Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 4, 2026

Hinckley Allen (“we” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy through our compliance with this Privacy Policy (this “Policy”). This Policy describes the types of personal information we may collect from or about you and explains how we collect, process, retain, protect, and disclose personal information.

Please read this Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your personal information and how we will treat it. By interacting with our Website, by using our Services, and by otherwise providing information to us, you agree to the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information as described in this Policy. If you do not agree to this Policy, you should not use our Website or our Services or provide personal information to us in any other way.

In this Policy, references to our “Website” include our website and any mobile applications and social media sites we control, and references to our “Services” include the provision of legal and related services to our clients and prospective clients, including pitches and responses to proposals.

This Policy applies to information collected:

• From and about visitors to our Website.
• In text, chat, email and other messages with you.
• In connection with your attendance at our events.
• Through our Services.
• In connection with recruitment and hiring.
• In connection with employment by us.

We may update and make changes to this Policy from time to time. Your continued use of our Website or our Services after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check back periodically for updates. The date of the most recent revision is always shown as the Effective Date at the top of the Policy.

A printable copy of this Policy is available here.

 

Personal information is information that identifies, relates to, or describes, directly or indirectly, you as an individual. We collect and process personal information about our individual clients and prospective clients, our organizational clients’ employees and agents, our clients’ representatives, job applicants, our employees and alumni, visitors to our offices, webinar attendees, visitors to our Website, and vendors. We may also collect and process personal information about other individuals, such as employees of a target company in connection with conducting M&A due diligence, witnesses when engaging in litigation on behalf of our clients, or other third parties in connection with our Services.

We collect and process the following categories of personal information:

• Contact information and other identifiers, such as your name, address, email address, and telephone number.
• Other demographic information, such as your date and place of birth and place of residence.
• Government identifiers, such as your driver’s license number, passport number, and social security number.
• Billing, financial, payment information (including bank account and credit card information), transaction history and other commercial information.
• Work history, educational background, and other professional or employment-related information.
• Health information.
• Professional title and company name.
• State bar numbers (e.g., in connection with seeking continuing legal education credit for webinars).
• Dietary requirements, preferences, and other requests for accommodations provided in connection with attendance at our events.
• Job applicant data.
• Online identifiers and account information.
• Audio, electronic, and visual information, like photographs from events you attend and security camera recordings of your activity in our offices.
• Communications data when you contact us.
• Marketing data, like your preferences for marketing and details about your engagement with communications from us.
• Information provided in conjunction with our Services.

We, our service partners and our business partners may automatically log information about you, your computer, or your mobile device, as well as your interaction over time with our Website, such as:

• Information about the equipment you use to access our Website, such as device type, operating system, browser type, IP address, language setting, mobile device carrier, and general location data.
• Information about your internet connection and network activity, such as domain name, where your server is located, mobile device and online identifiers, cookie IDs, and social media information.
• Usage details as you interact with our Website, emails and other content, including browser activity, search history, access times, duration of access, links clicked and preferences.
• Information about when and where you use key cards and other access methods, if applicable.

Some of the information identified above (such as government identifiers, financial information, and health information) may be considered sensitive information under certain laws. If required by applicable law, we will collect and process sensitive personal information only with your consent. If you choose not to provide your consent or if you do not allow us to collect some information, we may not be able to provide you with requested Services.

We may combine the personal information we receive from you with personal information we receive from other sources.

We may also collect statistical or aggregated data that does not directly identify a specific person, and we may derive non-personal statistical or aggregated data from personal information.

Additionally, we may collect information about individuals whom you refer to us for Services. Please do not share another individual’s personal information with us unless you have their permission to do so.

 

You Provide Information to Us

We collect personal information directly from you when you provide it to us, including through our Website, by email, or in conversation.

Automatically Through Our Website

We collect personal information about you automatically as you navigate our Website.

From Business Partners, Service Providers, Public Sources and other Third Parties

We also obtain personal information from third parties, including our clients, other law firms, our service providers, social media platforms, public sources and governmental entities.

 

We use the personal information that we collect about you or that you provide to us:

To Provide Our Services

• To provide you with our Services, including performing legal services, administering client files, billing, and collecting payments.
• To keep you informed of legal developments.
• To respond to your requests, inquiries, or feedback.
• To process payments from you.

For Marketing and Business Development

• To send you legal updates and other useful information, including information about our programs and events.
• To promote our Services, develop marketing programs, and facilitate business development activities.
• To build our business and develop relationships with potential new clients.

