Lawyers agree to be fined, censured

BOISE – Two lawyers who represented both the University of Idaho Foundation and a development company during the failed University Place project will likely be publicly censured and fined for their conduct under an agreement they have reached with the Idaho State Bar.

The agreement announced Friday resolves conflict of interest complaints against Roy Eiguren and L. Edward Miller that were first made public in April 2005.

It still must be approved by the Idaho Supreme Court.

Under the agreement, neither the lawyers nor officials with the Idaho State Bar will comment on the matter.

The state bar accused the two of conflict of interest for their roles in representing both the private development company Civic Partners Idaho LLC, which was working on the $136 million University Place project, and the nonprofit University of Idaho Foundation, which was overseeing the project.

The complaints originally asked that Eiguren and Miller be suspended and ordered to pay unspecified investigation costs.

The ill-fated University Place project began in the 1990s as the Moscow-based school attempted to expand in Boise.

It ended with just one of two planned buildings – the $43 million Idaho Water Center – being constructed.

There were allegations of illegal financial maneuvering, and university President Robert Hoover resigned in 2003 over an undisclosed loan.

In the agreement, both Eiguren and Miller said that while they disagreed with nearly all the conclusions of the Idaho State Bar attorney who investigated the matter, they decided to take part in the agreement to end the investigation.

Both men acknowledged that they had violated conduct rules, but both contended the violations caused no harm and that their actions, ultimately, were appropriate.

The agreement calls on each man to pay $17,500 and states that a public censure against each of them will be published in The Idaho Statesman and the Idaho State Bar magazine and broadcast on the Idaho Public Television show “Idaho Reports.”

Though the lawyers had the foundation and the development company sign conflict waiver letters at the start of their working relationship, the letters alone were not enough to avoid a conflict of interest, the bar found.