Introduction

Phillips Lytle LLP ( “we,” “us,” or “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy and safeguarding the information you provide to us through our websites at www.phillipslytle.com, www.thephillipslytleway.com, www.environmentallawpost.com, and www.renewableenergypost.com (“Websites”). This information may include, but is not limited to, personally identifiable information such as your name, company, address, other contact information, for example, telephone number, fax number, email address, and other similar information, title or position in a company or an organization, occupation, industry, personal interests, or any other information needed to provide a service that you have requested. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes how we collect, use, and disclose your information.

Collection of Information

Generally, you are able to use our Websites without providing any personally identifiable information, however, at times, in connection with your use of the Websites, you may wish to voluntarily provide us with your personally identifiable information. In addition, we may collect other information that may automatically be provided to us by your internet service provider as a result of your visit to our Websites, information regarding your use of the Websites through the use of cookies (described below), and information from other sources such as our business partners. Such other information may include, but is not limited to, the date and time of your visit, your IP addresses, your browser type, your operating system and language, the pages you visited, and the address of the website from which you came.

Examples of scenarios where our visitors provide their personally identifiable information include, but may not be limited, to:

  • Emailing, calling or communicating with a lawyer at our law firm.
  • Posting a question or comment through the site.
  • Requesting literature.
  • Registering to attend a seminar or any event.
  • Participating in an online survey.
  • Requesting inclusion in an email or other mailing list.
  • Submitting an entry for a contest or other promotions.
  • Logging in to the site, thus requiring a user name and/or a password.
  • Any other business-related reason.

We provide you the opportunity to agree or decline to give your personally identifiable information via the internet. We will inform you of the purpose for the collection and we do not intend to transfer your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except under the limited conditions described under the section entitled “Use and Disclosure of Information” below. If you choose to provide us with your personally identifiable information, we may transfer that information within our law firm or to a third party service provider as necessary.

No Collection of Children’s Personally identifiable information

Our Websites are intended for general audiences at least 18 years old and for commercial use. We do not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen (13). By using the Websites you certify that you are over the age of 13. We reserve the right to delete any information we believe to be in violation of this Privacy Policy.

Use and Disclosure of Information

By submitting any information to our Websites you acknowledge and agree that you have no expectation of privacy, confidentiality, or privilege in such information and you consent to our use and disclosure of such information in any manner permitted by law. We will use your personally identifiable information to provide you with the information you have requested from us. We may also use your personally identifiable information to keep you informed about events, services, or publications that may interest you. We will only share information with a third party upon your consenting to share your information to a third party service provider working on our behalf to serve you. In addition, we may use your information to evaluate whether or not we represent you, and to provide you with legal services if you become our client. Our uses and disclosures of information may include, but will not be limited to, managing our Websites, diagnosing problems with our server, assisting with technical problems, and enforcing compliance with this Privacy Policy and our Terms & Conditions. We may disclose information if we are under a duty to disclose in order to comply with any legal or regulatory obligation and to protect our rights or the rights or safety of others.

Cookies

When you access our Websites, we may place a “cookie” on your computer’s hard drive. A cookie is a file that a website can store on your web browser, computer, or device and later retrieve. A cookie allows our Websites to recognize you as a prior user, provide our Websites with information regarding your use, and helps us determine the portions of our Websites that are best suited for you.

Some parts of the Websites may also use cookies to track user traffic patterns. We do this in order to determine the usefulness of our Websites’ information to our users and to see how effective our navigational structure is in helping users reach that information. Please note that cookies cannot read data off of your hard drive. Your web browser may allow you to be notified when you are receiving a cookie, giving you the choice to accept it or not. If you prefer not to receive cookies while browsing our Websites, you can set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies and refuse the cookie when your browser alerts you to its presence. You can also refuse all cookies by turning them off in your browser. However, by not accepting cookies, some pages may not fully function and you may not be able to access certain information on this site.

