LERNERS PRIVACY STATEMENT

Lerners LLP and its affiliated entities (“Lerners”, “we”, “us”, or “the firm”) remain committed to safeguarding the privacy, accuracy, and security of the Personal Information entrusted to us. This Privacy Statement explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain, protect, and otherwise Process Personal Information, including by means of software that utilizes artificial intelligence. It replaces and supersedes all previous versions of our Privacy Statement.

DEFINITIONS

For ease of reference, capitalized terms have the following meanings:

Personal Information – information about an identifiable individual, or information that allows an individual to be identified, as defined in applicable privacy legislation. Business contact information is generally not regarded as Personal Information.

Process / Processing / Processed – any operation or set of operations performed on Personal Information, whether or not by automated means, including collection, use, disclosure, transfer, storage, retention, analysis, alteration, restriction, or deletion.

Artificial Intelligence Software (“AI Software”) – computer systems, tools, or applications employing machine learning, natural-language processing, predictive analytics, generative functionality, or other forms of algorithmic logic that enable the automated or semi-automated analysis or generation of data, content, or insights. AI Software may be developed and hosted internally by Lerners or provided by carefully selected third party vendors.

Consent

In most instances, your consent is required for the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information for specified purposes. Unless an exception recognized by law applies, we endeavour to obtain Consent at or before the time of collection. An individual who lacks legal capacity (for example, a minor or a person whose decision-making ability is seriously impaired) must have Consent provided by an authorized representative (e.g. legal guardian). If you give us Personal Information about another individual, you confirm that you have the authority and Consent of that individual to do so.

By providing Personal Information to Lerners, including through digital platforms that incorporate AI Software, you consent to our Processing of that information as set out in this Privacy Statement or as otherwise permitted or required by law.

You may withdraw or limit your Consent to our Processing of your Personal Information at any time by writing to the Chief Privacy Officer at the address provided below. A withdrawal or limitation of Consent may affect our ability to continue providing certain legal services, advice, or information.

Where legislation allows us to Process Personal Information without Consent, we will document and rely on the relevant statutory exception.

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DOES LERNERS COLLECT?

During the course of our relationship, we may collect, generate, or receive any of the following categories of Personal Information:

  • biographical identifiers (e.g., name, address, telephone number, e-mail address);

  • demographic, lifestyle, or family details (e.g., marital status, dependants, leisure pursuits);

  • education and employment history;

  • financial, accounting, tax, or investment information;

  • health and medical information; and,

  • information posted by you to public or private online forums, social media sites, or collaboration tools.

We may also collect information that is required to effectively provide legal services to you, including Personal Information from and/or about family members, witnesses, beneficiaries, directors, officers, employees, adverse parties, investigators, experts, professional advisors, business partners, investors, shareholders, competitors and customers of our clients.

WHY DOES LERNERS COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We Process Personal Information for the purpose of providing professional legal services and for ancillary purposes necessary to the effective operation of the firm.

WHY DOES LERNERS COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

To provide professional legal services

In order to provide professional legal services to our clients, Lerners may use your Personal Information (including via AI Software) for the following purposes:

  • to run a conflict check in order to determine whether Lerners can represent an individual, corporation or organization;

  • to evaluate and investigate a potential legal issue;

  • to manage client relationships, provide legal advice, perform legal services, and fulfill legal services;

  • to share Personal Information to and from third parties for the purpose of providing legal services. Examples of third parties include opposing parties, opposing counsel, witnesses, treatment providers and experts;

  • as permitted by, and to comply with, any legal or regulatory requirements or provisions; and,

  • for any other purpose to which you consent.

