Executive Director’s Message Council Bylaws Amended On October 24, 2014, the Council approved amending the bylaws in Council elections to change the instructions so that members can vote for fewer candidates than the number of vacancies to be filled. Increased Payment for Losses Under Amended Clients’ Protection Fund Rules On October 24, 2014, the Council approved amending the Clients’ Protection Fund rules to increase the maximum payment to any one peti-tioner to $75,000 for losses incurred on or after July 1, 2015. Maximum pay-ments for losses incurred before that date will remain $50,000. The total amount of losses reimbursable for any one lawyer or association of lawyers will increase from 10 percent of the net worth of the fund to 15 percent. Pending Rule Changes These rule changes have been submit-ted to the Supreme Court of Virginia for approval, after having been approved by the Council of the Virginia State Bar. Proposed Amendment to Rule of Professional Conduct 1.10, imputation of conflict of interest, filed with the Supreme Court of Virginia in June, 2014: The proposed rule amendment to Rule of Professional Conduct 1.10 is intended to avoid a situation in which a lawyer avoids the imputation of a conflict of interest by avoiding the knowledge that another lawyer in the firm has a conflict as to the representa-tion. Under the current standard of “knowing” that another lawyer in the firm is prohibited from undertaking the representation, a lawyer can avoid the application of Rule 1.10(a), which would impute a conflict to him, by willfully failing to learn the informa-tion that establishes the existence of the conflict. The proposed rule amendment imputes a conflict if the lawyer “knows or reasonably should know” that another lawyer in the firm is prohibited from representing the client. The pro-posed amendment adds a new Comment [2a] to explain that the fail-ure to maintain or use a system for identifying conflicts may be deemed a violation of Rule 1.10(a), if proper use of the system would have identified the conflict. One person opposed the amend-ment to Rule 1.10; one person wrote in favor of the amendment. The proposed amendment to Rule 1.10 was approved by a unanimous vote (0 abstentions) by the Council of the Virginia State Bar on June 12, 2014. No action has been taken by the Court yet on the amend-ments to RPC 1.10. Proposed Amendment to Rules 1.1 (Competence) and 1.6 (Confidentiality) was filed with the Supreme Court of Virginia in March, 2015: http://www.vsb.org/pro-guidelines /index.php/rule_changes/item /amendments-rules-1_1-1_6-112514. Proposed Amendment to Paragraph 13-4.E, service on district committees by certain ex-officio members of Council, filed with the Supreme Court of Virginia in March, 2015: http://www.vsb.org/pro -guidelines/index.php/rule_changes /item/prop_13_4e_service_ex-officio. Proposed Amendment to Paragraph 13-4, malpractice insur-ance requirements in Va. Code Section 54.1-3935(D), filed with the Supreme Court of Virginia in March, 2015: http://www.vsb.org/pro-guidelines /index.php/rule_changes/item/prop -paragraph-13.4. Proposed Amendment to Paragraph 13-11.B, duty to disclose exculpatory evidence, filed with the Supreme Court of Virginia in June, 2015: http://www.vsb.org/docs/SCV -petition-1311-1325-062915.pdf. Proposed Amendments to Paragraph 13-25, the reinstatement rule, filed with the Supreme Court of Virginia on June 29, 2015: http://www.vsb.org/docs/SCV-petition -1311-1325-062915.pdf. 12 VIRGINIA LAWYER | August 2015 | Vol. 64 www.vsb.org