To Manage and Optimize Our Website

• To provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized Website experience.
• To monitor and analyze usage and trends and to improve the performance, functionality, and usability of our Website.
• To process a form you have completed on our Website.
• For overall systems administration.

To Recruit and Hire

• For recruiting purposes.
• To screen, identify, and evaluate candidates for positions, and to conduct background checks.
• For recordkeeping and other analysis related to the hiring process.

For Employment Purposes

• To administer employee benefits and payroll.
• For recordkeeping purposes.

For Compliance Purposes

• To verify your identity.
• To comply with legal obligations and professional responsibilities.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from contracts.
• To audit our processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements and our internal policies.
• To enforce the terms and conditions that govern our Website and our Services.
• To respond to any legal process or to any court order, subpoena, or a law enforcement agency as required by law.
• To cooperate with government or law enforcement authorities.
• For compliance, regulatory, and investigative purposes.

To Operate Our Firm

• For the day-to-day operations of our organization.
• To ensure the safety and security of our employees, clients and visitors.
• To prevent, identify, investigate and deter harmful or illegal activities.
• To investigate complaints about our Website or our Services.

For Other Purposes

• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• For any other purpose with your consent or permitted under applicable law.

We may use aggregated, de-identified or otherwise anonymized data and disclose it to third parties for our lawful business purposes, including to analyze and improve our Website and our Services. If we combine or connect non-personal statistical or technical data with personal information so that it directly or indirectly identifies an individual, we will treat this combined information as personal information.

 

Because it is no longer “personal information,” we may disclose deidentified, aggregated and anonymized data that does not identify any individual without restriction.

We do not sell or rent your personal information to others.

We may disclose personal information in certain situations as described below:

• Within our offices and to any affiliates.
• To legal or other advisors, consultants, business partners, suppliers, contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our organization, including marketing agencies, payment processers, data analytics providers, legal support vendors, website hosts and professional advisors. We ensure that these third parties are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
• To others involved in matters on which we are working, such as courts, other attorneys, counterparties, experts, mediators, opponents, and witnesses.
• To third parties where you have instructed us or provided your consent to do so.
• To third parties with which we co-sponsor events, conference organizers, and content providers with which we partner to make CLEs, trainings, and other resources available.
• To our professional advisors in the course of their professional services, including auditors, insurers, and benefits administrators.
• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, or for pre-transaction review in relation to these transactions.
• To comply with any court order or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request; to investigate or remedy potential violations of our policies; to protect the rights, property, and safety of others; or to comply with any applicable law, rule, or regulation.
• To law enforcement, regulatory or government agencies, and other third parties, for crime and fraud prevention and remediation.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
• With your consent to do so.

Your Rights and How to Exercise Them

This section describes mechanisms you can use to control certain uses and disclosures of your information and rights you may have under state law, depending on where you live. Please note that not all rights listed below are available to all individuals.

Depending on your U.S. state of residency, you may have certain rights related to your personal information, including:

• Confirming whether we process your personal information.
• Obtaining a copy of your personal information processed by us in a portable format.
• Correcting inaccuracies in your personal information.
• Deleting personal information provided by or obtained about you.
• Opting out of the processing of your personal information for targeted advertising, sales and profiling.
• Non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights.
• Designating an agent to exercise your rights on your behalf.

It is important to note that these rights vary by state. There are also several exceptions where we may not have an obligation to fulfill your request.

You can exercise your rights described in this Policy by emailing us at [email protected]. Your request should include information that allows us to verify your identity (such as your name, address, and email address), a description of the right you want to exercise, and the information to which your request relates. We may ask for additional information to verify your identity before carrying out a request. You may also be permitted to authorize a third party to submit a request on your behalf; however, we may ask for confirmation of your authorization. We are not obligated to comply with a request if we cannot verify that the person making the request is the person about whom we collected information or is someone authorized to act on that person’s behalf.

When we receive a request to exercise one of your rights, we will respond promptly and within the time required by applicable law. Depending on factors like the type and complexity of the request, this time may be extended in certain circumstances. We will not discriminate against you in any way for submitting a request or exercising any of your other rights.

Privacy and data protection laws generally require businesses to provide a copy of your personal information free of charge, once per year. If a request is manifestly unfounded, excessive, or repetitive, we may decline to comply with it or charge a reasonable fee to cover the administrative costs of compliance. If applicable, we will advise you of any fees prior to proceeding with a request.

