Professional indemnity insurance and in-house lawyers who act other than as legal counselors

A recent book states that “when counsel does not act as counsel there are potential issues around professional indemnity insurance and whether or not the indemnity policy will respond.” The quote comes from Benny Tabalujan, ed. Leadership and Management Challenges of In-House Legal Counsel (LexisNexis Australia 2008) at 11. That poses a provocative question for which I wish there were some feedback and input (See my post of April 25, 2009: malpractice and in-house lawyers with 6 references.).

If readers can enlighten me on this subject, I would appreciate it. One part of my ignorance is how many in-house lawyers are covered by professional indemnity insurance (and, the metrics guy in me wants to know what that coverage costs and who pays for it). Another desire would be for some facts and figures about know how often the issue has arisen in recent years.