PRIVACY POLICY

Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC. (“ESCM” or “us” or “we” or “our”) owns and operates the eckertseamans.com site (“Site”). Protecting your privacy when you visit and interact with the Site is important to us. The purpose of this Privacy Policy (“Policy”) is to provide information on how ESCM collects and uses Personal Information (as defined below) from you when you visit our Site and how you can submit privacy related requests or questions to us. To the extent we knowingly collect Personal Information of our clients on our Site, we will treat such Personal Information in accordance with this Policy as well as our professional and ethical obligations as practicing attorneys. Please note that if you are a client of ESCM, we may collect Personal Information outside of the Site while representing and providing legal services to you that goes beyond the scope of this Policy.    

Last Updated: March 24, 2026

Material Policy Updates

Changes made to reflect new subsection under the Collection and Use of Personal Information section regarding SMS/Text Message Communications.

Policy Scope

ESCM is a law firm located in the United States. Therefore, our Site is intended for individuals who reside in the United States and are 18 years of age or older (“Covered Person”). This Policy only applies to the collection of Personal Information of Covered Persons while visiting our Site. If you are not a Covered Person, you should not access or use the Site, and you visit our Site at your own risk.

We do not knowingly market or advertise to children under 18 years of age nor collect the Personal Information of children under 18 years of age from our Site. However, if a minor uploads/posts information to the Site that is publicly available, and the minor or his/her legal guardian subsequently wants that same information deleted, the minor or his/her legal guardian has a right to request that the information be removed from public viewing. Please email us at info@eckertseamans.com to make the request.

If you are outside of the United States, you are responsible for complying with any local laws regarding your use of the Site, and you agree and acknowledge that any Personal information you provide to us, either directly or through your interaction with our Site, will be transmitted to, and stored in, the United States.

If you learn that anyone who is not a Covered Person provided us with Personal Information, please contact us at info@eckertseamans.com, and we will take steps to delete such information. Please note that any removal of content by ESCM does not ensure or guarantee complete or comprehensive removal of content in all places. The content may have been shared or reposted by other parties, or federal or state law may require maintenance of the content or information.

This Policy covers only your use of the Site. Other ESCM sites and other online locations may have their own privacy policies, and you should consult those accordingly.

To the extent that you apply for an open ESCM position on our Site, please refer to our “Application Privacy Policy”.

Policy Changes

ESCM may update this Policy from time to time. Any changes to this Policy will be effective when last posted, which is indicated in the “Last Updated” date above. Your continued use of the Site, after any changes are made to this Policy, constitutes your acceptance of such changes. If any of the changes are unacceptable to you, you should cease using the Site. We will not collect new types of Personal Information or use Personal Information that is materially different from what is disclosed in this Policy without providing you prior notice of the change by describing the change in the “Material Policy Updates” section above. If required under law, we will obtain your consent for any Material Policy Updates. If required under applicable law, if you have provided ESCM with an email address to subscribe to ESCM News and Updates, we will notify you of Material Policy Updates by email and give you thirty (30) days to opt in to the changes as they pertain to your Personal Information.

Collection and Use of Personal Information

Personal Information is generally defined as information that may be able to identify you directly or indirectly, including, but not limited to, name, address, telephone number, email address, age, etc. Personal Information may also include (to the extent we can use such information to identify, contact, or be associated with you), your IP address, location, device, and online activities while visiting the Site, including what webpages and/or videos or other Site content you viewed while visiting our Site.

There may be instances where you may be asked to provide ESCM with Personal Information. For example, you may be asked to provide your name, mailing address, email address, phone number, employer, and/or topics of interest when you:

  • register for ESCM meetings or events;
  • contact ESCM with questions or comments; and/or
  • sign up for ESCM newsletters, such as the ESCM News and Updates.

ESCM may use your Personal Information to:

  • schedule/administer meetings and events;
  • respond to questions or comments;
  • deliver services through the Site;
  • send you ESCM newsletters and other client alerts or updates;
  • improve the content and general administration of the Site;
  • To exercise our legal rights;
  • To comply with legal, law enforcement, and/or regulatory requirements or requests; and/or
  • perform internal operations, including but not limited to, maintaining our Site, conducting fraud prevention, providing IT support and/or troubleshooting computer viruses or other harmful elements, running our day-to-day business operations, facilitating corporate or other business transactions, retaining and/or archiving data collected from our Site, and conducting data analytics on web visitor interactions with our Site.

