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Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, hold, use, manage and disclose your Personal Information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
Policy objective

In this Privacy Policy, we, our and us refer to Mills Oakley (ABN 51 493 069 734), its partners, staff and and related entities.

This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, hold, use, manage and disclose your Personal Information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

Personal Information is as defined in the Privacy Act and includes information or an opinion about you, from which you are reasonably identifiable, and includes personal information:

  • provided to us by you;
  • provided to us by a third party such as (but not limited to) an organisation you work for, a credit agency or by our clients; or
  • collected through our website (located at millsoakley.com.au) (Website).
When does this Privacy Policy apply?

By using our Website, dealing with our firm, or providing your Personal Information or another person’s Personal Information to us, you:

  • accept this Privacy Policy and agree to its terms; and
  • consent to our collection, use, management and disclosure of Personal Information in accordance with its terms.
What Personal Information do we collect?

We may collect, use, hold and disclose Personal Information. We will only do so in accordance with the APPs for the purposes set out below. Examples of Personal Information that we routinely collect are provided below. 

Your contact details

We collect the following contact details for the purposes of communicating with you about our products and services, managing your legal matter, managing our relationships with our service providers and for recruitment purposes:

  • your name;
  • job title or position;
  • personal and/ or business address;
  • telephone/ mobile numbers; and
  • email address
Information about our clients and your legal matter
  • In addition to your contact details, we collect Personal Information about you, and in some cases about relevant third parties, who are involved in, or connected to, your legal matter.
  • Depending on the nature of your legal matter, this may include sensitive information, including but not limited to, health and medical information.
  • Where you accept an invitation to attend a meeting, a social event, seminar, or legal update session hosted at our premises, we may also collect dietary information and event management information.
  • We may not be able to provide you with services if we do not collect this Personal Information from you.
Recruitment activities
  • When you explore employment opportunities with Mills Oakley, in addition to your contact details, we will collect information about your qualifications, experience and eligibility to work in Australia. This will usually include:
    • your full (legal) name;
    • date of birth;
    • your CV/ resume, employment history, experience and skills;
    • qualifications, and in some instances, certified copies of qualifications; and
    • country of birth (including visa status, if applicable).
  • This information may be collected via our recruitment platform and is securely stored by our service provider’s infrastructure in the United States of America. The information is accessible only to us.
  • If our recruitment activities and discussions with you progress to the point of making you an offer of employment, we will collect additional information in the context of our onboarding procedures.
How do we collect Personal Information?
  • We may collect Personal Information about you while providing legal services to you, an organisation you work for, or from another party on a legal matter that involves you. Mills Oakley is bound by legal obligations of confidentiality and legal professional privilege. We will treat and protect information we receive (including any Personal Information) in accordance with these obligations.
  • Where you provide the Personal Information of another person to us, you must provide a copy of, or refer them to, this Privacy Policy. In addition, you must obtain that person’s consent to share their Personal Information with us or do so in circumstances where they would expect that information sharing to occur.
  • When you visit our Website, we may automatically collect information about you, including details of access, IP addresses, webpage statistics and other information that helps us to ensure that the site is functioning properly.
  • Our Website uses both session and persistent cookies. Session cookies are temporary cookie files and, once you’ve closed your browser, they will not endure. Persistent cookies attach to your browser and device memory.
  • A “cookie” assists us to store information about how visitors to our website use it and to make assumptions about what information may be of most interest to you. Cookies may be used, stored and analysed in our IT systems and by our server and network hosts. It is possible that Personal Information will be captured in those processes. You will usually find information on cookies, and how to manage them, under “Options” or “Settings” on your browser. For more information about managing cookies, see the guidance from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au).
  • Our Website may direct you to websites operated by third parties (Linked Sites). We are not responsible for the content or practices of the Linked Sites or their privacy policies regarding the collection, storage, use and dissemination of your Personal Information. We encourage you to always read the applicable privacy policy of any Linked Site before using it.
How do we use and disclose Personal Information?
  • We may use and disclose your Personal Information for the purposes of managing our firm’s legal practice, which may include: 
    • the provision of legal services to you, to an organisation you work for or to another party in matters in which you are involved;
    • confirming your identity and details about you;
    • complying with applicable laws, insurance requirements, legal practice obligations and court orders;
    • enforcing agreements that we or our clients have with you, or that otherwise involve you;
    • managing our operations, recruitment and procurement processes;
    • communicating legal or firm news;
    • helping us to identify products and services that may interest you and provide you with relevant information about them (but you may unsubscribe from our marketing and industry updates at any time);
    • helping us to improve our services, matter management and financial performance using marketing data and analytics;
    • keeping our facilities secure and well managed;
    • collecting debts owing to us; and
    • responding to your queries.
  • Our marketing materials include an unsubscribe option, which you can enable at any time. Alternatively, if you do not wish to receive marketing communications, legal updates and news from us you can contact us at [email protected] and ask to be removed from our mailing list.
Do we disclose your Personal Information to third parties?

You agree that, where necessary for the work we are doing for you, we may disclose Personal Information to others (for example but without limitation, to a court, other parties in a litigation, other lawyers, accountants, valuers, experts, barristers, witnesses).

Do we transfer Personal Information outside Australia?

We will not transfer your Personal Information to someone who is outside Australia without prior notice to you or unless required or authorised by law. 

Personal Information quality and security
  • We take reasonable steps to ensure that all Personal Information that we collect, hold, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up to date. We request you assist us by updating your details with us if they change.
  • We take reasonable steps to protect the Personal Information that we hold about you (whether in digital or physical form) from misuse, interference, loss and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. For example, we restrict access to our offices, employ firewalls, password-protect IT systems and regularly update the software we use.
Access and correction
  • Subject to certain exceptions, you have a right to access and, where necessary, seek correction of the Personal Information that we hold about you. We will not charge you for providing you with access to your Personal Information, but we reserve the right to charge you a reasonable amount for the time and expense incurred in compiling the information in response to your request. Responding to your request may involve making arrangements for you to visit our offices for the purpose of accessing your Personal Information.
  • Please use the contact details below to ask for access to your Personal Information or to correct your Personal Information if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant, out-of-date or misleading. To help us respond to and manage your request, we may need to know the nature of your relationship, or prior dealings, with the firm. We may request proof of your identity as part of managing your request.
Complaints, contact details and additional information
  • To request access to your information or to make a complaint about our privacy practices, please contact us, in writing, at:

Mills Oakley Privacy Officer
c/o Melbourne Reception Desk
Phone: +61 (0)3 9670 9111
Email: [email protected]

  • Our Privacy Officer will consider your complaint to determine whether there are simple or immediate steps we can take to resolve the issue. In this case, we will generally respond to you within a few business days. If your complaint requires further investigation, we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within a week. We may seek further information from you to assist with our investigation. We will then inform you of our findings about your complaint.
  • We aim to complete our investigation and respond to your complaint, in writing, within 30 days. We will let you know if we expect your complaint will take longer than this to resolve.
  • If you are not satisfied with how we manage your privacy complaint you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as shown on their website, https://www.oaic.gov.au/.
Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes take effect by being published on our website and your continued use of our services, the Website, or the provision of further Personal Information is deemed acceptance of the Privacy Policy.