You pay us. An annual membership fee, set out in your membership papers, including VAT.
The corporate members pay us too. The firms we work with are members of the club and pay an annual fee to be part of it. In some categories a firm also pays us when you engage it, where its own professional rules permit that. Solicitors pay the annual fee and nothing else — their rules are stricter and we work inside them. No school pays us anything.
What it does not do to you. Your rate with a corporate member is at or below that firm's standard rate. We keep a dated schedule of member rates against standard rates and refresh it every year. If we could not evidence that, the claim would come off this page.
Why we set out the arrangement and not the amounts. What you need in order to decide is the structure: that we are paid by both sides, and that it does not raise your price or narrow your choice.
What we do not claim. We are not disinterested and we will not pretend to be. We are paid by our members and by our corporate members, we recommend firms from our own community, and we selected them against the standard we publish. You contract each firm directly and it decides for itself whether it can act for you.