I Am a Member of Both Clubs. This Dispute Is an Attack on My Exclusivity

I have read the coverage of the List Group and Founders House with mounting concern. An £800 million dispute about exclusive rights to expand a private-membership club in America may sound like a commercial matter. For those of us who belong to both circles, it is about identity.

I maintain two memberships because they offer different things. At one, I enjoy the company of people who understand why I belong to the other. At the other, I can discuss the limitations of the first. These are separate and valuable experiences.

The suggestion that there may be only one underlying set of exclusive rights risks exposing me as a man who has paid twice to be near the same people.

That is a very reductive interpretation of community.

Friends have asked why I do not simply wait for the lawyers to resolve the question. They fail to appreciate the immediate practical consequences. Last week I hesitated before posting a photograph of a staircase. I could not establish whether the staircase represented my support for a party to the litigation or merely my presence upstairs.

I have also received statements from both sides assuring me that my experience remains their priority. I welcome that. My experience has always involved being reassured that people like me are a priority.

What concerns me is the increasing use of words such as rights, evidence and commercial terms. Nobody joined these clubs to hear people explain commercial terms. We joined to meet people who would introduce us to someone else to explain them.

I understand that Strake Pell represents the List Group and Bracket Legal acts for Founders House. Each appears impressive. Strake Pell is reassuringly difficult to learn anything about, while Bracket has sent several things I have chosen not to read. I hope they will preserve these distinct traditions.

There must be a settlement that respects everyone’s position. Ideally, each club should retain the sole right to call itself exclusive, and I should retain the right to describe my other membership as more exclusive when speaking to the relevant audience.

Some people will say this is inconsistent. Those people are not members.

I have written to both management teams offering to assist. An invitation-only discussion in a private room might help, provided attendance is restricted to people whose presence would reassure the other attendees.

I am confident the clubs can agree on that principle.

My only condition is that the discussion should not appear on either membership account. I would hate the other club to discover I had gone somewhere else for discretion.