Ala. St. Bar Client Sec. Fund R. 2

For purposes of these Rules, the following definitions shall apply:

A. The “Committee” shall mean the Client Security Fund Committee.

B. The “Fund” shall mean the Client Security Fund of the Alabama State Bar.

C. "Lawyer" shall include a person:

(a) licensed to practice law in this jurisdiction;

(b) registered as in-house counsel;

(c) admitted pro hac vice;

(d) recently suspended, disbarred, or transferred to disability inactive status

whom clients reasonably believed to be licensed to practice law when

the conduct forming the basis of the suspension, disbarment, or transfer

occurred; or

(e) otherwise authorized to practice law in this jurisdiction.

The conduct that formed the basis of the lawyer's suspension, disbarment, or

transfer must have occurred while the lawyer was engaged in the practice of law in

Alabama and bear a rational relationship to the lawyer's practice of law in Alabama. The

fact that the act complained of took place outside the State of Alabama does not

necessarily mean that the lawyer was not engaged in the practice of law in Alabama.

D. "Reimbursable losses" are only those losses of money or other property of

clients of lawyers that meet the following tests:

(a) The dishonest conduct that occasioned the loss occurred on or after the

effective date of these Rules; and

(b) The loss was caused by the dishonest conduct of a lawyer acting either

as an attorney or as a fiduciary in the matter in which the loss arose; and

(c) The lawyer shall have died; been adjudicated a bankrupt; been

adjudicated an incompetent; been disbarred or suspended from the

practice of law; voluntarily resigned from the practice of law; left the

jurisdiction or cannot be found; become a judgment debtor of the

applicant, or shall have been adjudged guilty of a crime, which judgment

or judgments shall have been predicated upon the dishonest conduct of

the lawyer; or the Committee shall have determined that the claim is an

appropriate case for consideration for reimbursement because the loss

was caused by the dishonest conduct of a member of the Alabama State

Bar.

E. "Non-reimbursable losses" are as follows:

(a) Losses of a spouse, child, parent, grandparent, sibling, partner,

associate, or employee of the attorney(s) causing the losses.

(b) Losses covered by any bond, surety agreement, or insurance contract

to the extent covered thereby, including any loss to which any bondsman

or surety or insurer is subrogated to the extent of that subrogation

interest.

(c) Losses of any financial institution that could only be recoverable under

a "banker's blanket bond" or similar insurance or surety contract,

whether or not the institution had such bond or contract in force.

(d) Losses incurred by any business entity controlled by the lawyer(s), or

any person or entity described in subsection E(a), (b), or (c) of this Rule.

(e) Losses incurred by any governmental entity or agency.

(f) Losses arising from business or personal investments not arising in the

course of the client-lawyer relationship.

(g) Consequential or incidental damages, such as lost interest or lawyer's

fees or other costs incurred in seeking recovery of a loss.

(h) Losses that are recoverable from some other source.

(i) Losses barred under any applicable statute of limitations.

F. "Dishonest conduct" shall mean wrongful acts committed by a lawyer against a

person in the manner of defalcation or embezzlement of money, or the wrongful taking or

conversion of money, property, or other things of value, including but not limited to failure

to refund unearned fees received in advance as required by Rule 1.16 of the Alabama

Rules of Professional Conduct.

G. "Applicant" means a person who has applied to the fund for reimbursement.

H. "Client" means a person engaging the professional legal services of a lawyer

or for whose benefit the lawyer is acting in a fiduciary capacity.