Updated: July 2025

Taylor Wessing LLP (London), our Dubai branch office and Taylor Wessing Ireland, our associated firm based in Dublin, (together, the firm) are committed to safeguarding your privacy. Our London office (we, us, our, or London) manages recruitment for all three offices, thereby making practical decisions about recruitment for these offices.  This Notice sets out our approach to data protection and privacy during the recruitment process, explaining why and how we may process candidate (you, your) personal data and your rights in relation to your personal data.

Taylor Wessing LLP (London) is the data controller processing your personal data in accordance with this Notice.  For clarity, Taylor Wessing LLP (Dubai branch) and Taylor Wessing Ireland will make their own substantive hiring decisions, but all other practical, day to day data processing decisions will be made by London.

Why and how we collect your personal data 

Where you are applying for a role with the firm, either internally or externally, London collects your personal data as listed in The personal data we process and its legal basis below.  This is for purposes of assessing your initial application for the role in question and as you progress through the recruitment process, assessing your skill set, experience and suitability, and if applicable, your eligibility for the role.  

The personal data we process and its legal basis

Personal data

London collects the following personal data about you almost entirely from you when you submit your application for an open role at the firm or from the agency representing you if they submit on your behalf.  Where we collect any of the personal data listed below from third parties or other sources, we have identified the source alongside.

• core personal data including but not limited to your name, title, address, date of birth, age, gender, contact numbers, personal email addresses; 
• core employment information including but not limited to your application form, covering letter, CV, right to work information and any other information you provide as part of your initial application;
• your historic information you provide including but not limited to, as applicable, your education record, your professional education and qualification record, your professional experience, your professional memberships and/or certifications and your professional references;
• any specific skills relevant to the role and any language skills; and
• information about your willingness to relocate, current salary information, notice period, results of any tests taken as part of our recruitment process (for example, psychometric tests), notes and feedback of test assessors or interviewers as applicable.

As referred to above, we process this personal data to identify the most appropriate individuals to join our firm, and to do this we have to assess this personal data and if we determine you may be an appropriate candidate, we may invite you to interview.  This is a legitimate business interest of the firm, which is one of the six lawful grounds on which data controllers such as the firms are permitted to process your personal data.

The provision of your data is necessary for us to assess your capability and compatibility with the firm and if you are successful, for the relevant firm to enter into and maintain a contract and relationship with you.  If you choose not to or fail to provide the information we request as listed above, we may not be able to carry out this assessment or comply with our legal obligations where applicable and as a result, we may not be able to progress your application.

Special categories of personal data

In addition to the personal data listed above, we may also need to process certain special categories of personal data, such as data about your health, or if you have a criminal record, we may need to ask for further information.  We will not do this without asking for your explicit consent first, which is a permitted lawful ground for processing such additional sensitive data.  How we process your criminal and/or health data is explained in How we process special categories of personal data.

Diversity and social mobility information

Similarly, and again only with your explicit consent first, we will invite you to volunteer and social mobility data about yourself as part of our recruitment process.  If you choose to participate, we will ask you specific questions about certain special categories of personal data, namely your racial and ethnic background, gender identity, disabilities and sexual orientation, and ask you specific questions on your educational background, in particular whether you were in the first generation in your family to attend university, details about your secondary education, and whether you were eligible for free school meals. Your answers will be separated from your application personal data to ensure they cannot be used in any way during the recruitment process or any decision-making within it.  

The information you provide is used for several purposes: 

• to check whether the firm is attracting a diverse range of candidates to our roles, in particular whether we are reaching the target set by our commitment to the Mansfield Rule of 30% of women, lawyers from minority ethnic groups, lawyers with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ attorneys; 
• to ensure we are treating all candidates fairly, equally and without bias; and 
• to monitor these and our other diversity and inclusion and related commitments.  

This information will only be used for these purposes and to improve the firm's diversity and inclusion wherever possible.  It will be held in strict confidence and seen by a very small number of a sub-team within Human Resources.  As stated above, it can only occur if you have expressly consented and agreed to participate.

How we process special categories of personal data

Right to work data

We will discuss your right to work in the relevant location with you, but we will not ask you for any documentation during the recruitment process.  If we decide we would like you to join the firm, we will make you an offer conditional on evidencing your right to work in the relevant office with appropriate documents.

Health data

We will only collect health data during the recruitment process as part of diversity monitoring as described above and as necessary for any accessibility or dietary arrangements you request or are necessary for you to attend any interviews. 

