Merlyn W. Clark

Merlyn W. Clark’s legal practice began with his graduation from the University of Idaho College of Law in 1964. Upon graduation and admission to the Idaho State Bar, Merlyn joined Blake Givens & Feeney in Lewiston, Idaho where he learned the general practice of law. He served as the Nez Perce County Prosecuting Attorney from 1973 to 1977. From 1977 to 1979, Merlyn served as the Bar Commissioner for the Second Judicial District, where he met Jack Hawley. Jack invited Merlyn to join his firm in Boise. In 1979, Merlyn moved to Boise and joined the firm of Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley, LLP. Merlyn was admitted as a partner in Hawley Troxell in 1980. In January of 2024, he stepped down as an Income Partner and assumed the position of an Of Counsel Partner at Hawley Troxell.

Merlyn’s legal practice focuses on complex civil litigation and alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration. Probably the most significant civil case he litigated involved an action in Nez Perce County to recover damages from three individuals who drove a jet boat at night in the winter of 1974 from the Asotin County boat launch ramp at Heller Bar. The defendants burned down the main lodge, two sleeping cabins, and the power building. The case was filed in Nez Perce County because the property was located in Idaho. It took 10 years of investigation to prepare a case to present to the jury. Merlyn and his team settled with one defendant’s insurer which provided a war-chest to fund the litigation. After two months of trial against the other two defendants, the jury awarded compensatory and punitive damages in the amount of $219,200 and costs of $45,444 to his client. It then took another 10 years, which included two appeals to the Idaho Supreme Court, to collect the judgment.

In his dispute resolution practice, Merlyn has mediated more than 900 civil disputes and served as the arbitrator in more than 100 cases. He continues to maintain an active civil litigation practice, an arbitration and mediation practice, and serves as an expert witness on issues of legal malpractice, ethics, attorney fees, negotiation, evidence, and civil procedure.

Some notable achievements of Merlyn’s career were serving as Chairman and Reporter of the Idaho State Bar Evidence Rules Committee from 1978 to 1985 when the Report of the Idaho State Bar Evidence Committee and the Idaho Rules of Evidence were adopted and implemented by the Idaho Supreme Court. He also is the co-author of: “Practical Trial Evidence for the New Judge Orientation,” Idaho State Judiciary (Annually, 1998-2017); co-author, “Trial Evidence for Judges: Management of a Trial,” author of “Witnesses and Testimony of Witnesses,” “Exhibits, Demonstrative Evidence, and Illustrative Aids, Tests, Analyses, and Experiments,” “The Exclusionary Rules,” and “The Hearsay Rules,” The Bench Guide.

Merlyn was born in Grand Forks, B.C., Canada in 1937. His parents moved to northern Idaho in 1938 when he was about five months old. His dad worked for Hecla Mining Company as a mechanic. He was told they first lived in a small house on the hillside in Gem, Idaho, which is just down the road from Burke and was also told that the only toilet was an outdoor toilet that sat on stilts located over Burke Canyon Creek. Apparently, his mother was not happy with that situation and made his dad move to Wallace to an apartment that had indoor plumbing.

In 1939, the immigration authorities contacted his parents and made them take Merlyn back to Canada to enter the United States legally. His parents brought him to the United States without a Visa. His mom told him that although he was born in Canada, he was actually born an American citizen because her father was an American citizen. Merlyn never understood how those circumstances made him a foreign-born American citizen and does not think the immigration authorities did either because they issued him Visa so he could return to Idaho.

Kent Jolley

Kent Jolley was born in Rexburg on December 30, 1933. He attended school there through high school. Working after school and on Saturdays, Kent learned the trade of a meat cutter. He then filled his military obligation by serving for five years in the Idaho National Guard and achieved the rank of Sergeant. At age 20 he commenced serving a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Argentina. Upon his return from Argentina, he enrolled at Ricks College in Rexburg (now Brigham Young University-Idaho), then enrolled at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

While at Ricks, Kent met Jill Leishman, and was married to her following a 10-month courtship. This year they celebrate their 67^th anniversary. They have seven children, 20 grandchildren, and 42 great-grandchildren.

Following receipt of a Bachelor of Arts degree from George Washington University, Kent enrolled in the George Washington University Law School and received a Juris Doctorate degree. All his law classes were in the evening, as during the day he worked for the Navy Department as a contracts negotiator to meet living and school expenses. He took and passed the Idaho State Bar Exam in April of 1964. He moved back to Rexburg that fall and successfully won the bid for the office of Madison County Prosecuting Attorney. He then commenced an eight-year stint working for the county as prosecutor. After four terms (eight years), he commenced practicing private law as a solo practitioner and continued doing so for the next 22 years. Kent’s practice as a solo practitioner included nearly every aspect of the law, including defense and trial work, as was common in those days. The part he enjoyed most about his law practice was helping people with their needs and problems and not having to worry about “billable hours.”

At age 57 he was asked by his church to go to South Texas for three years to supervise the proselyting labors of 200 young missionaries. Following that assignment, he returned to his law practice for three more years, then was asked to go to Brazil and then the Eastern Seaboard to administrate for a few years. His wife accompanied him on all those church assignments away from Rexburg. She was asked by the church to be at Kent’s side and help with all the assignments mentioned.

Kent was 73 years old when he finished his full-time service in the church. He had been away from the practice of law for eight years and decided not to return to an active practice of law at that age. However, he was anxious to continue his membership and association with the Idaho State Bar and has always been a proud member of the Idaho State Bar. While practicing law, he had purchased a small cattle ranch located on the Snake River, eight miles west of Rexburg. He spent the next five years raising purebred Angus cattle and then retired from that at age 78 and decided it was time to throw in the towel. To keep busy, Kent and his wife work at the Rexburg Temple, play a little golf, work in the yard and garden, and try to keep up with their posterity.