If we decline to comply with any request, we must notify you without undue delay and within the time required. We will also provide you with our justification for declining your request and information on the appeal process.

Cookies and Similar Technology

We use cookies and other automatic collection technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party sites or other online services. Using automatic collection technologies helps us to improve our Website and our Services and to deliver a better and more personalized experience.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file that includes a unique identifier that is sent by a web server to the browser on your computer, mobile phone, or any other internet-enabled device when you visit an online site. Cookies and similar technologies are widely used to make websites work efficiently and to collect information about your online preferences.

You may refuse to accept or disable cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser or device. Please note that certain features or functionality of our Website may become unavailable if you set your preferences to block all cookies.

Flash cookies operate differently than browser cookies, and cookie management tools available in a web browser will not remove flash cookies. To learn more about how to manage flash cookies, you can visit the Adobe website and make changes at the Global Privacy Settings Panel.

Web Beacons

Some of our Website pages and our emails may contain small electronic image files known as web beacons (also known as clear gifs, pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that allow us to count users who have visited our pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics. Web beacons collect only limited information (such as a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides). We may also carry web beacons placed by third-party advertisers. These beacons do not carry any information that could directly identify you. We may also include web beacons in e-mail messages to track whether you open the messages. We use this information to customize our Services and measure the overall effectiveness of our online content and marketing efforts.

Tracking by Third-Party Service Providers

We work with a third-party website hosting company as well as Google Analytics and may in the future also work with other third-party service providers to help us track and analyze visitor activity on our Website, measure the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, and optimize the overall visitor experience. When you access our Website, your web browser automatically sends certain information to these service providers. We do not provide these service providers with any information that identifies you personally. By accessing our Website, you consent to the collection and use of your information by these service providers.

You can learn how Google uses the information from your web browser here. You are encouraged to review Google’s Privacy Policy (here) and contact Google directly if you have questions. If you do not want any information to be collected and used as described in this paragraph, you can download and install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on (here) or use the Network Advertising Initiative Opt-Out Tool (here) or Digital Advertising Alliance Opt-Out Tool (here).

Universal Opt-Out Mechanisms 

Some browsers and browser extensions support the Global Privacy Control (GPC) and other universal opt-out mechanisms that signal your request to opt out of certain types of data processing. When we detect such a signal, we will respect your choices to the extent required by applicable law.

Email and SMS Text Messaging

We may send you communications, legal updates, and event invitations by e-mail, text, phone, or mail. By providing your telephone number to us, you are consenting to be contacted by SMS text message. Message and data rates may apply.

You may opt out of our mailing list at any time by contacting us at [email protected]. You may also click the “unsubscribe” link in emails to opt-out of further emails and reply “STOP” to opt-out of further text messaging. Please note that if you choose to opt-out of marketing-relating communications, you may continue to receive communications relating to our Services and other non-marketing messages.

 

We retain the categories of personal information described in this Policy for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes described or as otherwise legally permitted or required, such as maintaining the Website, providing our Services, operating our organization, complying with our legal obligations and professional responsibilities, resolving disputes, and enforcing applicable agreements.

When deciding how long to retain personal information, we consider the nature of the information; the potential risk of unauthorized access, use, or disclosure; the purposes for which we process such personal information; and applicable legal requirements. At the end of the retention period, personal information will be deleted, destroyed, or deidentified. Your information may persist in copies made for backup and business continuity purposes for additional time.

If we deidentify, aggregate or anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Nothing in this Policy requires us to keep your information for any minimum period of time.

Security

We have implemented administrative, technical, and physical measures designed to protect your personal information from accidental loss or destruction and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. However, while we take steps to secure the information you provide to us, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse.

The safety and security of your information also depend on you. You are responsible for taking steps to protect your personal information against unauthorized use, disclosure, and access. In particular, email, texts, and chats may not be secure, and you should carefully decide what information you send to us via those communications channels.

International Data Transfer

We may use service providers that operate in other countries. We may also transfer personal information to other jurisdictions where necessary to provide our Services. As a result, your personal information may become subject to privacy laws that are different and not as protective as the jurisdictions where your personal information originated.

Website Visitors From Outside the United States

If you are located outside the United States, please be aware that you are sending information to the United States or another jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. By using our Website or providing us with information in any other way, you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in this Policy.

