All Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance policies have exclusions to some extent for acting as a Director or Officer of an organization. Attorneys need to be careful when being asked to sit on a board or act as an Officer of an organization to not jeopardize coverage. Some policies just restrict coverage when you are acting in the capacity of an Officer or Director, but will provide coverage for other activities that you do for the client. Other policies have an outright ban not just for the attorney that sits on the board or is an officer, but for any other work done by the firm, even if the work is done by another firm member.
If there is an officer/director supplement requested by the carrier, the information about your relationship to the client will be disclosed. Whether a supplement is requested or not it is a good idea to discuss this relationship with your agent. Make sure the policy form for your Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance will not restrict your coverage for your representation of this client. Although tough to get, some carriers will endorse coverage back on for this relationship, but most will not. As almost every Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance policy has different wording for this exclusion, there may be another policy from another Professional Liability Insurance carrier that will provide the coverage that you need.
Regardless of whether there is an exclusion for this coverage or not in your Professional Liability Insurance policy, it is important that for any board that you sit on that you ensure that there is a Directors & Officers policy in place. This is regardless of the organization being a charity, nonprofit or for profit enterprise. Directors & Officers policies provide coverage that are outside of the scope covered acts under a Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance Policy.