Griffin received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1974 and was selected as a Rhodes Scholar.
As a Rhodes Scholar, he attended Oxford University, where he received his British law degree.
Griffin served in the George H. W. Bush administration as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice Tax Division.
In 1997, following the resignation of Gary Sherrer, Governor of Oklahoma Frank Keating appointed Griffin to serve as his second Secretary of the Environment.
Griffin served as chairman of the Tar Creek Superfund Task Force that was appointed by Governor Keating in January 2000 to examine issues that still remained to clean up the site in Ottawa County, Oklahoma.