Under federal regulations passed pursuant to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, all persons, including attorneys, who provide advice on personal financial matters (which is broadly defined) are now required to inform clients of their policies regarding privacy of client information. IP & Business Law Counseling, LLC is providing this notice to you to explain my Privacy Policy with regard to personal information about you that I obtain and how I keep that information secure.

I understand your concerns as a client regarding the need to ensure the privacy of all your information. Your privacy is important to me and maintaining your trust and confidence is a high priority of IP & Business Law Counseling, LLC. Of course, I have and continue to be bound by professional standards of conduct that are more stringent than those required by this new law. Therefore, I have always protected your right to privacy. I shall continue to maintain the highest level of confidentiality for confidential client information as well as information that is protected by the attorney-client privilege.

 

Information I Collect:

I collect personal information about you from the following sources:

  • Information I receive from you in written, electronic, and other forms of communication.
  • Information about your transactions with me.
  • Information I receive from other persons or entities in connection with my representation of you.

 
I do not disclose any personal information about my clients or former clients to anyone, except as permitted by law and any applicable state ethics rules.

 

Confidentiality and Security

Personal information about you is restricted to me and other employees within my firm. The right of those individuals to further disclose or use the information is strictly limited by the policies of my firm, applicable laws, and applicable state ethics rules. I maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with applicable laws and applicable state ethics rules to guard your personal information.

In addition to using electronic backup software and hardware on my office computer, I use the remote services of Carbonite Online Backup (Carbonite, Inc., 177 Huntington Ave., 15th Floor, Boston, MA, 02115) to backup all client documents I store electronically on my office computer.

Modern modes of communications include electronic mail (“e-mail”). E-mail is inexpensive, fast, and efficient. E-mail also, unfortunately, may increase the risk that communications between attorney and client might end up where they were not intended, for example, if the wrong button is pushed. In extreme cases, this could cause a loss of confidentiality or privilege with respect to our communications. Of course, I endeavor to avoid such inadvertent disclosure, and I am sure you do also. The only way to eliminate the increased risk of such disclosure is not to use e-mail communications at all. We have agreed that I may communicate with you via e-mail concerning all matters in connection with this representation.

 

 

If you have any questions about my firm’s Privacy Policy, contact George W. Cox, Ph.D., Esquire c/o IP & Business Law Counseling, LLC at 6902 Southridge Place, Middletown, MD 21769.