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<header><a href="/" style="display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:14px;text-decoration:none"><svg width="28" height="28" viewBox="0 0 28 28" aria-hidden="true" style="flex:0 0 28px"><defs><linearGradient id="cb-priv" x1="0" y1="0" x2="0" y2="1"><stop offset="0%" stop-color="#d4b683"/><stop offset="50%" stop-color="#b89968"/><stop offset="100%" stop-color="#8a7044"/></linearGradient></defs><circle cx="14" cy="14" r="13" fill="none" stroke="url(#cb-priv)" stroke-width="1"/><path fill="url(#cb-priv)" d="M9.6 9.5c-1.6 0-2.7 1.2-2.7 3v3c0 1.8 1.1 3 2.7 3 1.4 0 2.4-.8 2.6-2.1h-1.3c-.1.6-.6 1-1.3 1-.9 0-1.4-.6-1.4-1.7v-2.4c0-1.1.5-1.7 1.4-1.7.7 0 1.2.4 1.3 1h1.3c-.2-1.3-1.2-2.1-2.6-2.1zm5.5.1v8.7h2.7c1.6 0 2.6-.9 2.6-2.4 0-1-.5-1.7-1.3-2 .7-.3 1.1-1 1.1-1.8 0-1.5-1-2.5-2.5-2.5h-2.6zm1.3 1.1h1.2c.8 0 1.4.5 1.4 1.4 0 .9-.5 1.4-1.4 1.4h-1.2v-2.8zm0 3.9h1.4c.9 0 1.4.6 1.4 1.5s-.5 1.5-1.4 1.5h-1.4V14.6z"/></svg><h1 style="margin:0;font-family:var(--serif);font-size:22px;font-weight:400;color:var(--ink)">Counsel <span class="amp">&</span> Bar</h1></a></header>
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<span class="v-text">Volume I</span>
<span class="v-meta">Edition 2026 · Privacy Policy · Effective 2026-05-03</span>
</div>
<h1>What we <em>collect.</em><br>What we <em>don't.</em></h1>
<p class="lede">This policy explains <strong>what we collect, why, how we use it, who it goes to,</strong> and your rights as a California consumer under the <strong>CCPA / CPRA</strong>. Last updated 2026-05-03.</p>
<div class="toc">
<a href="#who">1. Who we are</a>
<a href="#what">2. What we collect</a>
<a href="#why">3. Why we collect it</a>
<a href="#share">4. Who we share it with</a>
<a href="#sell">5. Sale and sharing of personal information</a>
<a href="#rights">6. Your CCPA / CPRA rights</a>
<a href="#cookies">7. Cookies and tracking</a>
<a href="#retention">8. How long we keep data</a>
<a href="#security">9. Security</a>
<a href="#kids">10. Children's privacy</a>
<a href="#contact">11. How to contact us</a>
<a href="#changes">12. Changes to this policy</a>
</div>
<h2 id="who">1. Who we are</h2>
<p>"Counsel & Bar" (we / us / our) operates the website at lawyers.agentabrams.com. We are a <strong>directory and software platform</strong> — not a law firm, not a lawyer referral service, not licensed to practice law in any jurisdiction. Operator: Steve Abrams, an individual, contactable at <a href="mailto:steve@designerwallcoverings.com">steve@designerwallcoverings.com</a>.</p>
<h2 id="what">2. What we collect</h2>
<h3>Information you give us</h3>
<table>
<tr><th>What</th><th>When</th></tr>
<tr><td>Name, email, phone (optional)</td><td>You sign up, submit the lead form, or contact us</td></tr>
<tr><td>Practice area, ZIP, urgency, budget, brief case description</td><td>You submit the "Find a lawyer" form</td></tr>
<tr><td>Firm name, website, your bar number, professional details</td><td>You sign up as an attorney to claim a listing</td></tr>
<tr><td>Payment details</td><td>You purchase the EZ Upgrade or subscribe to Lawyer Pro. Card details are handled by <strong>Stripe</strong>; we never see or store full card numbers — only Stripe's customer/subscription IDs and the last 4 digits.</td></tr>
<tr><td>Account password (hashed, bcrypt)</td><td>You sign up</td></tr>
</table>
<h3>Information collected automatically</h3>
<ul>
<li>IP address, browser user-agent string, request timestamps (server logs)</li>
<li>Session cookie (signed; used only to keep you logged in)</li>
<li>Pages you visit on the site</li>
</ul>
<h3>Information from public records</h3>
<ul>
<li>California State Bar attorney profiles (name, bar number, license status, admission date, primary firm) from the Bar's <strong>public licensing database</strong></li>
<li>Firm contact details (address, phone, website) from publicly indexed sources and city business-license databases (e.g., LA City Active Business Licenses, NAICS 5411)</li>
</ul>
