Confidentiality here runs in three directions at once: from the house to you, from you to the people we introduce, and from them to you. All three are written down, and all three survive the end of a mandate.
What the house undertakes
Not to publish, list, or make searchable anything about any member. Not to disclose that a particular person is a member — including to other members. Not to confirm or deny a membership to any enquirer, whoever they are. Not to sell, rent or exchange member information. Not to use any member's material for marketing, illustration or case study, even anonymised.
The one thing that may be published
A Legend Identity mark is the single exception, and it belongs to whoever holds it rather than to us. It confirms that a person of that name was verified in person on a stated date. It is a separate service, open to anyone — most holders are not members of this practice at all, and a mark never says whether its holder is.
A member may choose to disclose their membership through it. Almost none do, we counsel against it, and the setting is off unless it is deliberately turned on — because it tells a stranger that you are looking, which is nobody's business but yours. Whatever is chosen, we still answer no enquiry about anyone. The mark answers for itself, only to whoever holds the code.
Access to a member's file is limited to the advisors named in their engagement letter. Every disclosure outside that group requires the member's consent for that specific occasion, and is recorded in their consent ledger.
What each advisor undertakes
The same obligations, personally and in writing, binding beyond the end of their employment. An advisor who leaves the house takes nothing with them and may not approach members.
What members undertake
To hold what you learn about anyone we introduce — their identity, their circumstances, anything they tell you — in the same confidence you expect for yourself. Not to disclose their name or details to anyone without their permission. Not to photograph or record. Not to discuss them, or the fact of the introduction, in a way that could identify them.
This applies whether or not the introduction leads anywhere, and it does not lapse when it ends.
A member who breaches this is removed from the network. It has happened. The fee is not returned, and the other party is told what we have done.
Private gatherings
Guest lists are never circulated, before or after. No photography by anyone. What is said at a gathering is not repeated outside it. A member may ask not to be seated near a particular person without giving a reason.
The limits, stated plainly
There are three circumstances in which we may disclose something without consent, and you should know them before you apply.
Where the law requires it of us. Where there is a genuine and immediate risk of serious harm to a person. And where it is strictly necessary to establish or defend a legal claim between us. In the first and third, we will tell you unless we are forbidden to.
We would rather state these three than write a policy that pretends there are none.
Arrangements beyond the standard
Under a Private Mandate a search can be conducted without your identity being disclosed to anyone under consideration, and — where required — without disclosing that a search is taking place at all. Correspondence can be arranged so that our name never appears in your inbox or your calendar. These are agreed in writing at the outset rather than improvised later.
If you think this has been breached
Tell us. It is read by a principal of the house, not only by your advisor, and you will hear the same day. Members can raise it in the portal under Safety & conduct; anyone else should write to the office.