Cooley UK LLP Legal Notices

The provisions detailed below are applicable to the work provided to the clients of Cooley (UK) LLP in England and Wales and are in addition to the Cooley LLP Website Legal Notices and Terms of Use.

1. International practice and regulation

1.1 International Practice. Cooley is an international legal practice carried on by Cooley LLP in the United States, with offices across the US and in China, (“Cooley US”) and its affiliated practice, Cooley (UK) LLP, a limited liability partnership incorporated in England and Wales with registered number OC395270 whose registered office and principal place of business is at 22 Bishopsgate, London, UK EC2N 4BQ (“Cooley UK”). A number of Cooley UK’s lawyers are Chartered and/or European patent attorneys who are also regulated by the Intellectual Property Regulation Board (“IPReg”) and/or by the Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office (“epi”). The Codes of Conduct for IPReg and epi can be found at (https://ipreg.org.uk/pro/regulations/code-conduct) and (https://patentepi.org/en/the-institute/rules-and-regulations.html). Cooley US and Cooley UK work together as a closely integrated international network but are independent, separately constituted and separately regulated legal entities which provide legal and other client services in accordance with the relevant laws of the jurisdictions in which they respectively operate.

1.2 Professional Regulation. Cooley US attorneys are subject to bar rules in the jurisdictions where Cooley US practices. Cooley UK is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority's professional regulatory requirements. A small number of Cooley UK's lawyers are admitted in jurisdictions outside of England and Wales and, in this case, they are regulated by the relevant regulatory body in the jurisdiction in which they are admitted to practise. Those members of Cooley UK who are members of foreign bars are also registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority as registered foreign lawyers.

2. Complaints resolution procedure

Cooley is committed to providing high-quality legal services to our clients. If you are unsatisfied with our services, we need you to tell us about it. This will allow us to sort out any mistakes or misunderstandings and help us to improve our standards.

If you have a complaint, please raise the problem in the first instance with the partner who is responsible for your matter. If that does not resolve the issue to your satisfaction, or if you prefer, please email your complaint to our confidential complaints email address. Please feel free to make the complaint by telephone, email or letter. However, note that it will be easier for us to conduct a proper investigation if your complaint is laid out in writing.

2.1 Procedural steps

  • Within five working days of receiving your complaint (i.e., excluding weekends and bank holidays), we will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint in writing and, if necessary, asking you to confirm or explain the details of your complaint. We also will let you know the name of the person who will be handling the complaint.
  • We will record your complaint in our complaints register.
  • We will examine the relevant file, and if we need any information from you in order to investigate the complaint, we will request that you provide it.
  • If appropriate, we will suggest a meeting with you to discuss the complaint and, if possible, to resolve it.
  • At the conclusion of our investigation, we will send you a letter setting out our findings. If the issue has been resolved by a meeting between you and the person dealing with your complaint, we will confirm to you what took place and any solutions we agreed to with you.
  • Our aim is to conclude our investigation within 15 working days of receiving the complaint. If we need more time before we can conclude our investigation, we will write to you within that time period to inform you of the likely timeline.

2.2 Review

  • If, after we have concluded our investigation and written to you, you are still not satisfied, you can write to ask us to review our response. This review will be carried out by either the same partner who first assisted you or by another partner of the firm unrelated to your matter.
  • We may – but are not required to – invite you to agree to independent mediation, in which case we will let you know what this process involves and how long it may be expected to take.
  • Once these steps have been carried out, we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We generally aim to contact you within five working days of receiving your request to review our response to your complaint. If the review is anticipated to take longer (for example, because further investigation is required or because we are inviting you to a mediation), we will write to you within that time period to inform you of the likely timeline.

2.3 Legal Ombudsman scheme and other mediation remedies

  • In certain circumstances, you may have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. Information about the Legal Ombudsman and, in particular, about eligibility and time limits for making a complaint is available on the Legal Ombudsman website (www.legalombudsman.org.uk).
  • There also are other complaints bodies, such as ProMediate, which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services if both parties agree to use such a scheme.

3. Professional indemnity insurance

The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 require us to notify details of the insurers who provide Cooley UK, its partners, staff and connected entities with professional liability insurance cover that Cooley UK, as a firm of solicitors practising in England and Wales, is obliged to hold by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The qualifying insurers are Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Limited whose address is 20 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 3AW. This insurance covers Cooley UK's practice in England and Wales and extends to acts or omissions wherever in the world they may occur.

4. Solicitors’ compensation fund

The Solicitors Indemnity Fund Rules, 2012 provide for the Law Society to establish and maintain a fund for compensation claims. Grants are made from the fund at the discretion of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

5. Data protection legislation

We are a data controller in respect of your data. We shall process any personal information you provide to us or which we obtain in connection with providing our services to you (“Personal Information”) in accordance with any applicable data protection law and/or relevant data protection registration. Please see our Privacy Notice which sets out how we may use Personal Information for the provision of our services to you. By using this site, you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate and consent to all such processing as described in our Privacy Notice. By using this site, you confirm that you have read and understood our Privacy Notice. If you do not agree with the processing described in our Privacy Notice, please do not use this website.

6. Financial services

6.1 We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA), the independent regulatory body of the Law Society of England and Wales, a designated professional body for the purposes of FSMA. Firms may carry out certain regulated activities without being authorised by the FCA, provided a designated body makes rules setting out the scope of the activities which may be undertaken.

6.2 While we may provide advice to clients in relation to a matter which involves or relates to an investment, we are only able to provide such advice on a limited basis where an exemption under FSMA applies. Exemptions include the provision of the advice where it is an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide; where the advice can reasonably be regarded as a necessary part of our professional services or where the provisions of FSMA otherwise permit us to give the advice.

6.3 We only provide legal services. Nothing that we say or do should be taken as advice on the investment merits of acquiring or disposing of particular investments or as an invitation or inducement to anyone to engage in investment related activities (under FSMA or otherwise). While we may need to communicate to progress matters we are instructed on, any dialogue with us is in the capacity as professional legal advisers to our clients. Our clients are solely responsible for their investment and commercial decisions in respect of transactions. If in doubt about any investment, clients should seek advice from an appropriately qualified and authorised financial adviser.

6.4 Any client who is unable to resolve any issues with us through the use of our Complaints Procedure may raise them through the complaints mechanisms provided by the SRA and the Legal Ombudsman.

7. Modern Slavery Act 2015

Cooley UK has a zero-tolerance to modern slavery and is committed to ensure that it does not take place anywhere in our business and no one with whom we do business benefits from or in any way contributes to modern slavery. Read our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement.

Cooley UK is proud to be a Living Wage Employer, accredited with the Living Wage Foundation.

8. VAT

Cooley (UK) LLP is registered for VAT purposes in the United Kingdom with VAT No. 201 8881 19.