To operate the firm

Lerners may also use your Personal Information (including via AI Software) for the purposes of, or in connection with, the following:

  • client account opening and other administrative purposes;

  • financial accounting and invoicing;

  • client relationship purposes, which may involve (i) contacting you to receive feedback on services; or (ii) administering our client relationship management process;

  • determining whether to establish and maintain commercial relationships with suppliers, vendors, and other third parties, including to issue invoices, administer accounts, collect and process payments, and to fulfill contractual obligations;

  • recruitment and business development purposes, including to contact and communicate with clients, suppliers and other third parties, and to conduct surveys, research and evaluations;

  • developing, enhancing, marketing, selling or otherwise providing Lerners products and services;

  • distributing our newsletters and other informational email communications, conference information and other material to individuals on our mail and email lists, including via third party mailing houses and email service providers;

  • developing and managing our internal precedent systems and databases;

  • detecting and protecting Lerners, our clients and other third parties against error, negligence, breach of contract, fraud, theft and other illegal activity;

  • receiving service from our professional advisors, such as lawyers, accountants and consultants; and,

  • protecting our rights and those of our clients.

Personal Information will not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with your consent, or as required by law. Lerners will obtain your consent, if your Personal Information is to be used for a purpose other than for which it was originally collected, used or disclosed.

USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION TO PROVIDE SERVICES TO OUR CLIENTS

In order to provide professional legal services to our clients, Lerners may use your Personal Information for the following non-exhaustive purposes:

  • to run a conflict check in order to determine whether Lerners can represent an individual, corporation or organization;

  • to evaluate and investigate a potential legal issue;

  • to manage client relationships, provide legal advice, perform legal services, and fulfill legal services;

  • to share Personal Information to and from third parties for the purpose of providing legal services. Examples of third parties include opposing parties, opposing counsel, witnesses, treatment providers and experts;

  • as permitted by, and to comply with, any legal or regulatory requirements or provisions; and,

  • for any other purpose to which you consent.

USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARE

We deploy AI Software solely to enhance the quality, efficiency, and consistency of our services and business functions. The principal ways in which AI Software may interact with Personal Information include:

  • Automated Conflict Searches and Client Due Diligence – AI-driven search tools may compare Personal Information provided by or about you against internal and external data sources to identify potential conflicts of interest or sanctions-related concerns.

  • Document Review, Disclosure, and Discovery – AI-assisted platforms may classify, de-duplicate, analyze, summarize, translate, or extract key information from large volumes of documents or data received in the course of litigation, arbitration, or transactional matters.

  • Legal Research and Drafting Support – generative AI and natural-language processing tools may suggest content, arguments, or citations which our lawyers subsequently review, verify, and refine.

  • Predictive Analytics and Case Strategy – machine-learning models may assist in evaluating litigation risk, estimating case timelines, or forecasting likely outcomes based on historical data.

  • Internal Knowledge Management – AI Software may index and tag anonymized or limited sets of matter data to facilitate precedent retrieval, template generation, and skills development.

  • Administrative Efficiencies – AI chatbots or automated workflow systems may assist with appointment scheduling, transcription, or routine client communications.

AI Software is operated under the supervision of qualified Lerners professionals, and no client will be subject to a decision producing legal or similarly significant effects based solely on automated Processing without meaningful human review.

We strive to ensure that Personal Information Processed by AI Software is accurate, relevant, and limited to what is strictly necessary.

TO WHOM DOES LERNERS DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

In delivering our services or operating our firm, we may disclose Personal Information to:

  • other members, partners, or employees of Lerners;

  • third party service providers, including providers of AI Software, information technology support, cloud hosting, transcription, translation, analytics, cybersecurity, and e-discovery;

  • opposing parties, opposing counsel, witnesses, experts, or consultants;

  • professional advisors such as auditors or insurers;

  • government authorities, tribunals, courts, or regulators (e.g., the Law Society of Ontario), where legally required;

  • financial institutions in connection with billing, credit checks and collections; or,

  • any other third party with your consent or as permitted or required by law.

We may engage third party service providers, some of which may use AI Software to assist in Processing Personal Information. Before sharing any Personal Information with these vendors, we conduct thorough security and privacy assessments to ensure that they meet our standards and comply with applicable privacy laws. These assessments evaluate the vendor’s data handling practices, security controls, and safeguards against unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. We only work with third parties who have demonstrated a commitment to protecting Personal Information and who have entered into contractual agreements that include appropriate privacy and data protection obligations.

WHERE IS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION STORED?

Personal Information under our control is stored in secure facilities or on secure servers located in Canada. Certain AI Software or cloud-based services may involve limited cross-border transfers of Personal Information to other jurisdictions for Processing. In such circumstances we implement contractual and technical safeguards designed to ensure that the level of protection is comparable to that required by Canadian privacy legislation.

