Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

(last updated 8 November 2023)

The following contains the policies of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (“IPBA” or the “Association”) concerning:


A.  SITE PROVIDER
This website is provided by Inter-Pacific Bar Association (“IPBA”)
Registered address:
Inter-Pacific Bar Association Limited, 9 Straits View #06-07, Marina One West Tower, Singapore 018937

Secretariat address:
IPBA Secretariat, Roppongi Hills North Tower 7F, 6-2-31 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Japan

Singapore Company Registration Number: 201526931R
For further information on this site, please contact the IPBA Secretariat (ipba@ipba.org).

B.  TERMS OF USE

1 Terms
By accessing the website at https://ipba.org, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms of service, all applicable laws and regulations, and agree that you are responsible for compliance with any applicable local laws. If you do not agree with any of these terms, you are prohibited from using or accessing this site. The materials contained in this website are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law.

2 Use License
Permission is granted to temporarily download one copy of the materials (information or software) on the IPBA's website for personal, non-commercial transitory viewing only. This is the grant of a license, not a transfer of title, and under this license you may not:

This license shall automatically terminate if you violate any of these restrictions and may be terminated by the IPBA at any time. Upon terminating your viewing of these materials or upon the termination of this license, you must destroy any downloaded materials in your possession whether in electronic or printed format.

3 Disclaimer
The materials on the IPBA's website are provided on an 'as is' basis. The IPBA makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and hereby disclaims and negates all other warranties including, without limitation, implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property or other violation of rights.
Further, the IPBA does not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the use of the materials on its website or otherwise relating to such materials or on any sites linked to this site.

4 Limitations
In no event shall the IPBA or its suppliers be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, damages for loss of data or profit, or due to business interruption) arising out of the use or inability to use the materials on the IPBA's website, even if the IPBA or an IPBA authorized representative has been notified orally or in writing of the possibility of such damage. Because some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on implied warranties, or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, these limitations may not apply to you.

5 Accuracy of materials
The materials appearing on the IPBA's website could include technical, typographical, or photographic errors. The IPBA does not warrant that any of the materials on its website are accurate, complete or current. The IPBA may make changes to the materials contained on its website at any time without notice. However, the IPBA does not make any commitment to update the materials.

6 Links
The IPBA has not reviewed all of the sites linked to its website and is not responsible for the contents of any such linked site. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by the IPBA of the site. Use of any such linked website is at the user's own risk.

7 Modifications
The IPBA may revise these terms of service for its website at any time without notice. By using this website, you are agreeing to be bound by the then current version of these terms of service.

8 Governing Law
These terms of use are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Singapore and you irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Singapore.

C.  PRIVACY POLICY

We at the IPBA take our responsibilities under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 of Singapore (the “PDPA”) and under the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (“EU-GDPR”) and that under the General Data Protection Regulation of the United Kingdom ("UK-GDPR" and referred to together with the EU-GDPR as the "GDPR") seriously. We also recognize the importance of the Personal Data you have entrusted to us and believe that it is our responsibility to properly manage, protect and process your Personal Data.

This Data Protection Policy (the “Privacy Policy”) will assist you in understanding how we collect, use, disclose and/or process the Personal Data you have provided to us or that we possess about you, as well as to assist you in making an informed decision before providing us with any of your Personal Data. Under the PDPA, the term “Personal Data” refers to information or data that is connected to an identifiable individual, whether true or not, or information or data about an individual who can be identified from that data, or from that data and other information to which an organisation has or is likely to have access. Under the GDPR, the term “Personal Data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier. This Privacy Policy applies to the events organized, the membership services and website(s) provided and/or the business conducted, by IPBA and explains how we handle Personal Data and comply with the requirements of Singapore’s PDPA and of the GDPR. If you, at any time, have any queries on this Privacy Policy or any other queries in relation to how we may manage, protect and/or process your Personal Data, please do not hesitate to contact our Data Protection Officer (i.e. the IPBA’s Chief Technology Officer as set forth in https://ipba.org/about-us/leadership/4/) via the contact details below:

If you are a resident of the EU or European Economic Area, our EU-GDPR representative according to Art. 13 EU-GDPR is:

Our UK-GDPR representative according to Art. 13 UK-GDPR is:

1. Collection of your personal data

1.1 We may collect Personal Data from you through various means, including but not limited to through our website. In general, before we collect any Personal Data from you, we will notify you of the purposes for which your Personal Data may be collected, used and/or disclosed, as well as obtain your consent for the collection, use and/or disclosure of your Personal Data for the intended purposes.

