COEUR d'ALENE - In order to avoid disciplinary proceedings, North Idaho attorney Larry D. Purviance agreed to resign from practicing law in Idaho for the next five years.

According to an order of the Idaho Supreme Court signed by Chief Justice Roger Burdick on Wednesday, the resignation is effective Aug. 15.

Purviance, who currently has an address in Dalton Gardens, couldn't immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

A 20-page complaint was filed last month by the Idaho State Bar's bar counsel, Bradley Andrews, against Purviance.

The complaint includes six counts against Purviance, saying he violated several portions of the Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct.

The violations listed include: Failure to abide by client objectives, advising a client to engage in criminal or fraudulent conduct, failure to refund fees and costs upon termination, (and) failure to expedite litigation.

Other violations listed included: Conduct involving dishonesty, fraud and deceit or misrepresentation; conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice; and knowingly disobeying an obligation under the rules of a tribunal.

In one count, the complaint said Purviance in 2011 improperly spent money belonging to a client, or allowed it to be spent by his assistant.

Purviance had deposited the client's money, more than $33,000, into a trust account, and it was to be disbursed to estate beneficiaries in May 2011.

"He admitted that he was 'guilty of not safeguarding client property by not reviewing the bank statements as they came in' and that the disbursements to the estate beneficiaries should have been completed by May 2011," the complaint said.

The complaint also details examples of Purviance failing to arrange timely hearings for clients or file documents by deadline.

In Purviance's written response to the complaint, he said the allegations in counts two through six weren't "willful" or "knowing" violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct or within his ability to control.

Purviance wrote that he "was and is the unknowing and unwitting victim under clear Idaho law of wide-ranging criminal conduct with several actors, known and unknown, charged and uncharged."

He provided the Idaho State Bar with the identities and actions of these suspects, "with the hope that further prosecutions could occur, should the Office of Bar Counsel choose to exert its political muscle in order to help the victim (Purviance) of a massive crime."

Documents provided by the state bar said Purviance was publicly reprimanded in February 2000.

In August 2007, Purviance received a private reprimand, two more a month later, another in December 2009, two in February 2011, another in April 2011, and a final one in May of this year, according to the documents.