Alumni Privacy Policy

People leave law firms; the association does not entirely end. Former colleagues become clients, referrers, judges, regulators, and friends of the firm, and a firm that values its people keeps a way of reaching them. This policy states what The First Counsel holds about its alumni, why, and on what terms — including the terms on which any alumnus can ask to be left alone. It takes effect on [EFFECTIVE DATE — ON PUBLICATION] and speaks as at that date. As at that date, Pakistan has no comprehensive personal-data-protection statute in force; the firm applies the standards below as a matter of professional practice, and will conform this policy to comprehensive legislation when it is enacted. Where this policy is silent, the firm's website Privacy Policy applies.

1. Who counts as alumni

1.1 For the purposes of this policy, "alumni" means the people who once worked at The First Counsel (the "firm", "we", "us") and no longer do: former partners, counsel, and associates; former business-services staff; and former interns who completed an internship with the firm.

1.2 The definition is about fact, not sentiment. A person is an alumnus because they worked here, whatever the circumstances of their departure. Participation in anything beyond that fact — the network, the communications, the reunions — is voluntary, as sections 3 and 6 explain.

1.3 This policy does not apply to: (a) current partners, lawyers, and staff, whose information is governed by their terms of employment or engagement; (b) unsuccessful applicants, whose information is governed by the firm's Recruitment Privacy Policy; or (c) the firm's clients, whose information is governed by their engagement terms and by the professional obligations of advocates.

2. What we hold

2.1 About each alumnus, the firm holds a short record drawn from its own knowledge: name, the dates of service, and the roles held. This much the firm knows because it happened here, and it holds this record about every alumnus.

2.2 Beyond that, the firm holds only what the alumnus chooses to maintain: current contact details — an email address, a telephone number, a city — kept up to date voluntarily by the alumnus, and professional milestones the alumnus shares with the firm, such as a new position, an elevation to the bench, an enrolment, or a publication. The firm records these because the alumnus told it; it does not go looking. The firm does not monitor alumni on social media and does not buy or scrape information to fill gaps in its records.

2.3 The firm also keeps a record of each alumnus's communication preferences, including any opt-out, so that a stated preference is honoured rather than forgotten.

2.4 What the firm holds under this policy is deliberately thin. The thicker file — the personnel file — exists separately, on different terms, and section 5 draws that line.

3. Purposes

3.1 The firm uses alumni information for four purposes:

(a) the professional network — staying in contact with former colleagues, as law firms have always done, because the relationship between a firm and its former people outlasts the employment;

(b) references, with consent — responding to reference and verification requests concerning the alumnus, on the strict terms in section 9, and never without consent;

(c) conflicts checking — this one deserves a plain explanation. Before the firm accepts a matter, professional duty requires it to check for conflicts, and a conflict can arise from work a lawyer did years ago, before leaving. The firm must therefore be able to trace which lawyers worked on which past matters, indefinitely. That record concerns the firm's matters, and the alumnus's involvement in them, and it exists because the duty to check conflicts does not expire when a lawyer departs. It is a genuine need of any law firm, and this policy states it rather than leaving it unspoken;

(d) communications — sending alumni the firm's announcements, invitations to reunions and events, and similar occasional correspondence, subject always to section 6.

3.2 The grounds, in the terms used in the website Privacy Policy: the firm's legitimate interest in maintaining its professional network and in meeting its professional obligations, and the alumnus's consent, where a use rests on it.

4. What we never do

4.1 The firm states plainly, as at the effective date, that:

(a) it does not sell, rent, trade, or license alumni information to anyone, for any consideration;

(b) it does not permit third-party marketing. No recruiter, vendor, event sponsor, or other outside party is given alumni contact details, and no communication is sent to alumni on a third party's behalf;

(c) it does not disclose personnel records through the alumni network. What an alumnus earned, why they left, and what their file contains is not available to other alumni, to employers, or to anyone else, except as section 5 and section 9 state;

(d) it does not publish alumni information — in directories, announcements, or marketing material — without the alumnus's consent to the specific use.

4.2 If the firm ever proposes to depart from any statement in this section, it will amend this policy before the departure takes effect, and the departure will be explicit.

5. The personnel-file distinction

5.1 Two bodies of information exist about every alumnus, and they must not be confused.

5.2 The first is the personnel file: the employment records generated during service — contracts, remuneration and payroll records, tax and statutory-contribution filings, leave records, appraisals, and any disciplinary record. These are retained because employment law, tax law, and prudent practice require it, for the periods those obligations prescribe [STATUTORY RETENTION PERIODS — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM], whether or not the alumnus wants anything further to do with the firm. They are held under the firm's personnel-records practices, accessible only to those who administer them, and they are not part of the alumni network.

5.3 The second is the alumni network data described in section 2: thin, voluntary, and maintained for the purposes in section 3. It can be reduced to the bare record in clause 2.1 at the alumnus's request.