1.2 You have no obligation to provide any of the Personal Data requested by us. Typically, if you only browse our website, we would only collect your browser’s Personal Data. However, depending on circumstances, it may be the case that if you do not provide the requested Personal Data, we may not be able to provide you with certain products and services, or otherwise deal with you, that depend on the collection, use or disclosure of your Personal Data.

1.3 Your consent that is given pursuant to this Privacy Policy is additional to and does not supersede any other consents that you provided to IPBA with regard to processing of your Personal Data.

1.4 If you are residing in the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA), or the United Kingdom (UK), we may collect Personal Data from you on the following legal basis:

1.5 The Personal Data collected by IPBA may include, without limitation: 

1.6 The IPBA also uses cookies on some pages of its website. “Cookies” are small text files placed on your computer that assist the IPBA in providing a more customised website experience. If you are concerned about cookies, most browsers permit individuals to decline cookies. In most cases, a visitor may refuse a cookie and still fully navigate the IPBA websites, however other functionality in the site may be impaired. When leaving the IPBA website, you can always delete the cookie from your system if you wish. The IPBA deploys the following cookies:

Cookie’s name Purpose Duration
PHPSESSID To login registered members on the IPBA website’s member-only area Session only
Google Analytics To track visitor behaviour (without identifying any individual) on the IPBA website 2 years

2 Purposes for collection, use & disclosure of personal data

The Personal Data which we collect from you may be collected, used and/or disclosed for the following purposes:

(a) facilitating, processing, dealing with, administering, managing and/or maintaining your relationship with us, including but not limited to the provision of products or services to you;

(b) for marketing purposes and in this regard, we would be providing you with marketing, advertising and promotional information, materials and/or documents relating to products, contests, services and/or events (including those of third party organisations whom we may collaborate with) that we or relevant third party organisations may be selling, marketing, offering, organizing, involved in or promoting, whether such products, services and/or events exist now or are created in the future;

(c) conducting research, analytics and development activities (including but not limited to data analytics, surveys and/or profiling) to improve our services, website, platform and facilities in order to enhance your relationship with us or for your benefit, to improve any of our products or services for your benefit, to facilitate or administer your use of our website, and/or to assist us in improving your experience in using our website;

(d) storing, hosting, backing up (whether for disaster recovery or otherwise) of your Personal Data, whether within or outside Singapore;

(e) to ensure the security of our website, platform and systems;

(f) facilitating, dealing with and/or administering external audit(s) or internal audit(s) of the business of IPBA;

(g) carrying out due diligence or other screening activities (including background checks) in accordance with legal or regulatory obligations (whether Singapore or foreign country) applicable to us, the requirements or guidelines of governmental authorities (whether Singapore or foreign country) which we determine are applicable to us, and/or our risk management procedures that may be required by law (whether Singapore or foreign country) or that may have been put in place by us;

(h) to prevent or investigate any fraud, unlawful activity or omission or misconduct, whether or not there is any suspicion of the aforementioned; dealing with and/or investigating complaints;

(i) complying with or as required by any applicable law, court order, order of a regulatory body, governmental or regulatory requirements of any jurisdiction applicable to us, including meeting the requirements to make disclosure under the requirements of any law binding on us, and/or for the purposes of any guidelines issued by regulatory or other authorities (whether of Singapore or elsewhere), with which we are expected to comply;

(j) complying with or as required by any request or direction of any governmental authority (whether Singapore or foreign country) which we are expected to comply with; or responding to requests for information from public agencies, ministries, statutory boards or other similar authorities (whether Singapore or foreign country). For the avoidance of doubt, this means that we may/will disclose your Personal Data to such parties upon their request or direction.

(collectively, the “Purposes”).

3. Disclosure and transfer of personal data

3.1 The Personal Data you provide us with will be used by us, the IPBA. We strive to not disclose your Personal Data to third parties.

