Michelle MacDonald's attorney in hot water again.

Byline: Kevin Featherly

The attorney for former Supreme Court candidate Michelle MacDonald is once again in hot water with the Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board and faces new sanctions.

Karlowba R. Adams Powell, who represents MacDonald in an ongoing defamation suit against writer Michael Brodkrob, is already on probation. A new Supreme Court petition seeks revocation of her 2017 reinstatement and additional punishment.

Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board Director Susan Humiston filed the petition on Dec. 4.

On Wednesday, Humiston declined to comment on the case. But she did say that whenever the Supreme Court is asked to publicly discipline an attorney, it means the board sees the misconduct as serious.

On July 19, 2017, Adams Powell was suspended for 45 days from practicing law in Minnesota. She had been accused of failing to appear in court on behalf of a client and then failing to cooperate with a board investigation into that matter. She was conditionally reinstated on Sept. 25, 2017.

However, according to Humiston's three-count Supreme Court petition, Adams Powell's alleged bad behavior continued afterand even duringher suspension.

Count one

Adams Powell was not quite two weeks into her two-year suspension when she acted as an attorney, representing a client at a 2017 review hearing before a family court referee, according to the filing.

At that Aug. 1, 2017, hearing, Adams Powell discussed possible future court dates with the case's referee, the opposing counsel and a guardian ad litem, the petition says. That constitutes an "unauthorized practice of law," the petition states. She also failed to tell anyone at that hearing that she was under suspension.

The petition says that while discussing future hearing dates, several options were suggested for the month of August 2017. But Adams Powell said she would not be available until Sept. 16 of that year. When the referee asked why, she said she had vacation time and two trials coming up, the petition states.

That wasn't true, it says. Adams Powell had only a four-day trip planned for early August and no others planned until mid-September, according to the petition. The trials she mentioned were scheduled for Aug. 21 and Sept. 18, during her suspension. Therefore, they also could not be a genuine reason for her unavailability, the petition says.

Because Adams Powell alone knew she was suspended, the parties in that case agreed to schedule a follow-up Aug. 8...