Effective date: November 22, 2024

Metz Lewis Brodman Must O’Keefe, LLC (“us”, “we”, “our”, “Metz Lewis” or “the Firm”) is a law firm based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania providing legal services. We operate the website https://www.metzlewis.com (the “Website”) to provide general information regarding the Firm, our attorneys, legal developments and to provide a portal for the secure payment of bills online.

This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information when you visit our Website and in connection with our legal services and the choices you have associated with that data.

We may use your data to provide our legal services, improve the Website and to respond to inquiries submitted through the Website. By using the Website, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy and our Cookie Policy.

Information Collection and Use

We may collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide our services and improve the Website.

Types of Data Collected

Personal Information

While visiting the Website or engaging us for our services, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Information”). Personal Information may include, but is not limited to:

  • Email Address
  • First Name and Last Name
  • Phone Number
  • Address, State, Province, ZIP/Postal code, City, Country
  • Cookies and Usage Data

Usage Data

We may also collect information that your browser or device sends whenever you visit our Website or when you access the Website by or through a mobile device (“Usage Data”).

This Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Website that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

When you access the Website by or through a mobile device, this Usage Data may include information such as the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser you use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

Tracking & Cookies Data

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Website and hold certain information.

Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies that may also be used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our Website.

You can set your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Website.

Examples of Cookies we use include:

  • Session Cookies:We use Session Cookies to operate our Website.
  • Preference Cookies:We use Preference Cookies to remember your preferences and various settings.
  • Security Cookies:We use Security Cookies for security purposes.
  • Statistics Cookies:We use Statistics Cookies to identify which pages on our Site are being used. This helps us analyze data about web page traffic, such as with Google Analytics, to improve our Site. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Do Not Track & Global Privacy Control Signals

Some web browsers may transmit “Do Not Track” signals to websites with which the browser communicates. The Website responds to “Do Not Track” signals. You can turn on “Do Not Track” signals in the Settings of your web browser.

A Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal is generated by an optional browser extension in certain browsers when you navigate online. When available, it automatically communicates your privacy preferences to opt out of websites selling or sharing your personal information as you navigate between websites through the browser. The Website responds to GPC signals received. You can learn more about GPC signals and how to use them at https://globalprivacycontrol.org/.

Use and Transfer of Personal Information

Metz Lewis uses the collected data for various purposes:

  • To provide legal services
  • To provide and maintain the Website
  • To communicate with you, including by email, phone or text messaging (SMS), regarding our services and in response to inquiries from you
  • To notify you about changes to our Website, notifications about our Firm including events, and updates on legal developments
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Website
  • To provide analysis or valuable information so that we can improve the Website
  • To monitor the usage of the Website
  • To detect, prevent, and address technical issues

Your information, including Personal Information, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction.

If you are located outside United States and choose to provide information to us, please note that this may be considered a transfer of data, including Personal Information, to the United States.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy, followed by your submission of such information, represents your agreement to that transfer. You may, at any time, withdraw your consent for our retention of your data. Additionally, you may wish to update your information with us.

All notices regarding a change in data or consent, in writing, should be provided to us at privacy@metzlewis.com or at the contact information found at the bottom of this page. You will receive confirmation of any changes within one month. If you withdraw consent, we may keep a record of your withdrawal in order to be able to comply with your request and prevent contact.

Your information will be stored in our data systems for only so long as is necessary to fulfill your requests and our needs for data as described above, or to fulfill legal obligations. At any time, you may request a copy of the information we are storing which relates to you.

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. No transfer of your Personal Information will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We do not and will not sell or share your information to others and have not done so in the last 12 months. This includes Personal Information, such as your contact information. For instance, SMS opt-in or phone numbers collected or used for SMS purposes are not being shared.

We may disclose your Personal Information, and have disclosed Personal Information in the last 12 months, to the extent required:

  • To Service Providers we use to support our Firm and the Website;
  • To fulfill any express purpose for which you provide any Personal Information;
  • For any specific purposes disclosed by us when you provide any Personal Information; or
  • With your consent.

We may also disclose your Personal Information in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  • To comply with a legal obligation;
  • To protect and defend the rights or property of Metz Lewis;
  • To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Website;
  • To protect the personal safety of users of the Website or the public; or
  • To protect against legal liability.