HOW DOES LERNERS PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Lerners uses a range of physical, technological and organizational measures appropriate to the sensitivity of your Personal Information to ensure that it is kept secure. These measures include:

  • education and training to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of our privacy obligations when handling Personal Information;

  • administrative and technical controls to restrict access to Personal Information;

  • technological and security measures, including firewalls, multi-factor authentication, encryption and anti-virus software; and,

  • physical security measures, such as security passes to enter areas where Personal Information is stored or can be accessed.

Despite these safeguards, no method of electronic transmission or storage can be entirely secure. Once we receive Personal Information we use commercially reasonable efforts to protect it, but we cannot guarantee absolute security.

HOW LONG DOES LERNERS RETAIN YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We retain Personal Information for the longer of: (i) the period necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected; (ii) any retention period mandated by law, professional rules, or our insurers; (iii) the expiry of any limitation period for potential claims relating to the matter; or (iv) the duration set by our internal records-management schedule. AI-generated analytical data or derivative work product that does not contain Personal Information may be retained for longer periods to support precedent development, quality assurance, and research, provided that it is irreversibly de-identified or aggregated.

HOW TO MAKE AN INQUIRY ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

You have various rights in relation to your Personal Information. Specifically, you have a right to:

  • obtain confirmation that we are processing your Personal Information and request a copy of your Personal Information held by Lerners; and,

  • request that we update your Personal Information we hold about you or correct such Personal Information that you think is incomplete or inaccurate. If there is a disagreement about the accuracy of your Personal Information, a notation will be made to your Personal Information setting out your correction.

Inquiries related to your Personal Information may be directed to the Lerners Chief Privacy Officer (contact information below). Requests to exercise rights will be responded to within statutory time limits.

YOUR PRIVACY AND THE LERNERS WEBSITE

Cookies – When an individual visitor accesses the Lerners website, we may use a browser feature called a ‘cookie’ to collect information such as the type of internet browser and operating system the visitor uses, the domain name of the website from which the visitor came, date and duration of the visit, number of visits, average time spent on our website, pages viewed and number of cookies accumulated. A cookie is a small text file containing a unique identification number that identifies the visitor’s browser, but not necessarily the visitor, to our computers each time our website is visited. Unless a visitor specifically informs us (e.g. by registering for an event or sending us correspondence from the website), we will not know who the individual visitors are. In addition to the identified purposes described in our Privacy Statement, we may use this website information and share it with other organizations with whom we have a commercial relationship to measure the use of our website, to improve the functionality and content of the website and to facilitate usage by a visitor. Visitors can reset their browsers either to notify them when they have received a cookie or refuse to accept cookies. However, if a visitor refuses to accept cookies, they may not be able to use some of the features available on our website.

Online Communications – In order to provide our website visitors with a service or information, visitors may voluntarily submit Personal Information to us for purposes such as asking a question, obtaining information, reviewing or downloading a publication, subscribing to a newsletter or a mail or email list, participating in a seminar or other event, and participating in contests and surveys. If you are known to Lerners as a registered user of an online service, we may combine and store Personal Information about your use of our website and the online information you have provided with certain other information we may have collected.

Links – Our website may contain links to other websites which are provided as a convenience only. Visitors are advised that other third party websites may have different privacy policies and practices than Lerners, and we have no responsibility for such third party websites.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Lerners has appointed Alysia M. Christiaen as Chief Privacy Officer. Should you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Statement, including the firm’s use of AI Software, please contact:

Lerners LLP
Attention: Chief Privacy Officer
85 Dufferin Avenue, PO Box 2335
London, Ontario N6A 4G4
privacyofficer@lerners.ca
1.800.263.5583

CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY STATEMENT

We may amend this Privacy Statement from time to time to reflect technological developments, legal requirements, or changes in our practices. The “last revised” date will appear below. Continued interaction with Lerners after such changes signifies acceptance of the revised Privacy Statement. We recommend that you review this document periodically to remain informed about how we Process and protect your Personal Information, including through the use of AI Software.

Revised: May 26th, 2025