STATE BAR DOUBLES CLIENT COMPENSATION FUND

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 7, 1993                   TAG: 9303070170
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
STATE BAR DOUBLES CLIENT COMPENSATION FUND
The Virginia State Bar has doubled the size of a fund it created to compensate clients ripped off by crooked lawyers.
The bar's executive committee voted unanimously Friday to forgive $600,000 in loans the group made to its Clients' Protection Fund. The move increases the fund's net worth from about $550,000 to nearly $1.2 million and elevates the amount that could be paid from the misconduct of any one lawyer to $120,000.
The decision to boost the compensation fund was a response to the theft of more than $40 million by Newport News lawyer David Murray Sr.
Murray committed suicide in February 1992 after federal agents raided his office and seized his records.
The bar was criticized for failing to stop Murray and for having too little money to help his victims afterward. Because of various fund restrictions, the bar paid less than $60,000 to clients that Murray fleeced.
The bar has received notification from about 20 of Murray's victims that they intend to sue the bar, alleging it is liable for at least part of their losses because it failed to respond quickly enough to early signs of Murray's misconduct.
Other reforms are being considered in various bar committees, including one proposal calling for random audits of lawyer trust accounts, which the bar previously has rejected several times.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB