Privacy Policy

Privacy Statement

Last Revised: July 29, 2021

This Privacy Notice informs you of important information about how Ropes & Gray LLP and Ropes & Gray International LLP (together, “Ropes & Gray”, “we”, and “our”) process the personal data that we collect online through the Ropes & Gray Alumni Network Site at https://alumni.ropesgray.com (the “Site”). The Site is administered by third party PeoplePath, Inc. (“PeoplePath”) on behalf of Ropes & Gray.

When we use the term “personal data” we mean data that reasonably can be used to identify a living person, or that reasonably relates to a living person. 

This Privacy Notice covers the personal data that we collect through the provision of our Site.  

How we collect and use personal data 
Additional uses of personal data
How we share and disclose personal data
Region-specific disclosures
Email marketing
Cookies
Links to other sites
Updates to this Privacy Notice
How to contact us

How we collect and use personal data 

Alumni use of the Site

We collect personal data when Alumni give it to the Site directly, such as upon registration. During registration and profile set-up, we require that Alumni provide their name and email address. If an Alumnus was previously a user of another Ropes & Gray Alumni website, additional information that he or she provided to that site may be automatically added to his or her profile at this Site to prevent him or her from having to enter this data again. In addition, user profiles offer Alumni the opportunity to provide a wide range of additional information, including photos, postal addresses, current occupations, industries, education, skills, and personal and business interests. 

By providing complete and accurate information in your profile, you enable us to customize your experience and help you get the most from our Site.

We also collect personal data in the following situations: 

  • correspondence between you and the Site;
  • information you post on the Site, such as, resumes, job applications, event RSVPs, comments on news articles; and
  • responses to online surveys or forms that we use for Ropes & Gray feedback, research and product improvement.

Personal data provided by Ropes & Gray

We also share a small amount of Alumni personal data with PeoplePath during the registration process in order to verify that an Alumnus is a Ropes & Gray Alumnus. This personal data includes an Alumnus’ first and last name, hire and term date at Ropes & Gray, and practice group or department.

In addition, we collect information automatically as disclosed in our Cookie Notice, below.

The legal bases we rely on to process this information is:

  • To pursue our legitimate interests in developing and growing our business, operating and improving the Site, and conducting marketing activities; and
  • Your consent, where we make it clear to you in advance that we are relying on you consent (for example, when you sign up to our mailing list).

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Additional uses of personal data

  • In addition to the uses described above, we may use your personal data for the following purposes.  Some of these uses may, under certain circumstances, be based on your consent, may be necessary to fulfill our contractual commitments to you, or are necessary to serve our legitimate interests in the following business operations: 
  • Operating our business, growing our Alumni network, administering the Site and managing your account; 
  • Contacting you to respond to your requests or inquiries;
  • Processing and completing your transactions including, as applicable, order confirmation and delivering products or services;
  • Providing you with newsletters, articles, alerts and announcements, event invitations, and other information that we believe may be of interest to you;
  • Direct marketing, business development, and providing you with marketing information that is tailored to your interests;
  • Conducting research, surveys, and similar inquiries to help us understand trends and Alumni needs;
  • Analyzing your interactions with us, and improving our products, services, programs, and other offerings;
  • Preventing, investigating, or providing notice of fraud, unlawful or criminal activity, or unauthorized access to or use of Personal Information, our website or data systems; or to meet legal obligations; and
  • Enforcing our Terms of Use and other agreements.

How we share and disclose personal data

We share personal data with the following categories of recipients.  

Site Users

With other users of the Site through the Directory search function and an Alumnus’ profile.

Service Providers

We may disclose your personal data to third-party service providers to provide us with services such as website hosting, professional services, including information technology services and related infrastructure, customer service, e-mail delivery, auditing and other similar services. 

Affiliates

We may disclose personal data to our affiliates for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, including for their marketing purposes, and to be consistent with our goal of helping Alumni stay in touch with Ropes & Gray and their former colleagues.

Corporate Transactions or Events

We may disclose your information to a third party in connection with a corporate reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or capital, including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings. 

Other Legal Reasons

In addition, we may use or disclose your personal data as we deem necessary or appropriate: (1) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (2) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (3) to comply with subpoenas and other legal processes; (4) to pursue available remedies or limit damages we may sustain; (5) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (6) to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of Ropes & Gray, our affiliates, you and others; and (7) to enforce our terms and conditions.

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Region-specific disclosures 

European Economic Area

For individuals in the European Economic Area, please click here for additional detailed disclosures.  

State of California, United States

We may disclose personal data to affiliates of Ropes & Gray LLP, which may use this information for all purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice.  Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83, separate legal entities are considered “third parties” and certain communications with our affiliates might be viewed as promoting legal services.  Therefore, we are providing the following information for California residents who have provided us with their personal data during the creation of or during the course of an established legal services relationship that is primarily for personal, family, or household purposes (“California Residents”).

Individual California Residents may request information about our disclosures of certain categories of personal data to third parties (i.e., our affiliates) for such third parties’ direct marketing purpose, consistent with California Civil Code Section 1798.83.  

Individual California Residents must submit requests to us either by email at alumnisupport@ropesgray.com or by mail at the following address:

Ropes & Gray LLP
Attention:  Alumni Affairs
800 Boylston Street, Prudential Tower
Boston, MA 02199

In response, we will provide a list of the categories of “Personal Information”, as that term is defined by California Civil Code Section 1798.83, disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year, along with the names and addresses of these third parties. 

This request may be made no more than once per calendar year. We reserve our right not to respond to requests submitted other than to the email or mailing addresses specified in this section

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E-mail marketing

We may periodically send you relevant alerts and newsletters by e-mail. To help improve our marketing activities, we often receive a confirmation when you open an e-mail or click on a link included in one of these emails, if your computer supports such capabilities. Instructions on how to unsubscribe from these alerts and newsletters are included in each e-mail. 

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Cookie Notice

How we use Cookies

We use cookies and related technologies (“Cookies”) to better enable this Site, gather information when users navigate through the Site to enhance and personalize the experience, to understand usage patterns, and to improve the Site, products, and services.  

Cookies on our Site are generally divided into the following categories:

  • Essential Cookies: These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our Site and to use some of their features, such as access to secure areas. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the Site, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our Site functions.
  • Performance and Functionality Cookies: These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our Site but are non-essential to their use. However, without these cookies, certain functionality may become unavailable.
  • Analytics and Customization Cookies: These cookies collect information that is used to help us understand how our Site is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our Site for you in order to enhance your experience.
  • Targeting Cookies: These record your visit to our Site, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed to recognize you as a previous visitor and to track your activity on the Site and other websites you visit. These Cookies qualify as persistent cookies, because they remain on your device for us to use during a next visit to our Site. You can delete these cookies via your browser settings. See below for further details on how you can control third-party targeting cookies.

We also allow third parties to use Cookies on our Site to collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites you visit. This information is used to provide advertising tailored to your interests on websites you visit, also known as interest based advertising, and to analyze the effectiveness of such advertising.

How to control Cookies

You can review your Internet browser settings, typically under the sections “Help” or “Internet Options,” to exercise choices you have for certain Cookies. If you disable or delete certain Cookies in your settings, you may not be able to use features of the Site.  

To learn more about the use of Cookies by Google for analytics and to exercise choice regarding those Cookies, please visit the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

We support the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising of the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”). To learn more about certain third-party Cookies used for interest-based advertising, including through cross-device tracking, and to exercise certain choices regarding such cookies, please visit the Digital Advertising Alliance, Network Advertising Initiative, Digital Advertising Alliance-Canada, European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance or your device settings if you have the DAA or other mobile app.

The opt-outs described above are device- and browser-specific and may not work on all devices. If you choose to opt-out through any of these opt-out tools, this does not mean you will cease to see advertising. Rather, the ads you see will just not be based on your interests.

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Links to other sites

Occasionally we provide links to other websites for your convenience and information. These sites operate independently from our Site and are not under our control. These sites may have their own privacy notices or terms of use, which you should review if you visit any sites linked through our Site. We are not responsible for the content or use of these unrelated sites.  

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Updates to this Privacy Notice 

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Ropes & Gray may change its Privacy Notice from time to time, and at Ropes & Gray’s sole discretion. Ropes & Gray encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Notice. 

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How to contact us

If you have any queries, questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice or our personal data handling practices, please contact us at alumnisupport@ropesgray.com.