Security of Personal Information

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure. For instance, all data is securely stored in Microsoft Azure’s cloud-hosted environment. Access is restricted on a need-to-know basis and is controlled through password-secured accounts requiring multi-factor authentication. Further data security is provided through malware protection, penetration tests, and employee training.

Although we do our best to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information transmitted to the Website. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

Service Providers

We may employ certain third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our use and management of the Website (“Service Providers”), to provide services on our behalf, to perform Website-related services, and to assist us in our provision of legal services.

These third parties may have access to your Personal Information but only to the extent necessary to perform these tasks on our behalf and are contractually obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

For example, we may use certain third-party Service Providers to assist with payment processing, information technology, email, phone calls, SMS messaging, document management, and website analytics and therefore may share or disclose the Personal Information with them for these limited purposes. However, these Service Providers are responsible for their use of your Personal Information.

We do not process credit card payments or collect or store credit card information. All payment processing services are provided by third party Service Providers as discussed above. In some cases, your information may be provided to these Service Providers solely for the purpose of processing payment for invoices initiated by you through this Website. The Service Providers only use your personal information for performing their service functions and are prohibited from using it for other purposes.

Links to Other Sites

Our Website may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us or may direct you to the site of a Service Provider, such as for credit card payment. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third-party sites or services.

Data Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live or your location, you may have certain rights with respect to your Personal Information under local data privacy laws. For instance, individuals residing in certain states within the United States[1], or located in the European Union, European Economic Area, United Kingdom, Canada, and various other countries and regions around the world may have certain rights regarding their Personal Information, including:

  • Right to Know/Right of Access:You may have the right to know what categories of and specific pieces of your Personal Information we have collected, used, shared or sold in the last 12 months, the source of such information, the expected duration that we anticipate retaining that Personal Information, and the technical safeguards for that information, subject to the limitations set out in applicable laws and regulations.
  • Right of Correction/Rectification: At your request, we will correct incomplete or inaccurate parts of your Personal Information.
  • Right to be Forgotten/Erasure/Deletion:At your request, we will delete Personal Information held by us and our Service Providers, though we may retain Personal Information if it is needed to: (1) complete a transaction, provide a service or otherwise perform a contract for you, (2) detect or resolve issues relating to security or functionality of the Website; (3) comply with legal obligations; (4) engage in research in the public interest; (5) exercise free speech or ensure another’s exercise of free speech; or (6) use the Personal Information internally in a lawful manner that is consistent with the context in which you provided the Personal Information.
  • Right to Data Portability: At your request, we will provide you with your Personal Information in a commonly used format.
  • Right to Restrict/Limit Processing: Depending on the country or state, you may have the right to opt-in or opt-out of the sale or sharing of your Personal Information with third parties for targeted advertising, contextual behavioral advertising, and decisions based solely on automated processing (such as profiling) in connection with decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. We note that we do not engage in any of these types of processing.
  • Right to Withdraw Consent: You have the right to withdraw any consent you may have previously provided at any time.
  • Right to Non-discrimination:You have the right to not be discriminated against in price or service for exercising your privacy rights.

      To exercise any of your privacy rights, please send a request to privacy@metzlewis.com or the contact information provided at the bottom of this page. We will confirm receipt of your request, verify your identity, and respond within one month once we your identity has been verified. If we cannot verify the identity or otherwise comply with the request, we will let you know.

      If you are unsatisfied with our response to your data privacy request, you may have the right to appeal or lodge a complaint with the Attorney General’s office for your state or the relevant Data Protection Authority for your country or jurisdiction, depending on your local data privacy laws.

      Children’s Privacy

      Our Website and our services are not directed to anyone under the age of 18 (“Children”). We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Information from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

      Changes to This Privacy Policy

      We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

      We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Website, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.

      You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

      Contact Us

      If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or would like to make a request regarding your Personal Information, please contact us at:

      Email: privacy@metzlewis.com

      METZ LEWIS BRODMAN MUST O’KEEFE LLC
      ATTN: Data Privacy
      444 Liberty Ave., Suite 2100
      Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
      www.metzlewis.com
      412-918-1100

      [1] As of the Effective Date, this includes California, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, Connecticut, Montana, Oregon and Texas.