Complaints Procedure

Davern Partners LLP, trading as Daverns, is committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you receive, or about the bill, please contact Finian Davern on 020 4505 8489, via e-mail at office@davernpartners.co.uk, or by post to our office at Daverns, 154-160 Fleet St, London, EC4A 2DQ.

We have a procedure in place that details how we handle complaints, a copy of which is available at this office’s address. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint, whichever date is the earlier. If you do not bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within this time it is unlikely to be considered by them unless they consider it fair and reasonable to do so.

The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, WV1 9WJ; telephone: 0300 555 0333; website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

You also have the right to object to the bill and apply for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. The Legal Ombudsman may not deal with a complaint about the bill if you have applied to the court for an assessment of the bill.

Complaints

Complaints will be dealt with under the following protocol:

• In the event of a complaint, you should raise the concern in the first place with the person dealing with the particular matter.

• If this does not resolve the problem you should then contact the supervising partner/member, whose name will have been notified at the outset of the transaction.

The complaint does not have to be put in writing, although setting out clearly the issues and the action that you wish us to take may help us to resolve your concerns more quickly.

We will explain to you how we will try to resolve your complaint and give you a timescale for doing so. This will be within a period of 8 weeks. If after that period has expired and we have not resolved your complaint, you may take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.

A full copy of the practice’s complaints procedure is available on request.

Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

This firm is regulated by the SRA under SRA Number 572917.

If you are unhappy with a solicitor in this firm or the firm itself, you have a right to complain to the SRA. If you are unhappy with a barrister in this firm, you have a right to complain to the Bar Standards Board.

Complaints to the SRA consist of the behaviour or conduct of a solicitor or the firm that you have instructed, if you believe they have breached their duties, responsibilities or obligations to you (i.e., have ‘broken the rules’) or have closed down without telling you.

You will find a link to the SRA website on our ‘Home’ page. Alternatively you may contact them as follows:

Website: sra.org.uk

Tel: 0370 606 2555

Email: contactcentre@sra.org.uk

Address: Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN

Privacy Notice - General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”)

DATA PROTECTION PRIVACY NOTICE

1. The practice of Davern Partners LLP, trading as Daverns, (“Business”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) under number ZA051090 (previously known until 16 July 2025 as Quercus Solicitors LLP).

2. If you have any questions about this privacy notice (“Notice”), please contact Finian Davern by email at office@davernpartners.co.uk.

3. The Business will process your and third parties’ personal data, as further explained below, in the course of providing you with legal services which may including accessing third party business websites and online features (“Services”).

4. We will let you know if we make any changes to this Notice from time to time. Your continued use of the Services after notifying such changes will amount to your acknowledgement of the amended Notice.

5. PLEASE NOTE: You shall and you hereby agree to indemnify the Business and its affiliates and their officers, employees, agents and subcontractors (each an “Indemnified Party”) from and against any claims, losses, demands, actions, liabilities, fines, penalties, reasonable expenses, damages and settlement amounts (including reasonable legal fees and costs) incurred by any Indemnified Party arising out of or in connection with any breach by you of the warranties included in paragraphs 8 & 9.

What is Personal Data?

6. “Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, known as ‘data subject’, who can be identified directly or indirectly; it may include name, address, email address, phone number, IP address, location data, cookies and similar information. It may also include “special categories of personal data” such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a data subject, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation.

7. The Business may process personal data and special categories of personal data that you provide in connection with the Services about yourself and other data subjects, e.g. individuals whose details are included in any materials provided by you to the Business. The Business may obtain information about you and other data subjects from third party service providers, such as due diligence platforms. If you use our online Services, the Business may collect information about your devices including clickstream data.

8. The provision of certain personal data is mandatory in order for the Business to comply with mandatory client due diligence requirements and consequently to provide the Services. You warrant on a continuous basis that such personal data is accurate, complete and up to date. Failure to comply may result in documents being rejected by the relevant certification authorities, held invalid in the destination country or other difficulty in successfully completing the Services.

9. In relation to personal data of data subjects you warrant to the Business on a continuous basis that: (a) where applicable, you are authorised to share such personal data with the Business in connection with the Services and that wherever another data subject is referred to, you have obtained the explicit and demonstrable consent from all relevant data subjects to the inclusion and use of any personal data concerning them; (b) to the extent this is required in connection with the Services, such personal data is accurate, complete and up to date; and (c) either you provide your explicit consent and warrant that each data subject has provided explicit consent for the transfer of personal data to foreign organisations in connection with the Services as set out at paragraph 12, or that an alternative legal gateway for such transfer (such as transfer necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract concluded in the interest of the data subject) has been satisfied.

