Privacy Statement

Effective Date: April 1, 2022

This Privacy Statement applies to the Seyfarth Shaw Alumni Network site (www.alumni.span.com) (“Alumni Site” or “Site”), communications, surveys and other Alumni Program services ("Services").  If you use the Services, your personal data will be collected and used only in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Statement and applicable data privacy laws.

The purpose of the Alumni Program is to maintain a long-term relationship with you and other former employees after your departure from our company.  There are many reasons we have an interest in a long-term relationship with you. For example, we may want to rehire you or receive candidate referrals from you, or do business with you and/or your future employer(s).  Also, we hope our Alumni Program and this Site will be beneficial to you by making it easy to stay connected with Seyfarth Shaw and your former colleagues.

Please read this Statement carefully to understand how Seyfarth collects, shares, and treats your Personal Information according to the terms of this Privacy Statement.  If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Services. 

This Privacy Statement may change from time to time so please check back periodically.  If we make material changes to it, we will provide notice through our Services, or by other means, to provide you the opportunity to review the changes before they become effective. If you object to any changes, you may request that we delete your account (email dataprotection@seyfarth.com with the message “Please delete my Alumni account”).  

The Alumni Site is a private Site available only to alumni and attorneys of Seyfarth Shaw that currently reside in the United States.  Please do not provide your username or password to anyone. If you know of an alumnus looking for their own access, please ask them to register at the Site. In addition, you may not provide personal data related to other members obtained from the Site to anyone.

What Personal Data Do We Collect?

Personal data you voluntarily provide us: The Alumni Site collects personal data when you directly give it to us, such as, when you register. During registration and profile set-up, we require that you provide your name and email address. Your user profile offers you the opportunity to provide a wide range of additional information, including photo, personal postal address, phone number, current occupation, working status, current business contact information, industry, education, skills, Seyfarth job history, and personal and business interests. By providing complete and accurate information in your profile, you enable us to customize your experience and help you get the most from our Services. However, please supply only information that is relevant for the stated purposes of this Site.

We also collect personal data in the following situations:

  • correspondence between you and the Alumni Site;
  • information you post on the Alumni Site, such as, resumes, job applications, event RSVPs, comments on news articles; and
  • responses to online surveys or forms that we use for Seyfarth Shaw feedback, research and product improvement.

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal data online within your profile, through email, or in areas of the Site - that information could be accessible to the rest of the members of the Seyfarth Shaw Alumni Network and may be made public. Please do not post or add personal data to your profile or elsewhere on the Site that you would not want to be publicly available.

Information we collect automatically: When you use the Alumni Site, we collect information about your visit and usage of the Alumni Program services. Some of this information is collected using a third-party tool, provided by Google Analytics service.  We and our service providers may use various technologies to collect and store information when you use our Site, including cookies and similar tracking technologies, such as pixels and web beacons, to analyze trends, administer the Site, and track users’ movements around the Site.  The information we automatically collect may include your IP address, your operating system, your browser ID, and other information about how you interacted with the Site, and is used to estimate our audience size and usage patterns; store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests; speed up your searches; and recognize you when you return to our Website. 

Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level.  For more information about our use of cookies and other tracking technologies, as well as how to opt out of the use of cookies, please refer to the Cookies and other tracking technologies section below. Data we collect automatically, which may not be personal information, is treated as personal information when it is attached to other personal information.

Personal data provided by Seyfarth Shaw: Seyfarth Shaw may share your personal data with PeoplePath during the registration process to verify that you are a Seyfarth Shaw alumnus/a. If you are a current employee, Seyfarth Shaw will use information collected about you as a result of your employment relationship with Seyfarth to create a PeoplePath account on your behalf.  The information that Seyfarth Shaw may share includes, but is not limited to, your name, email address, last Seyfarth Shaw home office, position, and level.

How Do We Use Your Personal Data?

The Alumni Program will use your personal data for the following purposes:

  • To provide our users with a customized experience on our Site, including personalization services, such as, suggested contacts, news, events and interactive communications.
  • To enable other users to search for and locate you via the directory.
  • For internal use. We will use your personal data to research and analyze our users' demographics, interests and behavior in an aggregated form to better understand and serve our users and improve our Site and its offerings.
  • To contact you periodically with communications about events, publications or employment opportunities with Seyfarth Shaw, affiliates or partners, which we feel might interest you, unless you ask not to be contacted. You will have an opportunity to opt out of receiving further messages.
  • To get your feedback and viewpoints through polls and surveys conducted by us and others.  You are not obligated to respond to polls and surveys and can choose the information you provide.
  • To share with other internal Seyfarth Shaw systems for a variety of reasons including to contact you with professionally relevant information.
  • To provide you our services. We will use your personal data to provide information or perform Services that you request.
  • To enforce compliance with our terms and policies. We process your personal data to investigate, prevent or mitigate violations of our policies, terms or agreements; and enforce our agreements with third parties and service providers.
  • To ensure the security of the services. We care about keeping you secure and safe while using our Services.
  • To maintain legal and regulatory compliance. Our Services are subject to certain laws and regulations which may require us to process your personal data.

