1. What is the purpose of this data protection declaration ?

Gobat Legal is a sole proprietorship of the law firm of Dr. Sébastien Gobat, Attorney-at-Law, whose offices are at Schweizerhof-Passage 7, 3001 Berne (hereinafter “ Gobat Legal ” or “ we ”).

This privacy statement informs you about how we process your personal data, in accordance with art. 19 of the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act (DPA ; RS 235.1).

“ Personal data ” refers to data relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (art. 5 let. a LPD). “ Processing ” refers to any operation relating to personal data, whatever the means and procedures used, in particular the collection, recording, storage, use, modification, communication, archiving, erasure or destruction of data (art. 5 let. d LPD). For ease of reading, we will use the general term “ data ” hereafter to refer to “ personal data ” or  “personal information ”.

2. Who is responsible for processing your data ?

The sole proprietorship Gobat Legal, Dr. Sébastien Gobat (CHE-406.245.861), Schweizerhof-Passage 7, P.O. Box, 3001 Bern, is responsible for the data processing described in this data protection declaration.

You may contact us for any requests relating to data protection and the exercise of your rights in accordance with Article 9 below at the following address :

Gobat Legal – Me Sébastien Gobat

Schweizerhof-Passage 7

P.O. Box

CH-3001 Bern

+41 31 307 23 00

info@golegal.ch

3. What data do we process and for what purposes ?

a) Conclusion and execution of mandates

In the context of concluding and carrying out its mandates, Gobat Legal may process personal data provided by you, third parties or authorities, or collected directly by us, in particular from public registers or the Internet. This may include data relating to your identity (first name, surname, date of birth, etc.), your contact details (postal address, e-mail, telephone number, etc.), your personal, administrative or legal situation (marital status, nationality, criminal record, etc.), your duties (company, position, income, etc.), your state of health or your payment details.

We may also process data relating to any persons connected with the mandate (e.g. principals, opposing parties, agents, authority personnel, etc.). Depending on the mandate, this personal data may relate, for example, to the identity of individuals, their contact details, their functions, correspondence, their financial situation, their health, their family, administrative or legal situation, their employment relationships, etc.

This personal data is processed in connection with the conclusion and performance of our mandates, in order to provide our legal services, to document and invoice them and to meet our legal obligations.

b)Website and technical data

We collect and record technical information that your browser automatically transmits to us in “ server log files ” when you visit our website (www.golegal.ch). This may include the following data :

• browser type and version ;
• operating systems used ;
• referrer URL (the previously visited website) ;
• host name of the computer accessing the site ;
• date and time of server request ;
• IP address ;
• quantity of data transmitted ;
• other similar data and information used to prevent risks in the event of an attack on our IT systems.

To ensure the functionality of our website, we may also assign you or your terminal an individual code (e.g. in the form of a cookie). As long as these cookies are necessary and we have decided not to use other types of cookies (e.g. targeted advertising cookies), your consent is not required to visit our website.

We use technical data for the following purposes :

• to enable the website to be displayed, operated and functioned ;
• ensure the stability and security of the system ;
• to improve and protect our services and products ;
• for statistical purposes in the event of an attack on the network infrastructure on which the site is made available. 

c) Information on our activities, newsletter and other publications

If you are already a client of our law office or if you have given us your consent, we may use your personal information such as your name and contact details (including your e-mail address) to inform you about publications, events, news, new services or products that may be of interest to you.

4. Who do we send your data to ?

We may transfer your data to the following categories of potential recipients, in accordance with the purposes described in point 3 above :

• Service providers : who process personal data on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions (e.g. IT, hosting and support service providers, trustees, experts, shipping and logistics companies, etc.) ;
• Administrative and judicial authorities : we may transmit personal data to administrations, courts and other authorities in Switzerland and abroad in connection with the performance of our mandates, if we are legally obliged or authorized to do so, or if it appears necessary in order to protect our interests ;
• Other persons : in cases where the involvement of third parties derives from the purposes described in point 3 above.

All these categories of recipients may in turn use third parties, so that your data may also be accessible to them. We may restrict processing by certain third parties (e.g. IT service providers), but not others (e.g. authorities, banks, etc.).

