Three attorneys disciplined by Minnesota Supreme Court

Three attorneys were disciplined this week by the Minnesota Supreme Court based on petitions filed by the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility.

Clark Griffith II, of Minneapolis, will be suspended a minimum of three months and will be required to apply for reinstatement. The director of the Professional Responsibility Office had urged that Griffith be suspended for six months after he was charged with indecent exposure involving a student while he taught at William Mitchell College of Law. Justice David Lillehaug dissented with the court ruling, saying a longer suspension was warranted.

Griffith, whose late father, Calvin, owned the Minnesota Twins, entered an Alford plea in his case last year. It's a plea bargain that allows the defendant to maintain his innocence while acknowledging there is sufficient evidence to be found guilty. The misdemeanor charge was dismissed after Griffith complied with the conditions of a yearlong probation.

In other disciplinary actions, Tucker Hummel, of Minneapolis, was disbarred for misappropriation of client funds, failure to keep required trust account books and records, making false statements to the Professional Responsibility Office and failure to cooperate with the disciplinary investigation, the court order said.

Hummel transferred funds and wrote checks to himself for more than $10,000 from a client's trust account, according to the order. Since March 2011, he didn't provide requested documents to the Professional Responsibility Office and didn't participate in the evidentiary hearing, the order said.

Susan R. Anderson, of Alexandria, was suspended for a minimum of two years with the right to apply for reinstatement. The court order stated she committed professional misconduct when she failed to act with diligence, communicate with clients and promptly provide clients with billing statements. She also failed to turn over client files upon termination of representation, deposit client funds into trusts and cooperate with disciplinary investigations, the order said.