Sensitive Personal Information

We do not knowingly collect sensitive Personal Information about you through the Site. However, if you choose to provide sensitive Personal Information to us, you consent to us processing your sensitive Personal Information in accordance with this Policy.

SMS/Text Message Communications

We may offer the option for you to interact with ESCM by sending and receiving manual and/or automated SMS or text messages to and from your mobile phone. Such messages may involve transactional or account-related messages, responses to inquiries you send us, or automated updates, alerts, and other promotional or marketing messages about ESCM’s services (if you provide your consent). The frequency of such messages as well as the time when such messages are sent may vary, provided that we will send such text messages to you in accordance with applicable law. You must opt-in or consent to receive automated text messages.

When you opt-in or consent to receive text messages from ESCM, we may collect personal information such as your name, email address, phone number, any personal information or other data you provide in your text messages to ESCM, and data related to the delivery of or your interaction with ESCM text messages. Such personal information and other data are collected directly from you when you enter your phone number into a web form, interact with ESCM through text messages, or when you opt-in to ESCM’s text messaging service through a registration form.

ESCM does not sell or share your phone number with third parties for their own marketing purposes, but we may share your information with third-party service providers who help deliver text messages on our behalf, such as SMS/text message gateway providers, mobile phone or wireless carriers, and customer support vendors, provided that such third parties are contractually obligated to keep your information secure and only use it to provide services for or on behalf of ESCM.

By providing your phone number and your consent to participate in ESCM’s text messaging service, you understand and expressly agree that you may receive recurring text messages sent by or on behalf of ESCM to the phone number you provided, even if that phone number is registered in any state or federal Do Not Call list.

You understand that you do not have to sign up for this text messaging service as a condition of engaging or using ESCM’s legal services. Your participation in the text messaging service is completely voluntary.

You may opt-out of receiving automated text messages sent by or on behalf of ESCM at any time. If you wish to opt-out of receiving automated text messages from ESCM, please reply with STOP, contact us at info@eckertseamans.com, or otherwise follow the unsubscribe or opt-out instructions in any such message. You may receive a one-time opt-out confirmation text message, but no further messages will be sent to your phone unless you initiate them or opt-in to ESCM’s text messaging service again.

For support or assistance related to ESCM’s text messaging service, text HELP in response to any message you receive or contact ESCM at info@eckertseamans.com.

ESCM may change any short code or telephone number we use to operate the text messaging service at any time, and ESCM will use commercially reasonable efforts to notify you of such changes. You acknowledge that any messages you send to a short code or telephone number we have changed, including any STOP or HELP requests, may not be received and we will not be responsible for honoring requests made in such messages.

You agree that you are responsible for providing and maintaining a valid and accurate mobile phone number for use in connection with ESCM’s text messaging service. If you plan to get a new phone number, then you must opt-out of ESCM’s text messaging service prior to changing your number, and sign up for the text messaging service again with your new number. ESCM and any applicable mobile phone or wireless carriers are not liable for any delayed or undelivered messages.

Standard data usage fees may be charged by your mobile phone or wireless carrier when sending or receiving text messages, so please be aware of such fees.

Online Tracking Activities

Our Site uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”), that uses tracking technologies to analyze your use of and interaction with our Site. Information that Google may collect for this purpose may include page views, scrolls, videos, or links that were clicked, a unique client ID attributable to your device and browser information, your approximate age, gender, interests, language settings on your device or browser, and approximate location metadata derived from your IP address (city, state, and country) (collectively, “Google Analytics Data”). Google Analytics Data is transmitted to and stored on a Google server in the United States where it analyzed for purposes of generating reports on web traffic patterns on webpages and/or posted web content on our Site (“Google Analytics Report”). Google provides ESCM with Google Analytics Reports so that we may tailor our Site to accommodate the needs of our web users.  Google may also transfer Google Analytics Data and Google Analytics Reports to third parties, if required by law or if third parties process such information on behalf of Google. We do not use the Google Analytics pixel to share Personal Information with third parties for targeted advertising purposes.

A general overview of Google’s data privacy practices for Google Analytics may be available at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245. For more information on Google’s privacy practices generally, please review Google’s privacy policy. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics, you may be able to download and install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Plugins 

A plugin is a small piece of software that adds a specific functionality or content to a website or mobile application such as running videos and customizing website fonts and images. Websites may also have ‘social media plugins, which allows a website user to connect to an organization’s social media page directly from the organization’s website. If the user has a social media account, the user may be able to interact with their social media account on websites they visit. For example, the social media account user may be able to ‘like’ or ‘share’ content on a website which then may be shared on the social media page. When using social media plugins, certain information about website users may be collected and shared with the third-party social media provider.