5. Is your data transferred abroad ?

All customer data is processed on the LawDesk cloud solution, which is operated on behalf of Weblaw AG by SmartIT Services AG, Berne, on servers located in Switzerland. As indicated in point 4 above, the processing of your data may, however, require it to be transmitted to third parties. These third parties are not necessarily all located in Switzerland. It is therefore possible that some of your data may be transferred abroad.

If data is transferred to a country that does not offer an adequate level of data protection, we will ensure, prior to the transfer, that the recipient or our partners and service providers concerned undertake to comply with the European Union’s standard contractual clauses, if necessary with additional measures.

We would also like to inform you that due to technical rules intrinsically linked to the operation of the network, it is not impossible that the transmission of personal data via the Internet between persons or entities located in the same country may transit through other countries. Such transits are beyond our control.

6. How long will your data be kept ?

We process your data for as long as required by the purposes for which it is to be used or as long as storage is technically necessary. In principle, your files are archived for a period of 10 years after the end of the mandate. However, we may need to process and retain personal data for a longer or shorter period if we are obliged to do so (e.g. due to legal or contractual retention and documentation obligations) or if we have a legitimate interest in doing so (e.g. for evidential purposes, to assert, exercise or defend legal claims until the expiry of limitation periods, which are generally five to ten years), or if you request its return or erasure where possible.

7. Security

Gobat Legal has taken organizational, technical and legal measures to ensure the security and confidentiality of your data. These measures are designed to protect your data against unauthorized or unlawful processing, accidental loss, alteration, disclosure or unauthorized access. These measures are taken on the basis of the risks presented to you by the processing carried out and the sensitive or non-sensitive nature of the data concerned. We are constantly striving to improve these measures in order to preserve the security of your personal data.

Please note that e-mail is not a secure means of communication. If you choose to communicate personal data (in particular sensitive data) with Gobat Legal, such communication takes place under your own and sole responsibility. We therefore assume that persons who communicate with Gobat Legal by e-mail agree to this method of communication and consent to the use of e-mails by Gobat Legal to respond to their requests and other solicitations.

We may use external service providers to collect and process your data. However, they are obliged to comply strictly with our instructions when processing your personal data. They are also legally obliged to take appropriate security measures to guarantee the security and confidentiality of your data.

8. Third-party confidentiality declarations

Please note that by clicking on a link to a third-party site or by interacting with us on social networks (in particular on LinkedIn or X), you will be redirected to a site that we do not control. In such cases, our privacy statement no longer applies. Your activities and interactions on another website or platform are subject to the individual terms of use, declarations and data protection policies of the third-party provider concerned. Furthermore, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of these external links.

We strongly encourage you to carefully read the terms of use and data protection statements of other websites and platforms before providing any personal information through them. Please note that we cannot be held responsible in any way whatsoever for the information and processing of your personal data on these third-party sites and platforms.

9. What are your rights ?

Data protection law gives you the right, under certain conditions, to object to certain processing of your data or to request that it be restricted. To enable you to exercise due control over the processing of your personal data by us, you have the following rights :

• the right to ask us for information about your personal data that we process and for a copy of that data ;
• the right to ask us to correct or complete data if it is incorrect or incomplete ;
• the right to ask us to delete your data, unless a legal basis or our legitimate interest requires or authorizes us to keep your data for longer ;
• the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your data ;
• the right to withdraw consent insofar as it relates to processing for which your consent was required ;
• the right to notify us at any time of your objection to any further processing, unless, for example, a legal basis or our legitimate interest obliges or authorizes us to continue the processing ;
• the right to ask us for your data in a portable format when your data is processed automatically, on the basis of your consent or a contract.

If you wish to exercise the aforementioned rights against us, please contact us in writing or by e-mail at the address indicated in point 2. In order to exclude any misuse, we must however be able to identify you (for example : by means of a copy of your identity card, unless it is possible to identify you in some other way). Please note that the exercise of your rights may be subject to conditions, exceptions or limitations under the applicable data protection legislation.

If you wish to contest the way in which we process your data or if you wish to exercise your rights, you may contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) in Bern.

10.Changes to our privacy policy

We reserve the right to amend this data protection declaration at any time. The version published on this website will always be considered the current version.

Last updated : September 2024