We may also use data for other purposes, which we would always describe to you when we collect the information.

Who Has Access To Your Personal Data?

As a global organization, personal data that Seyfarth Shaw collects may be transferred internationally within Seyfarth Shaw’s worldwide organization, in accordance with the Privacy Statement, Terms and Conditions, or as otherwise communicated from time to time and in relation to the Seyfarth Shaw Alumni Program.

We will share your personal data in the following situations:

  • With other users of the Site through the Directory search function and your Profile.  You have control over this access through the privacy settings in your Profile.  Click on the edit icon or button in any section of the Profile to find the privacy settings.  These have been set to “Members” by default, meaning all members of the Site can see this information. You can select to make information in your profile visible to only you, just your contacts, all members of the Alumni Site, or all parties including third-party job posters.  Regardless of your privacy setting, Seyfarth Shaw and PeoplePath will have access to your profile information.
  • With our service providers, including PeoplePath, Inc. who provides the corporate alumni software platform and services and its contractors. These service providers may engage additional companies to be able to support us. These companies may use your personal data only to assist the service providers in communicating with you about the Services and to help service providers in assisting us with operating the Services. Such companies do not have any independent right to use or disclose your personal data except as we request.
  • With business partners or sponsors where this is necessary for the purposes related to the Alumni Program, in which case this will be specifically described to you prior to data collection or prior to transferring the data, and you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service.
  • With advisors, including attorneys and accountants, to help us with legal, accounting, and security requirements.
  • When required to comply with court orders, valid discovery requests, valid subpoenas, and other appropriate legal mechanisms.
  • To a third-party acquirer if Seyfarth Shaw or PeoplePath sells or liquidates all or any part of its business or assets. 

We do not share your personal data with third-parties for marketing purposes, and we do not rent or sell your personal data to others.

Opting Out Of Communications and Updating Your Information

We want to communicate with you only if you want to hear from us. If you prefer not to receive communications from us, please contact us as described below.

Every email you will receive from us will contain clear information on how to unsubscribe from future communications. If you sign up for communications from us but then wish to unsubscribe, follow the unsubscribe instructions in the email you receive from us to be removed from future marketing emails.

If you would like to update or correct your email address or other contact information with us please contact us the same way. Please note that it may take up to 30 days to remove your contact information from our communications lists, so you may receive correspondence from us for a short time after you make a request.

Cookies And Other Tracking Technologies

As part of offering and providing customizable and personalized services, this Site uses cookies and clear GIFs to store and sometimes track information about you. Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a site. Cookies are then sent back to the originating site on each subsequent visit, or to another site that recognizes that cookie. Our Site also uses clear GIFs, also called "web beacons" or "web bugs", which are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on your hard drive, clear GIFs are embedded invisibly on webpages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. For the purposes of this Privacy Statement, both cookies and clear GIFs are referred to as “cookies”.

Cookies help us to collect information about how you and other visitors  use our Site. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service when you visit our Site, to remind us of who you are, tailor our services to suit the personal interests of you and others, track visits to our Site and to analyze your visiting patterns.

We also use Google Analytics to collect information about the effectiveness of our Services. Google Analytics uses "cookies", text files stored on your computer, to learn about how people use our Site. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this Site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Service: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/us/ and the Google Privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can learn more about how Google collects and processes data specifically in connection with Google Analytics at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. You can prevent your information from being used by Google Analytics by downloading and installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

You can refuse or delete cookies. You can disable cookies from your computer system by following the instructions on your browser or at www.allaboutcookies.org. Most browsers and mobile devices offer their own settings to manage cookies. However, if you refuse a cookie when on the Site, or if you delete cookies, certain features of our Site or other services may not work.

Some Internet browsers have incorporated "Do Not Track" features. Most of these features, when turned on, send a signal or preference (the "DNT Signal") to the websites you visit indicating that you do not wish to be tracked. Because there is not yet a common understanding of how to interpret DNT Signals, nor a common definition of "tracking," we do not currently respond to DNT Signals on the Website.