How do we use your personal data?

10. The Business will only process personal data, in accordance with applicable law, for the following purposes:

(a) responding to your queries, requests and other communications; (b) providing the Services, including, where applicable, procuring acts from foreign organisations; (c) enabling suppliers and service providers to carry out certain functions on behalf of the Business in order to provide the Services, including webhosting, data storage, identity verification, technical, logistical, courier or other functions, as applicable; (d) allowing you to use features on Business websites, when you choose to do so; (e) ensuring the security of the Business and preventing or detecting fraud; (f) administering our Business, including complaints resolution, troubleshooting of our website, data analysis, testing of new features, research, statistical and survey purposes; (g) developing and improving our Services; (h) complying with applicable law, including regulatory rules, codes, guidelines and regulations or in response to a lawful request from a court or regulatory body.

The legal basis for our processing of personal data for the purposes described above will typically include:

• processing necessary to fulfil a contract that we have in place with you or other data subjects, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraphs (a), (b), (b) and (d);

• your consent, such as processing for the purposes set out above;

• processing necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (e), (f) and (g), which is carried out on the basis of the legitimate interests of the Business to ensure that Services are properly provided, the security of the Business and its clients and the proper administration of the Business; and

• processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraph (h).and

• any other applicable legal grounds for processing from time to time.

Disclosure of personal data

11. There are circumstances where the Business may wish to disclose or is compelled to disclose your personal data to third parties. These scenarios include disclosure to:

• our subsidiaries or associated offices;

• our suppliers and service providers to facilitate the provision of the Services, including in particular other solicitors’ firm or barristers we work; couriers, translators, IT consultants and legalisation and other handling agents, webhosting providers, identity verification partners (in order to verify your identity against public databases), consultants, for example, in order to protect the security or integrity of our business, including our databases and systems and for business continuity reasons;

• public authorities to carry out acts that are necessary in connection with the Services, such as the Foreign Office;

• foreign organisations to carry out acts which are necessary in connection with the Services, such as Embassies, Consulates and High Commissions;

• professional organisations exercising certain public, governance and archiving functions in relation to the legal profession;

• successor or partner legal entities, on a temporary or permanent basis, for the purposes of a joint venture, collaboration, financing, sale, merger, reorganisation, change of legal form, dissolution or similar event relating to a Business. In the case of a merger or sale, your personal data will be permanently transferred to a successor company;

• public authorities where we are required by law to do so; and

• any other third party where you have provided your consent.

International transfer of your personal data

12. We may transfer your personal data to a third party in countries outside the country in which it was originally collected for further processing in accordance with the purposes set out above. In particular, your personal data may be transferred to foreign organisations such as foreign Embassies located in the UK or abroad. Such organisations will process personal data in accordance with the laws to which they are subject and international treaties over which the Business has no control.

13. If the Business transfers personal data to private organisations abroad, such as subcontractors, it will, as required by applicable law, ensure that your privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate technical, organisation, contractual or other lawful means. You may contact us for a copy of such safeguards in these circumstances.

Retention of personal data

14. Your personal data will be retained for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes listed above or as required by the law. Please contact us for further details of applicable retention periods. Personal data may for reasons of security and convenience be stored on remote data facilities but in an encrypted form.

Security of personal data

15. The Business will implement technical and organisational security measures in order to prevent unauthorised access to your personal data.

16. However, please be aware that the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. Whilst we can do our best to keep our own systems secure, we do not have full control over all processes involved in, for example, your use of our website or sending confidential materials to us via email, and we cannot therefore guarantee the security of your information transmitted to us on the web.

Data subject rights

17. Data subjects have numerous rights in relation to their personal data. For further information about your data protection rights please visit the ICO website.

• Right to make a subject access request (SAR). Data subjects may request in writing copies of their personal data. However, compliance with such requests is subject to certain limitations and exemptions and the rights of other data subjects. Each request should make clear that a SAR is being made. You may also be required to submit a proof of your identity.

• Right to rectification. Data subjects may request that we rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

• Right to withdraw consent. Data subjects may at any time withdraw their consent to the processing of their personal data carried out by the Business on the basis of previous consent. Such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on previous consent.

• Right to object to processing, including automated processing and profiling. The Business does not make automated decisions. The Business may use third party due diligence platforms which provide recommendations about data subjects by automated means. We will comply with any data subject’s objection to processing unless we have a compelling overriding legitimate ground for the processing, the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or we have another lawful reason to refuse such request. We will comply with each valid opt-out request in relation to marketing communications.