Criminal convictions

We ask all applicants to disclose any criminal convictions.  If you have one or more, we will first discuss it with you and any following actions will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

With whom we share your data

We use a third party service provider as part of our recruitment management called SAP.  Your personal data is shared with this data processor under a contract, in accordance with UK data protection law.  

We also use the following third party processors during the recruitment process for the reason associated with them.  In each case, a contract is in place between us and them in accordance with UK data protection law:

• Aspiring Solicitors Limited: for the purposes of tracking the diversity and socio-economic backgrounds of applicants within our Early Lawyers recruitment process and improving it wherever possible subject to the applicants' explicit consent to such processing and data sharing.
• Rare Recruitment Limited (Rare): for the purposes of reviewing your application in its wider socio-economic background, for which Rare receives postcode, examination grades and the information you provide in the section of the online application form at "contextual information" and "education". Please refer to Rare's privacy notice for information on how it aggregates and pseudonymises this information for UK-wide statistical analysis, which can be found on its website.
• Oxiway Limited, trading as MeVitae: for the purposes of preparing blind CVs for our ultimate review.
• The Project Box Limited: for the purposes of reviewing blind CVs.
• Vero Screen Limited: for the purposes of background screening.
• DocuSign Inc.: for the purposes of distributing blank contracts for review and signature.

Cookies and other technologies

If you have visited our website in preparation for application, either directly or via an agency, cookies will have been placed on your device, even if it was only the strictly essential ones, as explained in our Cookies policy available on our website.

SAP also will have dropped essential cookies as follows:

To the extent you provided your consent in the Cookie Consent Manager, then the following cookies may have also been dropped:

Please refer to the above third parties' cookies or privacy policy for information on what personal data and other information they collect, how they use it, and how long they store it.

Please see our Cookies policy for details on how to control cookies. You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking the cookie consent manager link within the footer of the careers site.

Updates and communications

Our Recruitment team, and also possibly the specific Hiring Manager, will keep you up to date with your progress through our recruitment process.  If you do not recognise the person calling you, please ask them where they are calling from to avoid any confusion or spam phone calls.

International data transfer

All individual personal data shared with the firm is stored on SAP's secure servers located in the EEA.  

Where data is shared between the London and Dubai offices of Taylor Wessing LLP, we ensure that a transfer only takes place if an appropriate level of protection exists and suitable safeguards for the personal data are in place.

How we protect your personal data

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed or accessed in an unauthorised way. 

In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees and consultants who have a strict business need to access your data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

You have chosen a password to access our secure recruitment pages and you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

How long we keep your personal data

If you are unsuccessful with your application on this occasion, or if you are successful but turn down our offer, then we will keep your personal data for 24 months in case another role arises for which you would like to apply and then you can instruct us to use the existing data.  You can withdraw from the recruitment process at any stage, including after acceptance. You can ask us to delete your data at any point during this 24 month window or you can withdraw your consent to our processing.  However, you would then have to resubmit all relevant data if you wanted to apply for a new role. If you wish to carry out either of these actions, please send a relevant email to dataprivacyuk@taylorwessing.com.

If you are successful on this occasion and accept the relevant firm's offer, then in due course you will become an employee of the firm in question.  Your recruitment data will transfer to your employee file and will be subject to the retention policy of the firm.  

Your rights

You have the right to:

• be provided with a copy of your personal data held by us, subject to the exemptions which allow us not to disclose certain categories of data;
• object to the further processing of your personal data; 
• request the correction of inaccurate data or erasure of your personal data held by us under certain circumstances;
• request that we restrict the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances (while we verify or investigate your concerns with this information, for example); and
• request that the personal data we hold be moved to a third party in specific limited circumstances.

Please submit your request to dataprivacyuk@taylorwessing.com.  We aim to respond to your request as soon as possible, but usually within one calendar month. Complex requests may take longer and we will let you know if this is the case.

Please let us know if you have a preferred method of communication.  Otherwise, we will usually use email, but may also use mobile phone or social media.

Questions and complaints

If you have any questions, comments or requests about how we process your personal data, please contact dataprivacyuk@taylorwessing.com.

If you have any concerns about how your personal data has been handled during your recruitment process, please first contact us at dataprivacyuk@taylorwessing.com, explaining your concerns.  We will investigate these internally and report back to you.

If you are dissatisfied our response regarding our processing, you can complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): www.ico.org.uk

Our contact details

Data Protection, Risk Management
Taylor Wessing LLP
5 New Street Square
London
EC4A 3TW