Information About Other People

If you provide information to us about another individual, such as your employee, supplier, stockholder, or director, you must ensure that (i) they understand how their information will be used and disclosed and (ii) you have lawful grounds to disclose it to us or that they have given you their permission to disclose it to us and for you to allow us and our third-party service providers to use and disclose it as set forth in this Policy.

External Links

We may provide links to other websites operated by third parties, and our content may also be integrated into websites and other online services that are not associated with us. We are not responsible for the content, policies, and practices of those websites or online services and these links are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. We do not control those websites or online services or their privacy practices, and any information you provide to them is subject to their privacy policies. We strongly encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third-party websites and online services.

Minors

Our Website and our Services are not intended for persons under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian of a minor from whom you believe we have collected personal information in a manner prohibited by law, please contact us at [email protected]. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a minor without verification of parental consent as required by law, we will delete that information.

California Residents – Notice at Collection

If you are a California resident, please review this section for important information about your rights under California privacy laws.  The information provided in this section of the Policy applies to California residents in addition to all other sections of this Policy.

The categories of information we collect, the sources from which we collect it, the purposes for which we use it, and the purposes for which we disclose it to third parties are described in the sections of this Policy captioned “The Personal Information We Collect About You,” “How We Collect Your Personal Information,” and “How We Use Your Personal Information,” respectively.

In the past twelve months, we have collected the following categories of personal information: identifiers; characteristics of protected classifications under California or U.S. federal law; commercial information; sensitive personal information; internet or other electronic network activity information; audio, electronic, visual or similar information; professional and employment-related information; education information; inferences; and other categories of personal information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could be reasonably linked to, directly or indirectly, you as an individual.

We do not share personal information with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising and we do not sell personal information for any purpose. We have no actual knowledge that we have sold or shared personal information of persons under the age of 16.

We may disclose the categories of personal information described in the section of this Policy captioned “The Personal Information We Collect About You” to third parties for the purposes described above in the section captioned “Who We Disclose Your Personal Information To” and have made such disclosures during the 12 months preceding the effective date of this Policy.

Our retention of personal information is described in the “Data Retention” section above.

The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended (the “CCPA”) grants California residents the following rights related to their personal information, subject to certain limitations:

• The right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information, and the right to obtain a copy of your personal information processed by us in a portable format. Please note that you may only exercise this right twice in any 12-month period.
• The right to request that we correct inaccuracies in your personal information.
• The right to request that we delete personal information provided by or obtained about you.
• The right to opt out of the processing of your personal information for targeted advertising, sales and profiling.
• The right to limit the use and disclosure of your sensitive personal information.
• The right to not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.

California residents can exercise any of the privacy rights described in this Policy by calling us at 1-800-859-8777 or emailing us at [email protected]. Your request should include information that allows us to verify your identity, a description of the right you want to exercise, and the information to which your request relates. We may ask for additional information to verify your identity before carrying out a request, such as your address, email address, and information about your interactions with us. You may authorize a third party to submit a request on your behalf; however, we may ask for verification that you have provided such third party with power of attorney or that such third party otherwise has valid authority to submit requests on your behalf. We are not obligated to respond to your request if we cannot verify that the person making the request is the person about whom we collected information or is someone authorized to act on that person’s behalf. We will use personal information collected in connection with verifying a request only for purposes of verification and we will not retain such personal information longer than needed for verification purposes, except as required or permitted by law.

When we receive a request to exercise one of your rights, we will try to respond within 45 days. If we require an extension (of up to 45 days), we will notify you. If we decline to comply with any request, we will notify you with our justification for declining your request and information on the appeal process.

We will not discriminate against you for submitting a request or exercising any of your rights under applicable state privacy laws.

Shine the Light Law. If you are a California resident, you may request information pursuant to the Shine the Light law by calling us at 1-800-859-8777 or emailing us at [email protected].

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. When we update this Policy, we will change the “Effective Date” at the top of the Policy and post the updated Policy on our website. We encourage you to check back frequently for current information on how we are collecting, using and protecting your information. By continuing to use our Website or our Services or providing information to us after a Policy update, you agree to the privacy practices described in the updated Policy.

Contact Us

To exercise your rights, access this Policy in an alternative format due to having a disability, or ask questions or comment about this Policy or our privacy practices, contact us:

via e-mail: [email protected]

or

via mail: Hinckley Allen, 100 Westminster Street, Suite 1400, Providence, RI 02903, Attn: Privacy Department