Bates White Privacy Policy for California Residents

Last Updated: July 6, 2023

This Privacy Policy for California Residents supplements the information contained in Bates White’s Privacy Policy and applies solely to all visitors, users, job applicants, and others who reside in the State of California (“consumers” or “you”). We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, and its implementing regulations (collectively, the “CCPA”). Any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this Policy.

Information We Collect

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer, household, or device ("Personal Information"). Personal Information does not include:

• Publicly available information:
  • Lawfully made available from government records;
  • That we have a reasonable basis to believe has lawfully been made available to the general public by you or from widely distributed media; or
  • Made available by a person to whom you disclosed the information unless you restricted such information to a specific audience.
• Deidentified or aggregated consumer information.
• Information excluded from the CCPA’s scope, including information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

In particular, the below chart identifies which categories of Personal Information we have collected within the last twelve (12) months. We retain your Personal Information for as long as necessary to achieve the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

We obtain the categories of Personal Information we collect from the following categories of sources:

• Directly from you. For example, when you communicate with us electronically or in person.
• Indirectly from you. For example, from observing your actions on our Website.
• Internet cookies.
• Data analytics providers.
• Job applications and the interview process.

Use of Personal Information

We may use or disclose the Personal Information we collect for one or more of the following purposes:

• To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information. For example, if you share your name and contact information to ask a question about our services or to apply for a job with the firm, we will use that Personal Information to respond to your inquiry.
• To provide, support, personalize, and develop our Website and services.
• To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses.
• To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Website, products and services, databases and other technology assets, and business.
• For testing, research, analysis, and product development, including to develop and improve our Website, products, and services.
• To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
• Evaluation of job applicants, including communicating with job applicants about their candidacy for employment.
• Analyzing our application and recruitment process.
• As described to you when collecting your Personal Information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA.

We will not collect additional categories of Personal Information or use the Personal Information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose your Personal Information to a third party for a business purpose. We only make these business purpose disclosures under written contracts that describe the purposes, require the recipient to keep the Personal Information confidential, and prohibit using the disclosed information for any purpose except performing the contract. In the preceding twelve (12) months, Bates White has disclosed Personal Information for a business purpose to the categories of third parties indicated in the chart below. We will not sell the Sensitive Personal Information we collect. We also will not share it with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising. Because we do not sell or share Personal Information or Sensitive Personal Information, we do not offer users the ability to opt out of such Personal Information sales or sharing.

 Your Rights and Choices

The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their Personal Information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.

Right to Know and Data Portability

You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information over the past 12 months (the “right to know”). Once we receive your request and confirm your identity (see Exercising Your Rights to Know, Delete, or Correct), we will disclose to you:

• The categories of Personal Information we collected about you.
• The categories of sources for the Personal Information we collected about you.
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or sharing that Personal Information.
• The categories of third parties to whom we disclose that Personal Information.
• If we shared or disclosed your Personal Information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing:
  • The categories of Personal Information that we shared about you and the categories of third parties to whom the Personal Information was shared; and
  • The categories of Personal Information that we have disclosed for a business purpose and the categories of persons to whom it was disclosed for a business purpose.
• The specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).

Right to Delete

You have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions (the “right to delete”). Once we receive your request and confirm your identity (see Exercising Your Rights to Know, Delete, or Correct), we will review your request to see if an exception allowing us to retain the information applies. We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:

• Complete the transaction for which we collected the Personal Information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
• Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 seq.).
• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
• Comply with a legal obligation.
• Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which it was provided to us.
• We will delete or deidentify Personal Information not subject to one of these exceptions from our records and will direct the same of our service providers, contractors, and, unless impossible or involves disproportionate effort, all third parties to whom we sold or shared the information.

Right to Correct

You have the right to request that Bates White correct inaccurate Personal Information that we maintain about you. Once we receive your request and confirm your identity (see Exercising Your Rights to Know, Delete, or Correct), we will review your request and use commercially reasonable efforts to correct the inaccurate Personal Information.

Exercising Your Rights to Know, Delete, or Correct

To exercise your rights described above, please submit a request by either:

• Calling us at 1-866-683-7201
• Emailing us at bateswhite@bateswhite.com

Please note that household data is exempted from our right to know, deletion, and correction response obligations. Please also note that you may only submit a request to know twice within a 12-month period.

Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may exercise your rights. If you would like to submit a request on behalf of another person as that person’s authorized agent, unless you are the person’s power of attorney, you will be required to: (1) provide proof that the person gave you signed permission to submit the request; and (2) verify your identity with us. You may also make a request on behalf of your child by signing and returning a consent form to us.

Your request must:

• Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected Personal Information or an authorized representative, which may include:
  • For requests to know categories of Personal Information or requests to delete non-sensitive Personal Information pertaining to individuals who are age 13 or older and that pose a low risk of harm, we require:
    • Matching at least two (2) data points from you with the information we hold; and
    • A determination by us that the information matched is reliable for verification purposes.
  • For disclosures of specific pieces of Personal Information or deletion of Sensitive Personal Information with a high risk of harm, we require:
    • Matching at least three (3) pieces of Personal Information you provide with information we hold;
    • A determination by us that the information matched is reliable for verification purposes; and
    • A signed declaration under penalty of perjury from you stating that the Personal Information requested is about you.
  • Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with Personal Information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the Personal Information relates to you. You do not need to create an account with us to submit a request to know or delete.

We will only use Personal Information provided in the request to verify the requestor's identity or authority to make it.

Note: For information about your opt-out or opt-in rights, see Personal Information Sharing Opt-Out and Opt-In Rights. For information about your right to limit our use of your Sensitive Personal Information, see Right to Limit Our Use of Your Sensitive Personal Information. 

Response Timing and Format

We will confirm receipt of your request within ten (10) business days. If you do not receive confirmation within the 10-day timeframe, please contact bateswhite@bateswhite.com.

We endeavor to substantively respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to another 45 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.

Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding our receipt of your request. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your Personal Information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Right to Limit Our Use of Your Sensitive Personal Information

To the extent that we collect Sensitive Personal Information about you, we only use your Sensitive Personal Information as necessary in order to:

• Perform the services reasonably expected by an average consumer who requests such services or by an average job applicant applying for employment;
• Help to ensure security and integrity to the extent the use of the Sensitive Personal Information is reasonably necessary and proportionate for these purposes;

• Resist malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal actions directed at Bates White and to prosecute those responsible for those actions;
• Ensure the physical safety of natural persons;
• Carry out a short-term, transient use, including, but not limited to, nonpersonalized advertising shown as part of your current interaction with us, provided that your Sensitive Personal Information is not disclosed to another third party and is not used to build a profile about you or otherwise alter your experience outside your current interaction with us;

• Perform services on our behalf, including maintaining or servicing accounts, providing customer service, verifying client information, processing payments, providing analytic services, or providing similar services on our behalf;

• Undertake activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of a product, service, or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by us, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance the service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by us; and/or
• Collect or process Sensitive Personal Information where such collection or processing is not for the purpose of inferring characteristics about you.

The above-listed uses of Sensitive Personal Information are authorized under California law, and therefore we do not offer consumers the right to limit our use of Sensitive Personal Information. We will ensure you are informed of any additional uses of your Sensitive Personal Information which we may undertake in the future, as well as the process through which you may exercise your right to limit our uses of your Sensitive Personal Information to only those uses listed above.

Personal Information Sales and Sharing Opt-Out and Opt-In Rights

If you are age 16 or older, you have the right to direct us to not share your Personal Information at any time (the “right to opt-out”). We do not sell or share the Personal Information of consumers, and therefore do not offer a process for opting out of Personal Information sales and sharing.

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:

• Deny you services;
• Charge you different prices or rates for services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties;
• Provide you a different level or quality of services; or
• Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for services or a different level or quality of services.

Other California Privacy Rights

California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Website that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to bateswhite@bateswhite.com or call us at 1-866-683-7201.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to amend this Policy at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this Policy, we will post the updated notice on the Website and update the notice's effective date. Your continued use of our Website following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments about this Policy, the ways in which Bates White collects and uses your information described here and in the Privacy Policy, your choices and rights regarding such use, or if you need to access this Policy in an alternative format due to having a disability, please do not hesitate to contact us at:

Phone: 1-866-683-7201
Website: https://www.bateswhite.com/contact.html
Email: bateswhite@bateswhite.com
Postal Address:
Bates White, LLC
Attn: Legal Department
2001 K Street NW
North Building, Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20006