On our Site, we use the following social media plugins in the table below. You can opt out of having information shared with social media companies by following the directions noted in the table below.

 

Third Party Plugin

How to Manage Privacy Settings

More Information

X (formally Twitter)

Go to privacy settings

X Privacy Policy

LinkedIn

Go to LinkedIn Ads settings

LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy

None of the plugins embedded on our Site are used to share Personal Information for targeted advertising purposes.

When We Disclose Personal Information

ESCM may share Personal Information with its email vendor, Intuit MailChimp (“MailChimp”), for MailChimp to send out emails, including marketing emails, on ESCM’s behalf. MailChimp may collect some of this Personal Information directly through the Site. MailChimp’s privacy policy can be found at: https://www.intuit.com/privacy/statement/.

When you click on a video embedded on our Site, Personal Information pertaining to your device and video viewing history may be shared with Vimeo, a video hosting platform. By playing a video embedded on our Site, you agree that Vimeo may collect and use your Personal Information in accordance with Vimeo’s privacy policy. Vimeo’s privacy policy can be found at: https://vimeo.com/privacy. 

ESCM may also disclose Personal Information with its IT and data storage service providers to maintain the Site and retain any data contained from the Site.

If you sign up for ESCM related events or webinars, we may share your Personal Information with our service providers for purposes of facilitating the event and/or webinar.

ESCM will disclose your Personal Information if it reasonably believes it is required to do so by law or in cooperation with a governmental or law enforcement investigation. ESCM may also disclose Personal Information to avoid imminent physical harm to any person or harm to any ESCM property.

ESCM may disclose Personal Information to a third party in the event of a corporate transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, or affiliation involving ESCM.

If you are a current or former client of ESCM, we do not knowingly disclose Personal Information about you in the course of representing you, except as expressly or impliedly authorized by you to enable us to effectuate the purpose of our representation or as required or permitted by law or applicable provisions of codes of professional responsibility or ethical rules governing our conduct as lawyers. Except as noted herein, ESCM does not knowingly disclose Personal Information to any person or entity outside of ESCM.

By using the Site and providing your Personal Information to ESCM, you agree that ESCM may use and share your Personal Information in accordance with this Policy.

Your Choices About Your Personal Information

Depending on where you reside, you may have certain rights or choices that allow you to make requests with respect to your Personal Information (subject to applicable legal exceptions) including rights and/or choices to:

  • Obtain confirmation that we accessed and processed your Personal Information;
  • Obtain details about how we collect, use, and share your Personal Information;
  • Access a copy of your Personal Information in a portable format;
  • Delete your Personal Information, (unless an exception under law applies);
  • Correct your Personal Information;
  • Opt out of the sale of your Personal Information or targeted advertising based on your browsing behavior before and after you visit our Site (we do not sell nor share your Personal Information for targeted advertising purposes);
  • Opt-out of any processing of your Personal Information for the purposes of creating a profile based on your interests or behavior which is used in such a way that would produce legal ramifications or similarly significant real-world effects on you (we do not process your Personal Information for profiling purposes or using automated decision-making tools);
  • Submit an appeal to us if we initially reject your privacy request;
  • Submit a complaint to your applicable State Attorney General or regulatory authority; and/or
  • Not have discriminatory action taken against you for exercising your rights.

If you would like to exercise any of the above rights (“Privacy Request”), please contact us at info@eckertseamans.com. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights under privacy laws. Further information on the steps needed to complete your Privacy Request is detailed below. 

Step 1: Verifying your Request.

Before we can fulfill your Privacy Request, we need to (i) verify your identity or your authority to make the request (if you are submitting a Privacy Request as an agent) and (ii) confirm that the Personal Information you are requesting belongs to you. For most requests, we will ask you to provide information that matches at least two pieces of Personal Information we store about you before responding to your Privacy Request. If you would like to request specific pieces of Personal Information that we have collected, you will need to match at least three pieces of information we store about you, and you must provide a signed declaration under penalty of perjury that you are the consumer whose Personal Information you are requesting. 

