Privacy notice for Law Society volunteers and elected and appointed members (EAMs)

Who we are

The Law Society of England and Wales is the data controller in relation to the processing activities described below. This means that we decide why and how your personal information is processed.

Our registered address is 113 Chancery Lane, London, England WC2A 1PL. The Society is incorporated by Royal Charter, number RC000304.

Our Head of Risk and Assurance is responsible for our data protection function. You can find contact details for our Risk and Assurance team at the end of this policy.

What information we collect

When you apply to volunteer or become an elected or appointed member of our Council, Boards or one of our committees, we may collect the following personal data from you:

• name, address, email, and phone number
• relevant experience, and volunteering interests
• information relating to your health or accessibility needs if special adjustments are required
• your computer’s IP address if you attend online meetings
• your image and voice if you are participating in online meetings which are being recorded and have not chosen to disable your microphone or camera
• your image in photographs taken to record or publicise Law Society events (but you will always be notified when photographers are present and given the opportunity not to be photographed if you wish)
• your photograph if we need to issue you with a security pass allowing access to 113 Chancery Lane
• your prior criminal convictions in some circumstances
• information on your ethnicity or other geographical or demographic information to allow us to assess your eligibility to stand or vote in certain council elections
• personal data relating to your gender and ethnicity should you wish to participate in any of our diversity surveys or EDI initiatives
• data relating to your trade union membership or political or religious affiliations if this is required for any conflict of interest disclosures
• your bank details if we need to settle expense claims or pay other sums due to you

Personal information we may receive from other sources

The Solicitors Regulation Authority

We may obtain certain personal information about our members and other regulated individuals from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

The SRA is part of the Law Society Group but operates separately from it, as required by the Legal Services Act 2007.

This information is collected by the SRA in the exercise of its regulatory functions and is shared with us to allow us to fulfil our statutory role under the Legal Services Act 2007, as well as for professional body membership purposes in the pursuit of our legitimate interests, for example, to validate and maintain our volunteer register and to vet candidates for certain volunteering activities and EAM roles. We may also consult other publicly available sources for this purpose.

Why we collect your data

We collect your data to:

• process your application and assess your suitability for volunteering
• assess your eligibility for an EAM role which will include processing your application and, if you are standing for election to a council seat or are eligible to vote for a characteristic seat, processing your personal data for the purposes of administering this process
• communicate with you about your volunteer or EAM role
• ensure your safety and wellbeing while volunteering, carrying out an EAM role, or visiting our premises at 113 Chancery Lane
• allow us to record online meetings or interviews for record making purposes
• meet our legal and safeguarding obligations

Legal basis for processing

We process your personal data under the following legal bases:

• consent – where you have given clear unambiguous consent for us to process your data
• legal obligation – to comply with all safeguarding and health and safety laws in force from time to time
• legitimate interests – to manage our volunteer programme effectively and allow our members to participate in the governance of the Law Society

Data anonymisation and use of aggregated information

Your information may be converted into statistical or aggregated data for analytical and research purposes. This is done in such a way as to ensure that you are not identified or identifiable from it. Aggregated data cannot be linked back to you personally.

How we store and protect your data

Your data is stored securely and only accessible to authorised staff. We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information from unauthorised access, loss, or misuse.

How long we keep your data

We will retain your personal data until:

• the purpose for which it was collected has been fulfilled; or
• as long as is necessary to manage our volunteering relationship with you but if you withdraw from our volunteer programme, we will delete your data no later than 12 months from the date of your withdrawal or earlier upon request; or
• you have ceased to be an EAM but please note that certain information evidencing your tenure as an EAM and/or your participation in the governance of the Law Society such as your contribution to Council, committee or board meetings, may be retained permanently in the Law Society archives; or
• as long as is necessary to meet any legal or statutory requirements

Participants at online meetings will be informed whether a meeting is being recorded and will be given the option to turn off their microphone and/or camera at the start of the meeting.

Recordings will be deleted as soon as reasonably practicable after the relevant notes have been transcribed but in any event no later than three months after the meeting took place.

Please note that this retention information only applies to the data we hold relating to your role as a volunteer or EAM.

It does not affect the way in which we process or retain personal data relating to your membership of the Law Society.

For further information, see our main privacy policy linked at the beginning of this notice.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• access your personal data by asking us to send you a copy of any personal data we hold relating to you
• request the correction or deletion of any personal data we hold relating to you subject to certain exceptions under current data protection law
• withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data by the Law Society at any time although whether we are able to fully fulfil your request will depend on the circumstances at the date of the request
• lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with the way we are processing your personal data

Changes to this policy

We will review this policy from time to time and any major changes will be notified to you.

However, we recommend that you regularly check this notice for changes and review it whenever you visit our volunteer website.

If you are unhappy with any of the updates, please let us know as soon as possible as it may be necessary for you to withdraw from our volunteer or EAMs programme if we are unable to accommodate your concerns.

Contact us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcome.

Please direct any queries about this policy or about the way we process your personal information to the Risk and Assurance team using the contact details below.

If you wish to write to us, please write to us at:

Information Compliance Manager
Risk & Assurance
The Law Society
113 Chancery Lane
London WC2A 1PL

Our email address for data protection queries is informationcompliance@lawsociety.org.uk.

This privacy notice was last updated on 30 October 2025.