Applicant Privacy Notice

Introduction

King & Wood Mallesons (“KWM”) is committed to protecting your personal data. The following privacy notice applies to individuals applying to work with us. It sets out how we collect and use your personal data in the recruitment process and the legal rights you have in relation to your personal data.

KWM is an international law firm. It has offices in a number of locations across the world, principally in Asia, Australia and North America. Further details can be found on our website. Our global KWM Privacy Notice can be found here (Privacy Notice - KWM) and we recommend that you read it to understand more generally how KWM uses personal data.

Please note that the KWM office that is responsible for your personal data will typically be the KWM office based in the country that you are applying to work in. If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy notice, please see the “How can you contact us?” section at the end of this privacy notice.

What personal data do we collect?

In connection with your application to work for KWM, we may process the following categories of personal data:

information contained in your curriculum vitae (“CV”), covering letter and academic transcript;
information provided on your application form, including name, address, telephone number, personal email address, education level, academic institutions, language skills, jurisdictions you are qualified to practice in etc.;
practising certificates you hold and any other professional qualifications;
information relating to whether you are entitled to work in the country you have applied to work in, including any visas/work permits you hold;
your results/responses from online assessments/tasks conducted during KWM’s recruitment process; and
information provided to us during an interview.

Depending on the country you are applying to work in, we may also ask for the personal data listed below where we are legally permitted to do so, to monitor diversity and equal opportunities within KWM's workforce. However, this is done on a voluntary basis, so you do not have to provide us with the following information if you prefer not to:

date of birth;
nationality;
gender;
race/ethnicity; and
disability (including whether any reasonable adjustments are required for interviews/assessments).

Aside from the information you provide to us directly, we may also find information about you from other sources. For example:

recruitment agencies (your CV and other details may be shared with us by our nominated recruitment agency in the country in which you are applying to work – for information about how the agency handles your personal data, please ask the agency directly to see its privacy notice);
your named referees;
your named academic institutions and professional bodies (for verifying your academic and professional qualifications);
service providers who carry out additional background checks on our behalf, such as criminal record checks or credit reference checks (for a very limited number of roles); and
where you have made information about yourself publicly available on career sites, such as LinkedIn.

We will handle any personal data about you that we receive in accordance with this privacy notice.

On what legal basis do we use your personal data?

In some countries, we are required to inform you of the legal basis permitting us to collect and handle your personal data. We collect your personal data to enter into a contract with you, or because it is necessary in KWM’s legitimate interests as an employer. Where we collect personal data from you that is categorised as sensitive under data protection laws, we use it to fulfil our legal obligations as a prospective employer, or if we are legally required to do so, we ask for your explicit consent beforehand.

How do we use your personal data?

We will use your personal data for the following purposes:

to assess your suitability for employment with us and in any subsequent interviewing/assessment process, and to assist us in our decision as to whether to make you an offer of employment – copies of the information you submit and any further correspondence will be retained in order to progress your application for work and as a record of our employment and fair access processes (see further detail below in 'How long do we keep your personal data?'); and
to monitor diversity and equal opportunities within KWM where we are legally permitted to do so, by analysing any supplementary information you provide to us voluntarily (see above in ‘What personal data do we collect?’). We do not use this information in any employment-related decision and it is only used in an anonymised, aggregated form.

We may use email or telephone to contact you to discuss your application and in certain countries, if you are successful in your application, we will contact your referees to obtain references about you.

Please note that if your application is successful and you are offered a permanent or temporary position with KWM, you will be required to undergo certain background checks before we formalise your employment with us. Depending on the country you are applying to work in, this may include verifying your academic/professional qualifications, employment history, credit history, criminal records and medical history. However, we will only ask you to undergo relevant background screening checks at the final stage of the recruitment process and at such time, you will:

receive further information about how your personal information will be used in the background screening process, as well as your rights in respect of your personal information; and
in certain countries, be asked to provide your written consent to KWM conducting such background checks.

Who do we share your personal data with?

We may share your personal data as necessary with recruitment agencies and other service providers acting on our behalf, who will only use the information to provide that service. For example, in some countries you may be required to participate in online tasks as part of the recruitment process. Where this is the case, we have engaged certain third-party service providers to assist us.

We will ensure that any third-party service provider that we use commits to an appropriate level of security and confidentiality to protect your personal data. We may also share your personal data with a purchaser or potential purchaser of our business but only where it is necessary to do so and under appropriate confidentiality obligations.

We may also need to share your personal data with other firms within the KWM network, for example where your role involves working with individuals in our other offices. In some circumstances, we may have to share your personal data externally for legal or regulatory purposes, such as where a court or the police, or other law enforcement agency or regulatory body has asked us for it.

Is your personal data transferred overseas?

When you apply to work at KWM, your personal data will be handled by the relevant KWM office situated in the country in which you are accessing the recruitment site and the country in which you are applying to work, if different, or else in a country where KWM has centralised its processes for managing applications for efficiency.

Due to the global nature of KWM’s business operations, it may be necessary to send your personal data to another country, either to another KWM office or to an external service provider. A list of countries in which we operate can be found on our website. Some of these countries may have a different standard of data protection than the country in which you are situated. However, we have put in place contractual or other appropriate protections to ensure that your personal data is safeguarded to the same standards globally.

How do we keep your personal data secure?

We are committed to ensuring that any personal data that we hold about you is kept securely in accordance with our policies and procedures. These include appropriate physical and technological security measures, such as access controls, regular penetration testing of our systems and careful selection of staff and third-party service providers.

How long do we retain your personal data for?

Where you apply for a job role with KWM, we will retain your data in line with legal and regulatory requirements in the jurisdiction you are applying to work in. Note that we may contact you in case suitable roles become available in the future. However, please let us know if you do not want us to retain your data for this purpose and we will delete it from our systems, unless we need to continue to hold some details about you for legal and regulatory purposes.

What rights do you have regarding your personal data?

As explained above, you can withdraw your application at any time. Depending on the country where you are based and/or where you are applying to work, you may have the right to ask KWM to:

provide a copy of your personal data;
correct any inaccuracies in your personal data by informing us to make the necessary changes;
modify or withdraw your consent for the collection, use and disclosure of your personal data, where this is the legal basis for our processing;
delete your personal data from our systems where there is no lawful justification for KWM to retain it (as explained in “How long do we retain your personal data?”);
put the processing of your personal data on hold until such time as we respond to a claim by you that there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to our processing of your data on legitimate interest grounds;
transfer your personal data to you or another organisation in a commonly used electronic format (known as the right to data portability); and
not to be subject to automated processing (although please note that KWM does not undertake automated processing without any human intervention – for example, as part of the recruitment process, the scoring of certain online tasks is automated. However, this score is only used in the context of the wider employment process; no decisions are made solely on the basis of the score itself).

Please contact us (see below for our contact details) if you wish to obtain further information about the information that we hold about you.

How can you contact us?

We hope this privacy notice has been helpful in setting out the way we handle your personal data and your rights to control it. This privacy notice sets out most of your rights under relevant laws, but not necessarily every right you have.

Should you have any questions, concerns or complaints relating to the information that we hold about you, please contact us by emailing data.privacy@kwm.com.

Complaints

You have a right to make a complaint to the relevant data protection authority (“DPA”) at any time. We would appreciate the chance to understand your concerns in the first instance before your contact the DPA.

For more information, please see section 11 of our global KWM Privacy Notice (Privacy Notice - KWM).

This privacy notice was last updated on 27 October 2023.