Is it GDPR compliant to have client data handled by a lawyer in South Africa?

It is set up to be: firms disclose that data may be processed outside the UK, every consultant receives data protection training and signs an international data transfer agreement, and work happens inside the firm's own systems under the firm's control.

Whose systems does the lawyer work in?

The firm's. Placed lawyers work inside the firm's document management system and channels, and the firm can procure company equipment, managed by its own IT department, with Singularity's help.

Questions firms ask

How does UK GDPR work with a lawyer based in South Africa?

The way it works with any personal data processed outside the UK: through disclosure, contracts and controls, all in place before your consultant starts. The aim is simpler than the paperwork suggests. Your client material stays inside your firm's own environment, under your firm's control, and the agreements make everyone's obligations explicit.

Every consultant placed through Singularity receives data protection training, works under comprehensive UK GDPR clauses in their agreement with us, and signs an international data transfer agreement.

The paperwork behind a placement

Data protection training for every consultant before they start.
Comprehensive clauses in the consultant's agreement with Singularity governing how client data is treated and requiring compliance with UK GDPR.
An international data transfer agreement signed with each individual consultant.
The firm-level and personal confidentiality undertakings that every placement already runs under.

Your systems, your control

Your consultant works inside your firm's own systems: your document management system, your Microsoft or Google environment, your channels. Because your firm supervises and directs the work, you can also procure company equipment for them, with our help, and your IT department holds full management of that device. Your firm stays the controller and decides exactly what access to grant. What this does not do is make the transfer disappear: the material is accessed from South Africa, which is precisely why the transfer agreements above exist.

What your firm tells its clients

Firms disclose to their clients that personal data may be accessed from outside the UK, and you will want your own privacy information to reflect that. We will flag it, but it is your call. That disclosure, together with the contracts and controls above, is how the arrangement stays squarely inside the rules rather than working around them. We are happy to take your DPO through the paperwork before you commit.

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