How Do We Safeguard Your Personal Data?

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of information transmitted to us. Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your information, we do not guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to or from our Site, and you do so at your own risk.

Your user account information is password-protected so that only you, PeoplePath, and Seyfarth Shaw have access to your personal data. Do not divulge your password to anyone. Also remember to sign out of your account and close your browser window when you have finished using the Site, particularly if you share a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place like a library or Internet cafe.

Links to Other Sites

Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to other sites over which we have no control. Such links do not imply an endorsement with respect to any third party, any website, or the products or services provided thereby.  If you follow a link to any of these sites, please note that these sites have their own privacy statements and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these statements or sites. Please check these privacy statements before you submit any personal data to these sites.

Children

Our Services are not directed to children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from any child under the age of 18. If we become aware that a child under 18 has provided us with personal data, we will take steps to delete such information from our files.

California Privacy Rights

This California Privacy Notice (“California Notice”) applies to California residents whose Personal Information is processed by Seyfarth Shaw pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) or other California privacy laws described below.  The California Notice describes how we protect the Personal Information we process and control relating to California residents and rights California residents may have in relation to this Personal Information. For purposes of this California Notice, “Personal Information” has the meaning provided by the CCPA and does not include information that is publicly available, that is deidentified or aggregated such that it is not capable of being associated with you, or that is excluded from the CCPA’s scope.

Your California Rights and Choices:  As a California resident, you may be able to request to exercise the following rights:

  • The Right to Know any or all of the following information relating to your Personal Information we have collected and disclosed in the last 12 months, upon verification of your identity:
    • The specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you;
    • The categories of Personal Information we have collected about you;
    • The categories of sources of the Personal Information;
    • The categories of Personal Information that we have disclosed to third parties for a business purpose, and the categories of recipients to whom this information was disclosed;
    • The categories of Personal Information we have sold and the categories of third parties to whom the information was sold; and
    • The business or commercial purposes for collecting or selling the Personal Information.
  • The Right to Request Deletion of Personal Information we have collected from you.

However, this right is limited by a number of exceptions. Fundamentally, if Seyfarth Shaw has a permissible need to retain Personal Information, it is not under an obligation to delete such information, even when requested. Generally, we retain Personal Information so we may complete the transaction for which the Personal Information was collected, provide a service requested by you, or reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing relationship with you, or otherwise perform a contract between us and you; detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; or prosecute those responsible for that activity; debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality of our online properties; enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based on your relationship with Seyfarth Shaw; comply with a legal obligation; or otherwise use your Personal Information, internally, in a lawful manner that is compatible with the context in which you provided the information. As such, we generally do not accept requests to delete Personal Information.

You also have the right to be free of discrimination for exercising these rights. However, please note that if the exercise of these rights limits our ability to process Personal Information, for example, if you submit a deletion request, we may no longer be able to provide you our products and services or engage with you in the same manner.

You may submit a request to exercise your California Consumer Rights through one of the mechanisms described below. We will need to verify your identity before processing your request, which may require us to request additional Personal Information from you or require you to log into your account, if you have one. In certain circumstances, we may decline or limit your request, particularly where we are unable to verify your identity or locate your information in our systems, or as permitted by law.

To exercise your California Consumer Rights to Know, Delete, or for additional information, please submit a request to dataprotection@seyfarth.com .

Finally, you may also submit a verifiable consumer request through an authorized agent.  To do so please be prepared for your agent to provide a signed permission to do so, to verify their own identity with us, and to directly confirm with us that you provided the agent permission to submit the request.

California’s “Shine the Light” Law. California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section §1798.83) provides certain rights to California residents that have an established business relationship with us with regard to the disclosure of certain types of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To opt-out of having your Personal Information disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, please submit a request using one of the California consumer rights request methods designated above.

Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or requests with regard to the Personal Information we hold about you, please contact us via email at dataprotection@seyfarth.com . If you prefer to contact us by postal mail, please contact us at:

Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Attention: Marketing and Business Development
233 South Wacker Drive, Suite 8000
Chicago, IL 60606-6448
(312) 460-5000

Policy Changes

Seyfarth Shaw reserves the right to update this Privacy Policy at any time. When we update this policy, we will revise the "Effective Date" date above and post it to our Website.  The new policy will apply to all current and past users of our Website and will replace any prior policies that are inconsistent.