5.4 The distinction matters in both directions. Opting out of the network does not touch the personnel file, because statute and professional duty, not preference, govern that file. And membership of the network gives no one — including the alumnus's future employers — a route into the personnel file. Requests concerning the personnel file itself are dealt with under the firm's personnel-records practices, not under this policy.

6. Communications and opting out

6.1 Every communication the firm sends to alumni — announcement, invitation, newsletter, or reunion notice — carries a working means of opting out, and states plainly that it does.

6.2 An opt-out is honoured promptly on receipt and applies to all future alumni communications unless the alumnus specifies otherwise. No reason is required, none is asked for, and opting out carries no consequence beyond silence — an alumnus who opts out remains an alumnus, remains welcome, and can opt back in with one email.

6.3 Opting out of communications does not erase the records that other obligations require: the bare record in clause 2.1, the conflicts records in clause 3.1(c), and the personnel file in section 5. What it ends is the correspondence.

6.4 The firm sends alumni communications itself, from its own systems, to the contact details the alumnus provided. As at the effective date it uses no external mailing platform for them; if it adopts one, this policy will be amended to name the provider first.

7. Retention

7.1 Alumni network data (clause 2.2) is held for as long as the alumnus remains in the network — that is, until the alumnus asks for its removal or the firm learns the details are defunct. It is reviewed at reasonable intervals and pruned when contact has lapsed.

7.2 The bare record of name, dates of service, and roles (clause 2.1) is held indefinitely. A firm cannot honestly forget who worked at it, and this record is also the minimum needed to answer the verification requests in section 9 and to keep an opt-out effective.

7.3 Conflicts records are held for as long as the firm operates its conflicts procedures, which may be indefinite, for the reasons in clause 3.1(c).

7.4 Personnel files are held for the statutory and prudential periods referred to in clause 5.2, and then disposed of under the firm's personnel-records practices.

7.5 A period in this section yields where a law in force requires longer retention, or where litigation or a regulatory process is pending or reasonably anticipated, in which case the material is held until the matter concludes.

8. Rights

8.1 An alumnus may ask the firm:

(a) access — what alumni network data the firm holds about them, and for a copy of it;

(b) correction — to correct details that are wrong or out of date, which the firm positively welcomes, since a network of stale addresses serves no one;

(c) deletion — to remove their voluntary network data, leaving only the records that clauses 6.3 and 7.2 to 7.4 describe;

(d) objection — to stop a particular use, including any use of their name in firm materials.

8.2 The procedure is that in section 11 of the website Privacy Policy: write to [email protected] with the subject line "Privacy request — alumni". The firm will acknowledge within 7 days and respond substantively within 30 days of verifying identity — a step the firm takes seriously here, because impersonating an alumnus is one plausible route to the very disclosures section 4 rules out.

8.3 The limits are those stated in this policy: conflicts records, statutory personnel records, and the bare record of service are retained on the grounds already given, and a request cannot reach information that belongs to the firm's clients or to other people.

9. References and verification requests from future employers

9.1 Prospective employers, professional bodies, and background-checking services ask firms to confirm the history of people who once worked there. The firm's position is uniform: it responds only with the alumnus's consent, given in writing or evidenced by the requester, or where a law in force compels a response.

9.2 A request arriving without evidence of consent receives the firm's standard reply: the firm neither confirms nor denies that the person worked here, and invites the requester to have the person concerned contact the firm directly. Silence about everyone protects everyone.

9.3 With consent, the firm confirms fact: dates of service, roles held, and — where the alumnus asks for a fuller reference and a partner is willing to give one — an assessment agreed in substance with the alumnus before it is sent. What the firm does not do, with or without consent, is disclose the contents of the personnel file: remuneration, appraisal detail, and the circumstances of departure are not offered, and a requester who wants more than confirmation of fact and the agreed reference will not get it from the firm.

9.4 The firm keeps a record of each reference and verification given, and of the consent on which it rested, so that it can account later for what was said and on whose authority.

10. Changes

10.1 The firm will amend this policy when its practices change — including the adoption of any mailing platform (clause 6.4) — and when Pakistani law changes, above all on the enactment of comprehensive data-protection legislation.

10.2 Amendments take effect on publication on the firm's website with a new effective date. A material change — a new use of alumni data, a new disclosure, or any departure from section 4 — will be flagged prominently and will not be applied to information already held without a lawful basis.

11. Contact

11.1 Questions, requests, and complaints under this policy should be addressed to:

The First Counsel Attention: [PARTNER RESPONSIBLE FOR DATA PROTECTION — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM] 8th Floor, Askari Corporate Towers, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan Email: [email protected] (subject line "Privacy — alumni") Telephone: [TELEPHONE — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM]

11.2 The firm will acknowledge a complaint within 7 days and respond substantively within 30 days. A complainant dissatisfied with the response may ask for review by a partner not involved in the original reply. As at the effective date Pakistan has no data-protection authority; if one is constituted, this clause will be updated with its details.