To opt-out of certain advertising cookies, you may wish to visit the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) website by visiting http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.

Web Beacons

We may use pixel tags (also known as pixel gifs or web beacons) and other methods to gather information about the emails we send to our clients. Pixel tags are tiny graphic files that are included in our HTML-encoded email messages. When such a message is opened in an HTML-capable email program, the recipient’s computer will access our servers to retrieve the pixel tag file, allowing us to record and store information such as email address, date and time the recipient viewed the email message, if the recipient’s email program is capable of receiving HTML, and other logging information. We may use this information to optimize delivery of future messages to specific recipients.

Online Tracking / Do Not Track Signals

“Do Not Track” (DNT) signals are options available on your browser to tell operators of websites that you do not wish to have your online activity tracked. We do not track our visitors over time and across third party websites to provide targeted advertising and therefore we do not respond to Do Not Track signals. Further, our Websites do not allow any other parties to collect personally identifiable information in connection with your online activities over time or across websites. However, some third party sites do keep track of your browsing activities when they serve you content, which enables them to tailor what they present to you. If you are visiting such sites, your internet browser may allow you to set the DNT signal on your browser so that third parties (particularly advertisers) know you do not want to be tracked.

Your Access to Information

If you would like to access or modify your personally identifiable information, or discontinue our use of your personally identifiable information, please contact us in writing as described below. We will make every reasonable effort to provide you with access and to modify your personally identifiable information as soon as reasonably practicable. In addition, we will make every reasonable effort to discontinue our use of your personally identifiable information as soon as reasonable practicable, provided, however, we may need to retain some or all of your personally identifiable information to comply with laws, regulations, to resolve disputes, analyze problems, assist with investigations, enforce our policies, and take other actions otherwise permitted or required by law.

Social Media Platforms

Our Websites include social media features, like a Facebook login button for allowing users to share Phillips Lytle news articles. These features may collect information about your IP address and which page you are visiting on our site, and they may set a cookie to make sure the feature functions properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our site. We also maintain presences on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Any information, communications, or materials you submit to us via a social media platform is done at your own risk without any expectation of privacy. We cannot control the actions of other users of these platforms or the actions of the platforms themselves. Your interactions with those features and platforms are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide them.

We Operate in the United States

If you use the Websites outside of the Unites States or are a citizen or resident of a country other than the United States that has laws and policies governing the disclosure and management of your personally identifiable information, you understand and agree that the information you exchange with the Websites may be maintained indefinitely on systems located within the United States. By using the Websites, you understand and consent to the collection, storage, processing, and transfer of your information to our facilities in the United States and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this policy.

Information Security; No Liability

We strive to protect your personally identifiable information; however, we urge you to take every precaution to protect your personally identifiable information when you are on the internet.

We will maintain security measures in order to protect and safeguard your information. Unfortunately, information transferred over the internet is not completely secure. Accordingly, we do not guarantee that your information will not be misused or disclosed to third parties. You acknowledge and agree that any transmission of information to our Websites is made at your own risk. We will have no liability to you for any misuse or disclosure of your information. If you share information with third parties via our Websites, you do so at your own risk. Any such information you share with the third party will not be governed by this Privacy Policy and we have no liability to you with respect to such information.

You understand that electronic communications may be accessed by unauthorized parties when communicated across the internet, network communications facilities, or other electronic means. You understand and agree that we are not responsible for any electronic communication or any of your information which may be lost, altered, intercepted, or stored without authorization during the transmission of any data whatsoever across networks not owned or operated by us.

Changes

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy, at any time, without notice to you; provided, however, that any changes will only apply to information collected after such changes go into effect.

This Privacy Policy has an Effective Date of June 23, 2016.

Questions and Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or if you need assistance regarding your information, please contact: Phillips Lytle LLP, One Canalside, 125 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, (716) 847-8400, Email: info@phillipslytle.com.