We are committed to protecting your personal information.
This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during the recruitment process and applies to all candidates. Whenever we collect and use personal information, we keep to UK data-protection laws and regulations.
This privacy notice is for information only. It is not a contractual agreement.
What information we collect
If you apply for a job, we will collect, store and use the following personal information about you.
- The information you provide in your CV and covering letter or email
- Any information you provide during an interview
If we offer you a job, we will store and use the personal information that we collect from:
- checks into your right to work in the UK;
- DBS screening (a criminal-record check);
- a credit check; and
- references and background checks, such as your past employment, registration with regulatory bodies and certificates.
In certain circumstances, we may check your LinkedIn account and other business-related or public profiles on social media.
We may also collect, store and use the following ‘special categories’ of sensitive information.
- Information about your race or ethnic background, religious beliefs, sexual orientation (who you are attracted to sexually and romantically) and political opinions
- Information about your health, including any medical conditions and your health and sickness record with previous employers
- Information about your criminal record
We may collect personal information from the following sources.
- You
- Job-search and recruitment agencies
- The provider of background checks
- Credit reference agencies
- Your referees
- Publicly available sources (for example, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the CILEX directory, LinkedIn and social media)
Why we process personal information
We need to process personal information to deal with your application and to enter into a contract with you if we offer you a job.
In some cases, we need to process personal information to meet our legal and regulatory obligations. For example, we must check a person’s right to work in the UK before their employment starts.
As a firm of solicitors, we must maintain public trust and confidence, and meet regulatory requirements. This means that we have a legitimate interest in processing personal information during the recruitment process, and in keeping records of the recruitment process. Processing personal information allows us to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm an applicant’s suitability for the job, and decide who to offer the job to. In line with SRA guidance, we use personal information to vet staff and partners. We may also need to process personal information to respond to and defend against legal claims.
We process health information if we need to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for you. This is to meet our obligations and exercise specific rights that relate to employment.
If we process other special categories of personal information, this is for monitoring equal opportunities. We are entitled to carry out a criminal-record check to make sure that there is nothing in your criminal record (if you have one) which makes you unsuitable for the role you have applied for. We use a third party to carry out this check on our behalf, and they may give us a copy of their report if you have given permission for this.
We will only use your personal information for the recruitment process relating to the job you have applied for.
Who has access to your personal information
We will share your personal information internally for the purposes of the recruitment process. This includes with members of the HR and recruitment teams, interviewers, managers in the business area the vacancy is in, and IT staff who need access to the information to perform their roles.
If you applied for the job online through our candidate portal, this is securely hosted by a third-party provider and your personal information will be held within that third party’s system. The third-party provider does not have direct access to your personal information but there may be limited circumstances where, in order to investigate an enquiry, issue or complaint, the provider may need access to the information.
We will not share your personal information with other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your personal information with:
- former employers, to get references for you;
- the provider we use to carry out employment checks and other background checks, including a criminal-record check; and
- credit reference agencies.
All our third-party service providers must take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies.
How we protect personal information
We take the security of your personal information seriously. We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used, altered, shared or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to the employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who need it for business reasons. They will only process your personal information as instructed by us, and must keep the information confidential.
We have procedures in place to deal with any incident that we suspect has affected the confidentiality of information, and will tell you and any appropriate regulator about this if we have to do so by law.
AI in recruitment
Applicants for any vacancy can use AI to research the company and how to respond to any questions in the application. However, all responses must be accurate and the final application must not simply be copied from AI or any other source. If AI has been used to complete an entire application, or part of it, we will reject the application.
Transferring information outside the UK or EEA
We do not think we will need to transfer your personal information outside the EU during the recruitment process.
If we ever do need to transfer your personal information outside the UK or EEA, we will put appropriate measures in place to make sure that your personal information is protected in a way that is consistent with UK laws on data protection. You can get further details by emailing our Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@clarkewillmott.com.
How long we keep personal information for
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, we will keep your personal information on file for 12 months after the end of the recruitment process. After this period, we will destroy your personal information in line with our data retention policy.
If we want to keep your personal information on file in case we can offer you an opportunity for a position in the future, we will write to you separately to ask for your permission to keep your personal information for a fixed period. You can withdraw your permission at any time by contacting a member of our Recruitment Team.
We may need to keep your information for longer, for example if we employ you. You can ask for more information by emailing dataprotection@clarkewillmott.com.
If your job application is successful, the personal information we gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file, where it will be kept for the period set out in our Staff and Member Privacy notice.
Your rights
You have the following rights relating to your personal information.
- The right to get copies of your personal information
- The right to get your personal information corrected
- The right to get your personal information deleted
- The right to limit how we can use your personal information
- The right to stop or prevent us from using your personal information
If you want more information on your rights, or want to exercise any of them, please email our Data Protection Officer (Kat Quinton) at dataprotection@clarkewillmott.com or write to them at:
Blackbrook Gate
Blackbrook Park Avenue
Taunton
TA1 2PG.
If you think that we have not met our obligation in connection with your rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which regulates and enforces data-protection law in the UK. Go to www.ico.org.uk for more information.
What happens if you do not provide the personal information we need
You do not have to provide the personal information we ask for during the recruitment process. However, if you don’t provide the information, we may not be able to process your application properly or at all.
You may be asked to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring. Not providing that information will not affect your application.
Automated decision-making
Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making (decisions being made about you without people being involved).
Changes to this privacy notice
We can update this privacy notice at any time.
Complaints about how we handle your information
If you believe that we have broken your data-protection or privacy rights, you can complain to us direct by emailing our Data Protection Officer (Kat Quinton) at dataprotection@clarkewillmott.com or writing to them at:
Blackbrook Gate
Blackbrook Park Avenue
Taunton
TA1 2PG.
If you are not happy with our response, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can find details about how to do this at www.ico.org.uk.
If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer.
Last updated: November 2025
By: Kat Quinton, DPO
Approved by: Daniel Jones, Director of HR
