkpavocats.com (the “Website”), retain us as legal counsel, apply for an opportunity with FTKP, or otherwise interact with us in person, by phone or via our online Contact Form.

2. Definition of “personal information”

In this Policy, “personal information” means any information that can be used, either alone or in combination with other information, to identify an individual. This includes information such as your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, or any other contact details. It may also include other types of more technical information, but only when this information can identify you as an individual. Information that is anonymized is not considered to be personal information, if it is, reasonably foreseeable in the circumstances that this information irreversibly no longer allows an individual to be identified directly or indirectly.

3. Personal Information We Collect

The personal information we collect about you depends on the nature of your interactions with FTKP (e.g., if you visit our Website, retain us as your legal counsel, or apply for an opportunity with FTKP). Below is a description of the personal information we may collect about you.

a. Information we collect directly from our clients and applicants

Clients. The following list describes the information you provide directly to us when retaining our legal services (e.g., your contact details) and any other relevant information needed for us to manage your legal matter, as permitted by law. We may also request similar information about your family members if relevant to your case and in accordance with applicable law.

Contact information, including your name, email address, home address, and phone number.
Demographic information, including your race, religion, date of birth, nationality, marital status, social insurance number, and copies of your government issued documents (copy of a driver’s license, birth or marriage certificates or contracts, passport, visa, etc.).
Education and employment information, including your level of education and employment history.
Information or documents about your spouse and family members, including who is your spouse or part of your family, details about your relationship with your spouse and/or each member of your family, copies of written correspondence with your spouse and/or family members, couple or family photos, and the birth certificates of relevant family members.
Financial information, including details about your financial history and habits, banking and financial statements (for individuals and organizations, as applicable), credit card numbers, as well as your financial assets (value of properties owned, estimated net worth, annual income, etc.) and income tax reports.
Health information, including the history of your medical appointments or treatments, as well as relevant diagnoses (physical or psychological).
Other information, documents or electronic materials you provide us to help FTKP effectively represent you in your legal matter.

Note that to the extent possible, we will obtain the consent required to process personal information about an individual directly from such an individual (such as our clients). However, if you provide us with personal information concerning another individual (including adverse parties and other individuals involved in legal proceedings such as your spouse or family members), you represent that, prior to submitting such information, you have obtained the necessary consent or authority to permit us to collect, use and disclose such personal information for the purposes set out in this Policy, or the collection, use and disclosure is otherwise permitted by applicable law. Notably, we will assume that parents or legal guardians have the authority to provide personal information about children under the age of 14.

Applicants. The following list describes the information you provide directly to us when applying for an opportunity at FTKP.

Contact information, including your name, email address, home address, and phone number.
Professional information, including information found in your CV and cover letter, information on your professional experiences, education history, and the contact information of your referrals.

In addition, we may take notes about you based on the information included in your application as well as during any interviews you may have or any other interactions we may have with you in the context of evaluating your application.

b. Information we collect from third parties about our clients and applicants

Clients. To the extent necessary for us to provide our legal services and as permitted by law, we may collect information about our clients and other individuals involved in legal proceedings (such as spouses or family members) from third parties. Such third parties may include health professionals (psychologists, social workers, child services representatives, physicians, etc.), financial advisors, real estate agents, notaries, and teachers asked to provide specific materials such as an expertise report in the context of legal proceedings.

Applicants. We may receive information about your professional background and experiences from third parties if you apply for an opportunity with FTKP through a third-party platform (e.g., LinkedIn or Indeed) or if we contact the referrals you provide us with in the context of evaluating your application.

c. Information we collect about visitors of our Website

Contact information, including your name, email, phone number, and any other information you may provide us when using our Contact Form.
Information we collect automatically when you visit our Website using technologies such as cookies and pixels. The technical information we collect when you visit our Website includes information about the device you are using, including (as applicable) your IP address, device ID, the date and time of your visit, the pages of the Website you visit, and the referring URLs you came from. See the Cookies section below for more information on how we use cookies to collect your personal information.

4.How We Use Your Personal Information

We may use your personal information for general business purposes such as providing or delivering our legal services to clients, managing our Website, and evaluation applications we receive regarding an opportunity with FTKP. More specifically, we may use your personal information for the following general business purposes:

Providing or delivering our services. We may use your personal information to administer our software and online files and offer you our legal services. This may include, amongst other things, providing you with legal advice, avoiding legal conflicts of interest, fulfilling legal duties, performing legal services, issuing invoices and collecting and processing payments.

Managing our Website. We may use your personal information to manage and facilitate the use of our Website when you visit or access it, which may include using cookies and other similar technologies. See the Cookies section below for more information on how we use cookies.

Communicating with you. If you contact us with a question or inquiry, we may use your personal information to respond to you. From time to time, we may also send you communications that may be of interest to you (such as invitations to events), but you can always withdraw your consent to receive commercial electronic messages, including by contacting us using the contact information provided in the Contact Us section below.
Processing your application. We may use the information you provide us as part of your application for an opportunity with FTKP when we review and respond to your application and evaluate your suitability for current and future professional opportunities.

For other purposes permitted or required by law. We may use personal information without your consent where we are legally permitted or required to do so by law, for example, to comply with a legal obligation or to protect the rights of FTKP or to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements, or to detect, prevent and investigate suspicious, unauthorized, fraudulent, illegal or unlawful activity.

