Privacy Policy

In this Privacy Policy, “we”, ‘our” and “us” refers to WGC Lawyers Pty Ltd ABN: 11 618 900 155.

We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (APPs) and this policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, manage and handle the personal information provided by you through this website which is located at www.wgc.com.au (Website) and in the course of providing legal services to you.

It is important that you read this Privacy Policy.

Your privacy is important to us. We are committed to best practice privacy protection and we will do our best to protect your personal information if you share it with us. We collect personal information on our website and in the course of providing our services to enable us to provide you with our services and to meet our legal obligations.

What is personal information?

This privacy policy relates to personal information we gather and hold. Personal information is any information about you that identifies you or information by which your identity can be reasonably discovered. Examples are your name, address, marital status and email address.

Consent

You are not obliged to disclose personal or sensitive information about yourself or your contact details when you visit our website.

By using our Website, you accept this Privacy Statement and expressly consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information, and to us using this information to assist you with your enquiry and to offer any services that may be relevant to you.

Will this privacy policy change?

We regularly review all our policies and procedures and may change our privacy policy from time to time in order to comply with legislative updates or in order to reflect any changes that we make in the way that we collect or store your Personal Information.

Personal information we collect and method of collection

The personal information that we collect and hold about you, depends on your interactions with us. Generally, we will collect, use and hold personal information for the purposes of communicating:

new legal or firm developments; and
marketing material. If you do not wish to receive marketing communication from us, please let us know and we will take steps to remove you from our lists.

We may collect Personal Information from you during the course of providing legal services. We are bound by legal obligations of confidentiality and legal professional privilege. We will continue to treat and protect information we receive (including any Personal Information) in accordance with these obligations.

We also collect website activity statistics such as number of visitors, IP addresses, pages visited, time and date of visit and where you accessed our website from, so that we can make informed decisions relating to improving our website and the service we deliver. This information is anonymous and doesn’t identify a person.

We also collect personal information about you so we are able to assist you during the course of providing legal services. We may retain this information to ensure any future communication with you is relevant.

Collection of information for customer due diligence (AML/CTF)

From 1 July 2026, we are required to comply with the ‘Customer Due Diligence’ requirements in the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) (AML/CTF Act).

Why we need to collect this information

We collect your personal information to comply with our obligations under the AML/CTF Act. This includes to:

establish and verify your identity (or the identity of the person or entity you are acting on behalf of) before providing certain services;
understand the purpose of each matter or transaction;
assess and manage potential money laundering, terrorism financing, proliferation financing risks or related compliance risks associated with the provision of our services;
make reports required by law under the AML/CTF Act; and
meet record keeping obligations under the AML/CTF Act.

What personal information we collect for these purposes

We collect the following types of personal information for customer due diligence:

your full name, date of birth and residential address;
photo identification and unique identifiers, such as a passport or driver’s licence number;
information about your source of funds or source of wealth; and
entity ownership and control information, including details of beneficial owners, where you are acting for or through a company, trust or other entity.

We may also collect the following sensitive information: whether you are a member of any political associations, or professional or trade associations, which may be used to verify your occupation or to determine whether you are a politically exposed person.

How we collect this information

We will generally collect this personal information directly from you. We may also collect it:

through InfoTrack Pty Limited – or any other provider engaged by WGC Lawyers from time to time – being an approved third-party identity verification service, an approved third-party identity verification service that collects and verifies personal information on our behalf;
from public records and registers, such as registers of companies and trusts (including ASIC registers), court records, regulatory filings and land registries; and
from financial institutions or professional intermediaries involved in your matter.

Who we may share this information with

We usually disclose identity and verification information to third parties who assist us with our AML/CTF obligations, including identity verification and secure storage providers.

We may also share your personal information with AUSTRAC (the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre) to meet our legal and regulatory obligations under the AML/CTF Act or the AML/CTF Rules.

Your information collected for these purposes is used only for identity verification, compliance checks and client onboarding. We do not share this information for marketing, and we do not sell or trade client data. All documents and personal details are stored securely, accessed only by authorised staff, and protected through encrypted systems and controlled processes.

Cookies

Like many major websites, the Website may use “cookies” which store some information on computers accessing the Website.

Cookies may be used by us for a variety of purposes. For example, we may use cookies to recognise a computer which has previously visited this Website and customise the Website according to previous preferences and site behaviour. Cookies may also be used to manage security and store information about the type of browser being used.

You should be able to configure your computer so that it disables “cookies” or does not accept them.

Third party disclosure

We may disclose information to third parties when outsourcing services, such as data storage, identity verification, debt collection, bulk distribution and mailing, direct marketing, technology support services and obtaining expert help from consultants to improve our services.

We have contractual agreements with our service providers to protect your information up to the same standards as if we stored the information ourselves and to prevent them using the information we provide for any purposes other than our own.

Our Website may direct you to websites operated by third parties (Linked Sites). We are not responsible for the content or practices of the Linked Sites or their privacy policies regarding the collection, storage, use and dissemination of your Personal Information. We encourage you to always read the applicable privacy statement of any Linked Site before using it.

Required by law

There are times when we will be required by law to disclose any personal information we have about you, such as in the instance of an investigation into bankruptcy, counter-terrorism, fraud, taxation etc.

We are also required to make certain reports to AUSTRAC under the AML/CTF Act, and in some circumstances the law prohibits us from informing you that such a report has been made.

Your information

We take all reasonable steps to:

ensure that information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete, up-to-date and securely stored.
protect your personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access; however we cannot guarantee security.

You have a right to access most of your Personal Information that we hold. You can do so by making a written request to the Privacy Officer at the contact address on the Website to ask for access to your Personal Information, make a complaint concerning privacy, or if you think any of your Personal Information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

We reserve the right to charge you a reasonable fee for processing your request for access to your Personal Information if that request is onerous.

Complaints

If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information, you may lodge a complaint with our Privacy Officer using the contact details below. We will acknowledge your complaint and respond to you within a reasonable period.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.

Failure to provide information

If the personal information you provide to us is incomplete or inaccurate, we may be unable to provide you, or someone else you know, with the services you, or they, are seeking.

In particular, if you do not provide us with the personal information we require for customer due diligence, we may not be able to verify your identity and may be legally prevented from providing you (or the person or entity you are acting on behalf of) with the services you have requested.

Contact Details and Additional Information

If you require further information regarding this Privacy Policy, or wish to access or correct your personal information or make a privacy complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer on 07 4046 1111 or email cairns@wgc.com.au.