Terms of use

These Terms of Use are issued by Withers LLP, Withers Bergman LLP and their affiliated partnerships, offices, undertakings, affiliates and alliances, including Withers BVI, Withers 衛達仕, Studio Legale Associato con Withers LLP, Withers KhattarWong LLP, Withers Bengoshi Houjin and Withers Gaikokuhou Jimu Bengoshi Houjin  authorised to practice under the name ‘Withers’ or ‘Withersworldwide’ (and references to ‘Withers’, ‘we’ or ‘us’ are to one or more of those partnerships, offices and undertakings, as appropriate). For more information on how we are regulated in various jurisdictions please see the Legal Notice.

These Terms of Use apply to your use of content and services accessed through this Website and resulting electronic communications between you and us.

Additional terms and conditions may apply if you wish to use certain services available through this Website and, if so, these will be indicated on the relevant webpages.

1. Introduction

   1. You may access most areas of this Website without registering or supplying your personal details to us. Certain areas of this Website are only open to you if you register. In particular, you will be required to register your details with us when applying for a training contract or other employment vacancy. For more information on how Withers uses personal information submitted through this Website please refer to our Privacy Policy.
   2. Withers may update these Terms of Use at any time so you should check them from time to time to make sure you have seen the latest version. Where additional terms and conditions appear on specific sections of this Website and there is any inconsistency between them and any part of these Terms of Use, the additional terms will take priority over the relevant part of these Terms of Use.
   3. If you are a client of Withers, nothing in these Terms of Use is intended to take over from or modify any provision in your engagement letter, our client terms of business or any other agreement concerning any applicable privilege or the lawyer-client relationship, all of which will continue to apply.
   4. NO LEGAL ADVICE: The information contained in this Website is provided for general information only and may not reflect current status in relation to applicable law, cases, settlements or judgements. Nothing contained on this Website is intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be construed as Withers agreeing to provide legal services to you. You acknowledge and agree that your use of this Website shall not create a lawyer-client relationship with Withers.
   5. Some of the material on this Website may constitute attorney advertising within the meaning of sections 1200.1 and 1200.6-8 of Title 22 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulatory Attorney Advertising Regulations or other applicable regulations. The following statement is made on this website in accordance with those rules: ATTORNEY ADVERTISING; PRIOR RESULTS DO NOT GUARANTEE A SIMILAR OUTCOME. Results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each representation.
   6. No recipient of content from this site, client or otherwise, should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included on this Website without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from an attorney licensed in the recipient’s state. Withers expressly disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any or all of the contents of this Website.
   7. Withers does not seek to represent any person or entity based upon that person’s or entity’s viewing of this Website (or any portion of this Website) in any jurisdiction where this Website (or any portion of this Website) does not comply with all of the laws, professional conduct rules or ethical requirements of that jurisdiction.
   8. Withers does not seek to represent any person or entity based upon that person’s or entity’s viewing of this Website (or any portion of this Website) in any jurisdiction where this Website (or any portion of this Website) does not comply with all of the laws, professional conduct rules or ethical requirements of that jurisdiction.

2. Licence

   1. Unless otherwise stated, the copyright and other intellectual property rights in all text, images, audio content and other material on this Website including without limitation photographs, graphics, designs, diagrams, charts, tables, software, applications, tools and its layout (in whatever medium) (‘Material’) is owned by Withers or its licensors. For the purposes of these Terms of Use, any copying, publication, distribution or use of such Material other than in accordance with paragraph 2.b below for any purpose is prohibited.
   2. You are permitted to download and take copies of Material from this Website for your own personal non-commercial reference or use on the following basis:
      1. Material is not modified or adapted in any way;
      2. any images and graphics are reproduced together with the accompanying text; and
      3. relevant copyright, trade mark and other legal notices are reproduced in all copies together with necessary attributions or  acknowledgements of the source material.
   3. Other than provided under paragraph 2.b, or automatically cached excerpts or links provided as part of a web search service or to the extent that the law expressly permits (which cannot be excluded by contract), no part of this Website may be reproduced in any other website or included in any electronic retrieval system or service without Withers’ prior written permission. If you breach any of these Terms of Use, your permission to download, copy or use Materials on this Website automatically terminates and you must immediately delete or destroy any copies of Material in your possession.
   4. Any rights not expressly granted under these Terms of Use are reserved.

3. Service areas

   1. While Withers endeavors to make this Website normally available to the public 24 hours a day, it shall not be liable if for any reason this Website is unavailable at any time or for any period.
   2. Access to this Website may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, telecommunications issues, maintenance or repair or for any reason beyond Withers’ control.

4. Visitor conduct

   1. Except for personal information as covered under the Privacy Policy, where you post any information, data, images or other material to this Website in whatever form (‘User Content’), this shall be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. Withers shall have no obligation with respect to such User Content and where you post such User Content you acknowledge that Withers is free to copy, disclose, distribute, publish, incorporate and otherwise use User Content for any lawful purpose.
   2. You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from this Website any User Content
      1. that is threatening, defamatory, obscene, indecent, seditious, offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy or which may cause harassment, annoyance or inconvenience;
      2. for which you have not obtained all necessary clearances, licences and/or approvals;
      3. which constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered criminal or giving rise to civil liability, or is otherwise contrary to the law of or infringes the rights of any third party, in any country;
      4. which is or could be technically harmful (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software or harmful data); or
      5. for promotional purposes (including without limitation, unsolicited marketing or advertising).
   3. You may not use the Website or any Material appearing on it in any misleading or unlawful manner or for any purpose except as expressly provided for in these Terms of Use. You may not use links to this Website or any Material on it to increase traffic to your own website for commercial gain without our express permission.
   4. Withers reserves the right to fully co-operate with any law enforcement agencies, regulatory authorities or court orders requesting or directing Withers to disclose the identity or locate anyone posting any material in breach of paragraphs 4.b to 4.d.

5. Links to other websites

   1. Any links to third party websites on this Website are provided solely for your convenience. If you use these links, you leave this Website. Withers has not reviewed all of these third party websites and does not control and is not responsible for these websites. Withers therefore does not endorse or make any representations about them, their contents or availability, any results that may be obtained from using them or any of these third party websites’ privacy practices. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to this Website, you do so entirely at your own risk.

6. Registration

   1. If you register with us this is for a single user only. You must not share your user name, password or log-in details with anyone else.
   2. When you register, you warrant that the personal information which you are required to provide is true, accurate and complete in all material respects.
   3. You are responsible for ensuring the security of any password issued to you. If you think or know that someone else has access to or knows your password, then you agree to inform Withers immediately, so that a new password can be issued to you.

7. Disclaimer

   1. The information contained in this Website does not constitute legal advice. Users of this Website should take appropriate legal advice based on their individual circumstances. Withers accepts no responsibility or liability for any loss which may result from reliance on any of the information, opinions or Material contained in or accessed through this Website.
   2. While Withers uses commercially reasonable efforts to post information on this Website that is correct, Withers does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the Material on this Website. Withers may make changes to the Material on this Website at any time without notice. The Material on this Website may contain certain omissions, errors or may be out of date, and Withers makes no commitment to update such Material.
   3. The Material on this Website is provided on an “as is” basis without any representation, warranty, term or condition of any kind (whether express or implied by law). To the maximum extent permitted by law, Withers excludes all representations, warranties, conditions and terms (including, without limitation, and implied terms or conditions of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose or reasonable care and skill) which but for this legal notice might have effect in relation to this Website.

8. Liability

   1. Subject to paragraph 8.b below, Withers and any of its partners, members, employees, representatives, agents or authorised contractors disclaim and exclude all liability for any loss or damage suffered by you (or any third party) in connection with this Website including (without limitation):
      1. your (or such third party’s) use of or inability to use the Website;
      2. any results obtained from use of this Website (or any third party websites linked to this Website);
      3. loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack or other technologically harmful material that may infect your hardware, software, data or other property on account of your use of this Website or downloading of any Material from this Website or any websites linked to this Website. In addition, if your use of Material on this Website results in the need for servicing, repair, correction or recovery of equipment, software or data, you assume all costs of the above.
   2.  Nothing in these Terms of Use, excludes or limits liability for:
      1. death or personal injury caused by negligence (as such term is defined by applicable law);
      2. fraud; or
      3. any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

9. Governing law and jurisdiction

   1. Except as covered by paragraph 9.b, these Terms of Use and your use of the Website shall be governed and construed in accordance with English law. Disputes arising in connection with these Terms of Use or your use of the Website shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
   2. If you are accessing the site from within the United States of America then these Terms of Use and your use of the Website shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of the State of Connecticut. Disputes arising in connection with these Terms of Use or your use of the Website shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Connecticut courts.