3.2 However, to conduct our business operations more smoothly, the Personal Data you have provided to us may be processed by our third-party service providers, agents and/or organisations, which may be located outside of Singapore or of the EU/Japan, for one or more of the above-stated Purposes. We have put in place appropriate contractual safeguards to ensure that such third-party service providers, agents and/or organisations respect a level of protection of your Personal Data in line with the PDPA and with the GDPR when processing your Personal Data.

3.3. In some exceptional cases, please note that we may also need disclose your Personal Data to third parties, including, without limitation, the following:

(a) cases in which the disclosure is required based on the applicable laws and/or regulations;
(b) cases in which the purpose of such disclosure is clearly in your interests, and if consent cannot be obtained in a timely way;
(c) cases in which the disclosure is necessary to respond to an emergency that threatens the life, health or safety of yourself or another individual;
(d) cases in which there are reasonable grounds to believe that the health or safety of yourself or another individual will be seriously affected and consent for the disclosure of the data cannot be obtained in a timely way, provided that we shall, as soon as may be practicable, notify you of the disclosure and the purposes of the disclosure;
(e) cases in which the disclosure is necessary for any investigation or proceedings;
(f) cases in which the Personal Data is disclosed to any officer of a prescribed law enforcement agency, upon production of written authorisation signed by the head or director of that law enforcement agency or a person of a similar rank, certifying that the Personal Data is necessary for the purposes of the functions or duties of the officer; and/or
(g) cases in which the disclosure is to a public agency and such disclosure is necessary in the public interest.

4. Retention period

4.1 We retain your Personal Data if you remain a member of the IPBA.

4.2 The Personal data of former IPBA members is deleted when (i) the purpose for which that Personal Data was collected no longer being served by and (ii) the retention is no longer necessary for any other legal or business purposes.

5. Your rights

You may exercise your rights by submitting your request through the following methods:

(a) Telephone number:   +81-3-5786-6796.
(b) E-mail:ipba@ipba.org. Attention it to the ‘Data Protection Officer‘.
(c) Office address: IPBA Secretariat, Roppongi Hills North Tower 7F, 6-2-31 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Japan. Attention it to the ‘Data Protection Officer‘.

5.1 Request for access and/or correction of personal data

You may request to access and/or correct the Personal Data currently in our possession at any time by submitting your request to the IPBA. 

For a request to access Personal Data, once we have sufficient information from you to deal with the request and to ensure of your identity, we will seek to provide you with the relevant Personal Data within 30 days. Where we are unable to respond to you within the said 30 days, we will notify you of the soonest possible time within which we can provide you with the information requested.

For a request to correct Personal Data, once we have sufficient information from you to deal with the request, we will deal with your request in compliance with the PDPA/GDPR, including correct your Personal Data within 30 days. Where we are unable to do so within the said 30 days, we will notify you of the soonest practicable time within which we can make the correction.

Note that the PDPA exempts certain types of Personal Data from being subject to your correction request as well as provides for situation(s) when correction need not be made by us despite your request. The GDPR may exempt us to comply with a correction request to protect the rights and freedoms of others, including ours.

5.2 Request to withdraw consent

If the IPBA processes your Personal Data based on your consent, you may withdraw your consent for the collection, use and/or disclosure of your Personal Data in our possession or under our control at any time by submitting your request to the contact details listed in this Privacy Policy.

We will process your request within a reasonable time from such a request for withdrawal of consent being made, and will thereafter refrain from collecting, using and/or disclosing your Personal Data in the manner stated in your request.

5.3 Data portability 

When the IPBA is processing your Personal Data based on your consent or based on contractual necessity, and you have provided the IPBA with the Personal Data electronically yourself, you may request a copy of the Personal Data which the IPBA is processing at any time.

We will seek to provide you with the requested Personal Data within 30 days. Where we are unable to respond to you within the said 30 days, we will notify you of the soonest possible time within which we can provide you with the information requested.

5.4 Right to erasure

If you have provided the IPBA with your Personal Data based on your consent and the Personal Data is no longer used for the purpose it was collected, you may request the IPBA to erase your Personal Data.

If you have provided the IPBA with your Personal Data based on contractual necessity and you are no longer an IPBA member, you may request the IPBA to erase your Personal Data.