5. Sharing of Personal Information

We do share your personal information with third parties for the purposes detailed below, with your consent, or as required or permitted by applicable law and/or our professional obligations.

Legal services. We may share personal information with third parties for the purpose of providing our clients with legal services such as in the context of legal proceedings, including conducting litigation, arbitrations, or mediations. Such third parties may include opposing parties (including spouses or family members), parties in interest, opposing, foreign and other counsel and advisors, witnesses, courts, adjudicators, arbitrators, other decision-makers and experts.
Service providers. We may transfer or otherwise make available your personal information to third parties that provide services on our behalf. We use service providers to provide services such as IT support, Website hosting, billing support, data storage, marketing assistance, accounting and bookkeeping (including management of receipts), payment collection, and data analytics.
Legal and compliance requirements. We may provide your personal information in response to a search warrant or other legally valid inquiry or order, or to another organization for the purposes of investigating a contravention of law or detecting, suppressing, or preventing fraud, or as otherwise may be required or permitted by applicable Canadian or other law or legal process. Your personal information may also be disclosed where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims and to investigate or prevent actual or suspected loss or harm to persons or property.
Business transactions. We may disclose personal information to facilitate or enable any corporate or commercial transaction involving FTKP to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Note that within FTKP, our employees may have access, in whole or in part, to your personal information on a need-to-know basis.

6. Cross-border Transfers

Some of our external third-party service providers are based outside of Québec and/or Canada, including in the United States. Their processing of your personal information will therefore involve a transfer of information outside of Québec and/or Canada. Organizations based outside of Canada may not be subject to privacy laws that provide you with the same rights and protections as in Canada. As a result, when your personal information is used or stored in a jurisdiction other than where you are residing, it may be subject to the law of this foreign jurisdiction, including any law permitting or requiring disclosure of the information to the government, government agencies, courts and law enforcement in that jurisdiction.

7. Your Privacy Rights

Under privacy laws applicable in the region in which you reside, you may have the following rights with respect to your personal information, subject to limited exceptions set out in such laws:

Right to information: You have the right to ask us about our processing of your personal information, including about the categories of persons who have access to your personal information within FTKP and the applicable retention period.
Right to access. You can ask us if we hold any personal information about you, and if so, you can request access to that personal information. Depending on the jurisdiction in which you reside, you may also have the right to ask us to communicate to you the personal information you have provided us in a structured, commonly used technological format, as well as to a third party upon your request.
Right to correction. You have the right to ask us to rectify any personal information that you demonstrate to be incorrect or outdated and to complete any information that you demonstrate to be incomplete.
Right to withdraw consent. You may withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information to the extent permitted by law and our contractual obligations. However, you understand that in such a case, you may no longer be able to benefit from our products and services.

To exercise any of your privacy rights, please contact us using the information provided in the Contact Us section below. Note that we may request certain personal information for the purpose of verifying the identity of the individual seeking to exercise their privacy rights.

8. Cookies

We use cookies, web beacons (including pixels and tags), and similar technologies on our Website that collect certain information about you by automated means.

A cookie is a tiny element of data that our Website sends to a user’s browser, which may then be stored on the user’s hard drive so that we can recognize the user’s computer or device when they return. You may set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to not accept certain cookies. However, if you decide not to accept cookies from our Website, you may not be able to take advantage of all of the Website’s features.

We may use a third party such as Google Analytics to help us gather and analyze information about the areas visited on the Website (such as the pages most read, time spent, search terms and other engagement data) in order to evaluate and improve the user experience and the Website. These third parties may use cookies and other tracking technologies. For more information about Google Analytics or to prevent the storage and processing of this data (including your IP address) by Google, you can download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link:

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

You can also obtain additional information on Google Analytics’ data privacy and security at the following links:

9. Retention

We will retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which the information was collected. However, we may retain your personal information for a longer period when required to comply with our legal, regulatory, or professional obligations regarding information or record retention.

10. Security Safeguards

We protect and safeguard your personal information using physical, electronic and procedural measures appropriate to the volume and sensitivity of the information, the purposes for which it is used, and the format in which it is stored, including safeguards to protect your information against loss and theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification. Specifically, we implement the following measures to protect your personal information, including:

Internal policies and procedures that define the roles and responsibilities of our employees, representatives, and service providers throughout the life cycle of an item of information and limit their access to that information on a “need-to-know” basis;
Physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with relevant standards to protect personal information;
If the information is collected or stored electronically, technical safeguards such as encryption, firewalls, passwords, anti-virus software and similar measures;
A designated privacy officer to monitor FTKP’s compliance with applicable privacy laws;
Procedures for receiving, investigating, and responding to complaints or inquiries about FTKP’s information handling practices; and
Contractual protections to ensure that service providers with whom we share personal information maintain adequate protections and security standards.

If you have reason to believe that personal information has been compromised or accessed, used or disclosure unlawfully, please contact us using the information provided in the Contact Us section.

11. Updates to this Policy

This Policy is current as of the Effective Date set forth above and may be amended from time to time at our sole discretion. We recommend that you periodically review this Policy as it may be updated or revised from time to time. If we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify you of those changes, including by posting the revised Policy on our Website with an adequate notice.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding our processing of your personal information or about this Policy, please contact our Privacy Officer in writing at info@ftkpavocats.com.