We may refuse any request if we are unable to verify the identity of the person making the request or if we cannot authenticate the legitimacy of the request using commercially reasonable efforts. Under such circumstances, we may follow up with you for additional information as reasonably necessary to authenticate your request. We will only use Personal Information provided in a verifiable Privacy Request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the Privacy Request.

Authorized Agents

You may grant an authorized agent written permission to submit Privacy Requests, but we may deny requests from an authorized agent if we are unable to verify your identity directly as the subject of the Personal Information at issue. To verify a Privacy Request from an authorized agent, we may require proof that you gave the authorized agent signed permission to submit the Privacy Request, such as by requiring you to directly confirm with us that you provided permission for the authorized agent to submit your Privacy Request, and/or we may ask you to verify your identity directly with us.

Step 2: Responding to your Privacy Request.

After verifying your identity, we will respond to your request by either fulfilling your Privacy Request or explaining why we are denying your Privacy Request. The timeframe in which we respond will vary based on the applicable law where you reside. If we deny your Privacy Request, you may have the option under applicable law to appeal this decision by contacting us. If you are concerned with the result of your appeal, you may have the right to contact your State Attorney General or applicable data protection authority.

Deletion Requests 

Please note that for deletion requests, any removal of content by us does not ensure or guarantee complete or comprehensive removal in all places. The content may have been shared or reposted by other parties who act outside of any business relationship with us or may not cooperate with our request for them to delete your Personal Information, or federal or state law may require maintenance of the content or information. Therefore, please be as specific as possible in your request. If the request relates to information that ESCM needs to make the Site function properly for you, you may not be able to use the Site properly moving forward. Please note that ESCM reserves the right to maintain proper business records as required by law, or for other legitimate business purposes to the extent permitted by law, even if such records contain your Personal Information.

If you would like to opt out of receiving further promotional emails from ESCM, please follow the opt out instructions at the bottom of the email or send ESCM a detailed email to info@eckertseamans.com.

Response to “Do Not Track” Requests/Signals

ESCM does not respond to or recognize “do not track” signals or similar requests.

Data Security

We have implemented technical and organizational measures that are designed to address the risk of loss, misuse, alteration, or unauthorized disclosure of Personal Information under our control to comply with our obligations under applicable codes of professional responsibility or ethical rules governing our conduct as lawyers.  The Site uses TLS encryption to help prevent unauthorized access to Personal Information transmitted to the Site.

While we have employed security technologies and procedures to assist with safeguarding your Personal Information, no system or network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee that the information you send over the internet is fully secure.  You should exercise discretion in what information you disclose and/or transmit through our Site.  The transmitted information may be intercepted by others before it reaches us. If you are concerned about sending information to us over the Internet, please send the information by mail or call us to make other arrangements.  We are not responsible for the security of information transmitted online. Likewise, when you click on external links managed and/or controlled by a Third-Party (as defined below) from our Site, we cannot control the security measures used on such Third-Party sites or applications.

Data Retention 

We retain records relating to professional services that we provide so that we are better able to assist you with your professional needs and to comply with professional guidelines or requirements of law. ESCM retains collected information for a reasonable amount of time to fulfill the stated purpose for why the information was collected. ESCM will also retain collected information connected to business records for periods of time required by law and/or ESCM internal data retention policies or for longer periods if retention is necessary for purposes of a legal hold, potential litigation, audit, or another situation that requires their preservation and retention. If ESCM determines that collected information is no longer needed, it will delete such information. Our retention times will be consistent with applicable law and ESCM internal data retention policies. Please note that residual copies of your Personal Information may be removed from backup systems subject to our backup data retention schedule. 

External Links

The Site may contain links to external sites, including social media services, external websites, and/or external mobile applications (“Third Parties”) on our Site. However, we do not own nor control these Third Parties, and we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such Third Parties on their sites or applications, including their level of data sharing with other third parties. Additionally, we are not responsible for the data processing practices of the internet browser servicer you choose to use when accessing our Site.  Such Third Parties and internet browser servicers may have their own privacy policies, and you should consult those policies accordingly before using or going to their websites or apps.  

Terms of Use

The terms of use for the Site are incorporated by reference into this Policy and can be found at: https:// www.eckertseamans.com/legal-disclaimer.

How to Contact Us

If you have any requests or questions regarding this Policy, please contact ESCM at:

  • EMAIL: info@eckertseamans.com
  • PHONE: 412.566.6000
  • MAIL: 600 Grant Street, 44th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

If you believe there has been a violation of this Policy, please contact ESCM.

Printable version: ESCM Website Privacy Policy