Candidate privacy notice.
This notice explains what we collect when you apply to us, why we collect it, who sees it, and what you can ask us to do about it.
This notice applies to candidates applying for roles at the firm. It does not cover clients, whose data is governed by the firm's client engagement terms.
1. Who we are
Thomas Philip Advocates & Solicitors (“the firm”, “we”) is the data user in respect of the personal data described in this notice. Our registered office is at [registered address], Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Questions about this notice, or requests relating to your data, should be sent to careers@thomasphilip.com.my, marked for the attention of [named contact / data protection contact].
2. What we collect
When you apply through this site, we collect:
- your name, email address, telephone number and address;
- your identity card name and number, where you provide them;
- your education, institution, qualification and year of completion;
- your earliest available start date;
- your eleven written assessment answers;
- your resume, your academic transcript, and your cover letter where you provide one, and anything contained in them;
- the date and time of your submission, and the time you took to complete the assessment; and
- your declaration that the answers are your own work.
Your identity card details are collected so that an offer letter can be prepared without a further request if you are successful. They are optional, they form no part of the assessment, and they are not provided to the automated scoring step.
We do not ask for, and you should not send us, information about your health, religion, political opinions or any other sensitive personal data. If you include such information in your documents or written answers, it is not used in assessing your application.
3. Why we collect it
We use your personal data only to:
- assess your application for the role you applied for;
- communicate with you about your application and, if you are taken forward, about a placement;
- notify you of the outcome; and
- if you are successful, prepare your offer and begin onboarding you to the firm.
We do not use your application for marketing unless you separately opt in, and we do not sell or trade it.
4. How your application is assessed
Your application receives an AI-assisted first assessment. An automated system scores your written answers against the firm's published criteria and produces a short written reasoning note. This assists our hiring team in reviewing applications consistently and in ensuring every application is read.
No decision about your application is made by that system alone. Someone at the firm reviews each assessment and may confirm or override it before any outcome is communicated to you.
You may ask for your application to be assessed manually instead, without the AI-assisted first pass, by writing to careers@thomasphilip.com.my. Making that request will not disadvantage your application.
The assessment criteria and the role of the automated step are set out in full on our assessment process page.
5. Who has access
Your personal data may be disclosed to:
- the firm's hiring team and the lawyers involved in assessing your application;
- the Managing Partner, who receives your resume and cover letter where your application is taken forward;
- service providers who host or process the data on our behalf under contract, including our cloud storage, email and AI assessment providers; and
- any party we are required to disclose to by law, court order, or a regulatory or professional body.
Some of these service providers process data outside Malaysia. Where that happens, we require appropriate contractual protections to be in place.
6. How long we keep it
We retain unsuccessful applications for six months from the date of the outcome, after which they are deleted. This allows us to consider you for other openings that arise in that window.
If you ticked “Keep me on file” when you applied, we retain your application, resume and cover letter for 12 months instead, and may contact you about future litigation trainee or intern openings during that period. That consent is optional, it has no bearing on the outcome of your application, and you may withdraw it at any time by writing to us, at which point we revert to the six-month period or delete your application, as you prefer.
If you are successful, your application becomes part of your employment record and is retained in accordance with the firm's employment records policy.
7. Your rights
Under the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, you may at any time:
- Access: ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
- Correct: ask us to correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete;
- Withdraw consent: withdraw your consent to our processing, which will end your application;
- Limit processing: ask us to limit how your data is processed; and
- Delete: ask us to remove your application from our records.
Send any of these requests to careers@thomasphilip.com.my. We will respond within twenty-one days. We may ask you to verify your identity before we act on a request.
8. Security
Your application is transmitted over an encrypted connection and stored in access-controlled systems available only to the firm's hiring team. We take reasonable steps to protect it against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration and disclosure.
9. Providing your data
Providing the information marked as required on the application form is necessary for us to assess your application. If you do not provide it, we will not be able to consider you for the role. The remaining fields are optional.
10. Changes to this notice
We may update this notice from time to time. The version published on this page at the time you submit your application is the version that applies to it.
Last reviewed: [date] · A Bahasa Malaysia version of this notice is available on request from careers@thomasphilip.com.my.