Privacy Policy

Who we are

Blackstone School of Law, 5-A Ahmed Block, Garden Town, Lahore, Pakistan, is the data controller responsible for your information. This application is operated on its behalf by Startup Lab 24.

We help practicing lawyers apply to transfer to the Bar of England & Wales via the Transferring Qualified Lawyer route and Lincoln's Inn.

For any data-protection question, contact us at support@startuplab24.com.

What we collect

• Your name, email, phone/WhatsApp, and country.
• Your legal practice details: law degree, university, jurisdiction, bar council, admission year, years of practice, and rights of audience.
• Documents you upload to support your application: your degree certificate, transcript, an identity document (passport or national ID), and a photo.
• Payment receipts you upload once enrolled.
• Basic usage counts (page visits, sign-ups) with no advertising trackers.

Why we collect it

To assess your eligibility, prepare your Bar Standards Board exemption application, administer your course, and communicate with you about your application and progress. We do not sell your data or share it for advertising.

Our legal grounds for using your data

• To assess your eligibility, administer your course, and communicate with you about your application: performance of our contract with you.
• Basic usage counts: our legitimate interest in running and improving the service. You may object to this at any time.
• Your degree certificate, transcript, identity document (passport or national ID) and photo: your explicit consent, which you give when you upload them. You can withdraw this consent at any time (see "Your rights" below), though we may then be unable to progress your application.
• Where the law requires us to keep or disclose information: legal obligation.

Storing and transferring your data internationally

Your data and uploaded documents are stored on a private server in Germany (Hetzner), with encrypted backups kept in a second region. Our admissions team accesses this data from Pakistan. When you — or we, on your behalf — submit your application to UK bodies (the Bar Standards Board, Lincoln's Inn, and the assessment provider), that data goes to the United Kingdom, which is recognised as providing adequate data protection.

How long we keep your data

• Application and course records: for the duration of your course plus 2 years, after which they are deleted or anonymised.
• Uploaded identity documents: deleted within 24 months of your application being completed or withdrawn, unless we must keep them longer by law.
• If your account is deleted, we remove your data within 30 days, except where we are legally required to retain it.

Who sees it

Our admissions officers and administrators. Your application is also submitted, by you and on your behalf, to UK bodies — the Bar Standards Board, Lincoln's Inn, and the assessment provider — as part of the transfer process. We use Google's email service to send you transactional messages (application confirmations, password resets, progress updates).

Your rights

You have the right to: access the data we hold on you; correct it; delete it; restrict or object to our processing; receive a portable copy; and, where we rely on consent, withdraw that consent at any time. To exercise any of these, email support@startuplab24.com and we will respond within one month.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority — in the EU, your local supervisory authority; in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Whether providing data is required

The information and documents we ask for are necessary to assess your eligibility and prepare your application. If you choose not to provide them, we may be unable to offer you the course or submit your application.

Security and breaches

We protect your data with encryption, restricted access and secure backups. If a breach occurs that is likely to affect your rights, we will notify the relevant authority and, where required, you, without undue delay.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We will post the new version here with a revised "last updated" date and, for significant changes, notify you directly.

Contact

Questions about your data? Email support@startuplab24.com or write to us at 5-A Ahmed Block, Garden Town, Lahore, Pakistan.