Where the IPBA has made public your Personal Data, the IPBA will take reasonable steps to inform other organisations processing the Personal Data which the IPBA published to request them to erase the said Personal Data.

We will seek to erase the Personal Data within 30 days. Where we are unable to erase the Personal Data within this time frame, we will notify you of the soonest possible time within which we can erase the Personal Data.

5.5 Restriction of processing

You may request the IPBA to stop processing your Personal Data if you would like the IPBA to keep your Personal Data but not be processed in the future. Once the restriction is in place, you would have to instruct in writing the IPBA to lift such restriction.

We will seek to stop the processing of your Personal Data within 30 days. Where we are unable to respond to you within the said 30 days, we will notify you of the soonest possible time within which we can stop the processing of your Personal Data.

5.6 Right to object

Where we process your Personal Data based on our legitimate interest, you may object to the processing of your Personal Data based on your situation.

We will seek to process your request within 30 days. Where we are unable to respond to you within the said 30 days, we will notify you of the soonest possible time within which we process your request.

5.7 Automated processing

IPBA does not take decisions solely based on Personal Data processed using automated tools.

6 Administration and management of personal data

6.1 We will make reasonable efforts to ensure that your Personal Data is accurate and complete. However, this means that you must also update us of any changes in your Personal Data that you had initially provided us with. We will not be responsible for relying on inaccurate or incomplete Personal Data arising from you not updating us of any changes in your Personal Data that you had initially provided us with.

6.2 We have also taken commercially reasonable efforts to take appropriate precautions and preventive measures to ensure that your Personal Data is adequately protected and secured. Appropriate security arrangements have been taken to prevent any unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copy, modification, leakage, loss, damage and/or alteration of your Personal Data. However, we cannot assume responsibility for any unauthorized use of your Personal Data by third parties which are wholly attributable to factors beyond our control.

7 Complaint process

7.1 If you have any complaint or grievance regarding about how we are handling your Personal Data or about how we are complying with the PDPA or the GDPR, we welcome you to contact us with your complaint or grievance.

7.2 Please contact us through one of the following methods with your complaint or grievance:
(a) Telephone number:   +81-3-5786-6796.
(b) E-mail: ipba@ipba.org. Attention it to the ‘Data Protection Officer‘.
(c) Office address: IPBA Secretariat, Roppongi Hills North Tower 7F, 6-2-31 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Japan. Attention it to the ‘Data Protection Officer‘.

7.3 Where it is an email or a letter through which you are submitting a complaint, your indication at the subject header that it is a PDPA or GDPR complaint would assist us in attending to your complaint speedily by passing it on to the relevant staff in IPBA to handle. For example, you could insert the subject header as “PDPA Complaint”.

7.4 We will certainly strive to deal with any complaint or grievance that you may have speedily and fairly.

8. Updates on privacy policy

8.1 As part of our efforts to ensure that we properly manage, protect and process your Personal Data, we will be reviewing our policies, procedures and processes from time to time.

8.2 We reserve the right to amend the terms of this Privacy Policy at our absolute discretion. Any amended Privacy Policy will be posted on our website and can be viewed at https://ipba.org/terms-of-service/.

8.3 You are encouraged to visit the above website from time to time to ensure that you are well informed of our latest policies in relation to Personal Data protection.

D. MEMBERSHIP TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1 Annual dues are payable in US Dollars, and cover the period of one year starting from January 1 and ending on December 31. Those who join the Association on or before August 31 will be registered as a member for the current year. Those who join the Association on or after September 1 will be registered as a member for the rest of the current year and for the following year.

Selection of membership category is up to each individual, but birthdate is required to register for the Young Lawyer category. If the membership category is not specified in the registration form, standard annual dues will be charged by the IPBA Secretariat.

In order to encourage Corporate Counsel to join the IPBA, a Corporate Counsel membership category, with special membership dues, was established in 2010. This category is for in-house counsel who are employed by a company that is not a law firm. This category does not include those involved in academics, judges, or those employed by a law firm.

2 There will be no refund of dues for cancellation of all membership categories during the effective term, nor will other persons be allowed to take over the membership for the remaining period.

3 These Membership Terms and Conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Singapore and you irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Singapore.

4 The IPBA reserves the right to modify or amend these Membership Terms and Conditions at any time.