• Right to erasure. Data subjects may request that we erase their personal data. We will comply, unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so. For example, there may be an overriding legitimate ground for keeping the personal data, such as, our archiving obligations that we have to comply with.

• Restriction. Data subjects may request that we restrict our processing of their personal data in various circumstances. We will comply, unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so, such as, a legal obligation to continue processing your personal data in a certain way.

• Right to data portability. In certain circumstances, data subjects may request the controller to provide a copy of their personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have it transferred to another provider of the same or similar services. To the extent such right applies to the Services, we will comply with such transfer request. Please note that a transfer to another provider does not imply erasure of the data subject’s personal data which may still be required for legitimate and lawful purposes.

• Right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. We suggest that data subjects contact us about any questions or complaints in relation to how we process personal data. However, each data subject has the right to contact the relevant supervisory authority directly.

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Anti-Corruption and Bribery Policy

Background

It is our policy to conduct all of our business in an honest and ethical manner. We take a zero-tolerance approach to bribery and corruption and are committed to acting professionally, fairly and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships. Any employee who breaches this policy will face disciplinary action, which could result in dismissal for gross misconduct. Any non-employee who breaches this policy may have their contract terminated with immediate effect.

This policy applies to all persons working for us or on our behalf in any capacity, including employees at all levels, directors, officers, agency workers, seconded workers, volunteers, interns, agents, contractors, external consultants, third-party representatives and business partners. This policy is overseen and reviewed regularly by our Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP). The COLP will maintain a register of If there is a concern among the above individuals relating to an issue that may fall within the remit of this policy, they should raise the matter with the COLP without delay.

What is bribery?

Bribe means a financial or other inducement or reward for action which is illegal, unethical, a breach of trust or improper in any way. Bribes can take the form of money, gifts, loans, fees, hospitality, services, discounts, the award of a contract or any other advantage or benefit. Bribery includes offering, promising, giving, accepting or seeking a bribe.

All forms of bribery are strictly prohibited. Specifically, we will not:

(a) give or offer any payment, gift, hospitality or other benefit in the expectation that a business advantage will be received in return, or to reward any business received;

(b) accept any offer from a third party that is known or suspected to be made with the expectation that we will provide a business advantage for them or anyone else;

(c) give or offer any payment (sometimes called a facilitation payment) to a government official in any country to facilitate or speed up a routine or necessary procedure;

Gifts and hospitality

This policy does not prohibit the giving or accepting of reasonable and appropriate hospitality for legitimate purposes such as building relationships, maintaining our image or reputation, or marketing our products and services. A gift or hospitality will not be appropriate if it is unduly lavish or extravagant or could be seen as an inducement or reward for any preferential treatment. Gifts must be of an appropriate type and value depending on the circumstances and taking account of the reason for the gift. Gifts must not include cash or cash equivalent (such as vouchers), or be given in secret. Gifts if given by us shall be in our firm's name, not in the name of an individual linked to the firm. Promotional gifts of low value such as branded stationery may be given to or accepted from existing customers, suppliers and business partners. Instances of hospitality with an estimated value of greater than £250.00, should be recorded on the Firm’s gifts and hospitality register, which is maintained by the COLP. It will also be necessary for our staff to obtain prior approval to give or receive the hospitality. No fees over and above proper professional fees agreed in advance for professional work done may be accepted. No payment may be made to the client for the award of a contract for services. Any third party instructed by this firm will be engaged to act in accordance with our policy.

Equal Opportunities

Policy Statement

We are committed to equal opportunities and non-discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, religion or belief and in respect of the recruitment, training, development and promotion of our employees.

We are also committed to the principle that employees and those we work with and for should be able to work with us in an environment free from intimidation, bullying and/or harassment.

Website Terms of Use

The materials on our website are for information purposes only and are not intended to constitute specific legal, commercial or other professional advice.

They should and cannot be relied on or treated as a substitute for specific advice relevant to particular circumstances. You should obtain specific legal advice before making or refraining from making any business or personal decisions.

We are not responsible for the content of any other site, including any site through which you may have gained access to our site or to which you may gain access from our site.

We accept no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from any material on the website.

Legal Disclaimer Information

The materials appearing on this website do not constitute legal advice: they are provided for general information purposes only. No warranty, whether express or implied, is given in relation to these materials. We shall not be liable for any errors or omissions within the information provided on this website, nor shall we be responsible for the content of any web images or information linked to this website. If you have a complaint, please refer to our Complaints Procedure.