by ndfan » Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:53 pm
$300,000 bill -- half-paid
By Joseph Marks, Herald Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, April 11, 2007
A Utah law firm has billed more than $300,000 for work on UND's lawsuit against the NCAA over the Fighting Sioux nickname, but only about half that amount has been paid, according to documents released by the UND Foundation.
Those documents, released Tuesday after an open records request by the Herald, show three attorneys with Fabian and Clenendin, a Salt Lake City-based law firm, have billed a total of $315,743 for their work on the case.
The UND Foundation has paid Fabian and Clenendin $164,598, the entire amount collected by the organization since it began fundraising to support UND's lawsuit. The foundation established the donation fund after attorneys began the process of shutting down a separate fund created by a UND alumnus, Mark Foss, who suffered a heart attack in March.
The Utah law firm has billed $151,145 that has not yet been paid. A bill for $5,000 also is outstanding to the office of North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who is handling the case on UND's behalf. Stenehjem said his office has billed a total of $37,000 so far, $32,000 of which have been paid.
Confident of funds
UND Foundation Executive Director Tim O'Keefe said Tuesday he is confident more donations will come in to cover the remaining legal fees and any future fees.
"President Kupchella said he feels confident the resources are there to continue the litigation," O'Keefe said, referring to a March 15 statement by UND President Charles Kupchella, in which he told members of the State Board of Higher Education that one or more donors have pledged to personally cover any shortfall in the litigation fund if the fund runs out of money before the lawsuit is complete.
"He continues to give us his assurance," O'Keefe said. "As bills come in, they'll be paid, and we have no reason to believe otherwise."
No solicitingThe foundation will not actively solicit donations to cover the lawsuit and will not use any money for legal fees that wasn't donated for that purpose, O'Keefe said.
The Salt Lake City attorneys are working as special assistant attorneys general in the nickname case and are supervised by Stenehjem's office.
UND is suing the NCAA over a mandate barring the school from displaying its Fighting Sioux logo in postseason play or hosting playoff games. The school won a temporary injunction allowing it to retain its nickname until the case goes to trial Dec. 10.
O'Keefe said he does not know whether any money remains in the fund organized by Foss and managed by Caldis, Tingum and Tingum Ltd., a Grand Forks law firm.
Kupchella said March 22, about $200,000 had been donated to support the lawsuit by about 170 donors. That would be a rough approximation of the total $196,598 paid out so far to attorneys handling the lawsuit.
The NCAA has not released how much it has spent on its end of the lawsuit.
Attorney fees on both sides are likely to rise significantly before the case comes to trial. UND's attorneys have said they plan to travel to colleges across the country to take depositions from NCAA members.
UND's lawsuit alleges, among other things, the NCAA acted in violation of its bylaws by imposing the nickname mandate after only a vote of its executive committee, rather than taking it to the full membership.
Matt Houdek. @ndfan55