<p>This is data we hold <strong>about</strong> attorneys for the directory. It is sourced from public-government records. If you are an attorney and want your listing removed or corrected, see <a href="#rights">Your rights</a> below.</p>
<h2 id="why">3. Why we collect it</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>Run the service</strong> — show you the directory, accept payments, deliver the EZ Upgrade, run the Lawyer Pro tier</li>
<li><strong>Verify identity</strong> — match an attorney to their bar number when claiming a listing</li>
<li><strong>Respond to you</strong> — when you ask a question or report an issue</li>
<li><strong>Comply with law</strong> — fraud prevention, abuse prevention, legal-process responses</li>
<li><strong>Improve the product</strong> — aggregated, non-identifying analytics</li>
</ul>
<p>We do <strong>not</strong> use your personal information for retargeted advertising on third-party platforms. We do <strong>not</strong> profile you for automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.</p>
<h2 id="share">4. Who we share it with</h2>
<h3>Service providers (processors), under contract</h3>
<table>
<tr><th>Provider</th><th>What they get</th><th>Why</th></tr>
<tr><td><strong>Stripe</strong></td><td>Card details, your name, email, billing</td><td>Process payments, manage subscriptions</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>Cloudflare</strong></td><td>Your IP, request headers</td><td>CDN, DDoS protection, TLS</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>Kamatera</strong> (our hosting provider)</td><td>Server logs, app data at rest</td><td>Hosting</td></tr>
</table>
<p>Each provider processes data only to perform services for us, under contract.</p>
<h3>Other firms or people</h3>
<p>We do <strong>not</strong> automatically share your lead-form details with any law firm. <strong>You</strong> decide who to contact. If you click a "Contact this firm" link in our directory, your name, email, phone, and case description are sent only to the firm you selected, only at the moment you click. We do not auction your case to multiple firms, do not accept fees from firms for placing your case with them, and do not operate as a lawyer referral service under California Business & Professions Code § 6155.</p>
<h3>If we are compelled by law</h3>
<p>Subpoena, court order, or legitimate law-enforcement request. We push back where the law allows and notify you where we're permitted.</p>
<h3>If we sell or merge the business</h3>
<p>Personal information may be transferred as part of the assets, with the same protections in place. We'll post a notice 30 days before any change in operator.</p>
<h2 id="sell">5. Sale and sharing of personal information (CCPA / CPRA)</h2>
<p>Under California law, "selling" and "sharing" personal information have specific meanings. Here's what we do and don't do:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>We do not sell your lead-form data.</strong> Consumer leads (your case description, contact details) are never sold, never licensed, and are not part of our data marketplace.</li>
<li><strong>Our "data marketplace" sells attorney directory data only.</strong> The CSV export at /data contains California-licensed-attorney information sourced from State Bar public records (name, bar number, license status, firm name, public business contact details). It does <strong>not</strong> contain consumer personal information collected from this site.</li>
<li><strong>We do not "share" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising</strong> as defined under CPRA. We don't run advertising pixels for ad networks.</li>
</ul>
<p>If your reading of the law differs from ours, contact us at the address below and we'll address your concern.</p>
<h2 id="rights">6. Your CCPA / CPRA rights (California residents)</h2>
<p>If you are a California resident, you have the right to:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Know</strong> what personal information we have about you, where it came from, why we have it, and who we shared it with in the last 12 months</li>
<li><strong>Access</strong> a copy of that information in a portable format</li>
<li><strong>Delete</strong> personal information we hold about you, subject to limited exceptions (legal-hold, fraud detection, completing a transaction you started)</li>
<li><strong>Correct</strong> inaccurate information we have about you</li>
<li><strong>Limit</strong> use of sensitive personal information (we don't collect any "sensitive" categories as defined under CPRA, but the right is yours regardless)</li>
<li><strong>Opt out</strong> of any sale or sharing — even though we don't sell or share consumer data, you can submit the opt-out anyway and we'll honor it</li>
<li><strong>Be free from retaliation</strong> for exercising any of these rights — we won't deny service, charge a different price, or downgrade your account</li>
</ul>
<p>To exercise any right: email <a href="mailto:steve@designerwallcoverings.com?subject=Privacy%20Request%20%E2%80%94%20Counsel%20%26%20Bar">steve@designerwallcoverings.com</a> with the subject "Privacy Request — Counsel & Bar". We'll verify your identity (we may ask you to confirm details we already have) and respond within 45 days. You may use an authorized agent to submit on your behalf with proof of authorization.</p>
<p><strong>Attorneys who appear in the directory:</strong> if you want your listing removed, suppressed, or corrected, the same process applies — email us. We'll process within 14 days. Note that we are required to display State Bar public-record information accurately; corrections are limited to facts that are demonstrably wrong against the State Bar's public roll.</p>
<h2 id="cookies">7. Cookies and tracking</h2>
<p>We use a single cookie: <strong>sid</strong>, a signed session cookie that keeps you logged in. It expires when your session ends or after 30 days of inactivity. We do not use third-party tracking cookies, advertising pixels, or fingerprinting.</p>
<p>Server-side, we record IP and user-agent for each request as standard logs (90-day retention). These logs are not used to build profiles of your behavior across sites.</p>
<h2 id="retention">8. How long we keep data</h2>
<table>
<tr><th>Category</th><th>Retention</th></tr>
<tr><td>Account data (your login)</td><td>Until you delete your account, then 90 days for fraud / chargeback window</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lead-form submissions</td><td>2 years from submission, then deleted</td></tr>
<tr><td>Payment records</td><td>7 years (tax and accounting requirements)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Server access logs</td><td>90 days</td></tr>
<tr><td>Attorney directory data (public records)</td><td>Refreshed against State Bar source; we do not retain stale data once an attorney's license becomes inactive for > 2 years</td></tr>
</table>
<h2 id="security">9. Security</h2>
<p>Passwords are bcrypt-hashed (cost factor 12). Card details never touch our servers — Stripe handles all payment data. The site is served over HTTPS with TLS 1.2+. Access to the production database is restricted to the operator. Stripe webhook events are HMAC-SHA256-verified before any account state is changed. We don't promise the service is invulnerable — no service is — but these are the protections in place.</p>
<h2 id="kids">10. Children's privacy</h2>
<p>The service is intended for adults seeking legal services for themselves or a represented adult. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has submitted information, contact us and we'll delete it.</p>
<h2 id="contact">11. How to contact us</h2>
<p>Email: <a href="mailto:steve@designerwallcoverings.com?subject=Privacy%20%E2%80%94%20Counsel%20%26%20Bar">steve@designerwallcoverings.com</a></p>
<p>You may also report a concern to the California Attorney General's office at <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">oag.ca.gov/privacy</a>. We'd prefer you talk to us first so we can fix the issue.</p>
<h2 id="changes">12. Changes to this policy</h2>
<p>We'll post the effective date at the top of this page when we make changes. For changes that materially expand how we use or share data, we'll email registered users at least 14 days before the change takes effect.</p>
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