About Jim Walsh
Jim Walsh is an award-winning author, journalist, writer, and songwriter from Minneapolis. A columnist for the Southwest Journal and regular contributor to MinnPost.com, his work has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, and many other publications. He is the author of Fear & Loving in South Minneapolis; Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes: Jim Walsh on Music from Minneapolis to the Outer Limits; Gold Experience: Following Prince in the ’90s; and The Replacements: All Over But The Shouting. A father of two (Henry and Helen!) and sometime teacher at the Loft Literary Center, Walsh is the ringleader behind the longtime singer/songwriter showcase The Mad Ripple Hootenanny. His new band, Jim Walsh and the Dog Day Cicadas, has recorded two releases, “Songs For The Band To Learn” (2017) and “Shout It Out To You” (2022). He lives in Minneapolis with his partner Mary Beth Hanson and their two cats, Rumi and Rilke.
Articles written by Jim Walsh
Safe in Traffic
The children of Sheldon Flanzig rep injured cyclistsGrowing up as the children of prominent personal injury lawyer Sheldon Flanzig, Dan and Cathy Flanzig heard plenty of stories about people and their problems—and the attorneys and laws that helped them. “Our dinner conversation every night was about his cases,” Dan remembers. “He was very dedicated to his job. He was at his office at six o’clock in the morning and came home at seven o’clock at night. He managed seven attorneys and hundreds of files by himself. Pretty impressive. …
Chasing Rabbits
Marc Schechter grew up idolizing Jefferson Airplane; now he reps themGrowing up in Toms River, New Jersey in the 1960s, Marc Schechter was about as far from California’s psychedelic rock scene as an East Coast kid could get. But the radio provided a window to that seminal era—and to one San Francisco band in particular. “The first thing I heard on the radio that really caught me was the lead guitar solo at the end of the song ‘Somebody to Love’ by the Jefferson Airplane,” says Schechter. “I remember thinking how cool that sounded. I went out, …
Leap of Faith
Janet Stellpflug on launching a firm during an unprecedented global pandemicAfter building a career in commercial litigation that included stops at a couple of large local firms, Janet Stellpflug was ready to live the dream of launching her own firm. One of the first steps: signing a 10-year lease in a downtown Minneapolis office building. The only problem? This was in March 2020. “We were trying to start on June 1,” she says. “They couldn’t get the office built out the day it was supposed to be because the furniture manufacturer was shut down, carpet was …
Handy at Bandy
Kelly Engebretson keeps it cool on the ice“For the longest time, I thought bandy was broomball,” says Kelly Engebretson. “I thought you couldn’t wear skates, and I wasn’t interested in a sport where I can’t glide.” A former college hockey player and a member of the Women’s Hockey Association of Minnesota (WHAM), Engebretson soon received a crash course: larger rink, 11 players on each side, ball instead of a puck, and yes, skates. “I had a couple of WHAM friends who played bandy, and in 2014 they said they were going …
Their Voice in the System
How Vildan Teske defends the rights of U.S. military service membersIn 2013, the National Association of Consumer Advocates reached out to Vildan Teske, asking if she would testify at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about the impact of forced arbitration on consumers’ and service members’ rights. The request came shortly after she had represented a member of the military whose home was being foreclosed on as he deployed. The lender was in clear violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which provides foreclosure protection to those on active …
The Most Expensive Orchestra Ever
The LA Lawyers Philharmonic measures time by the director’s beat rather than in six-minute incrementsThe 80-member Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic and its offshoot choir and big band, which have been entertaining people in theaters, churches and halls since 2011, is where “lawyers, judges, law students and legal staff meet in harmony,” according to the group’s website. OK, mostly in harmony. For Erin Prouty, an estate planning and probate attorney at Hoffman Sabban & Watenmaker, who plays flute and piccolo, the first difference she noticed between this orchestra and others was …
The King's Castle
James McLaren on overseeing the expansion of GracelandCatalytic. It’s one of James McLaren’s favorite words, used to describe almost any project he’s working on. McLaren uses it, for example, when discussing his latest client—the King of Rock ’n’ Roll. “I was an Elvis fan,” he says. “Getting to work on this project at Graceland really means something. … He was the catalytic person in changing music. Blues and rock ’n’ roll and soul all came out of here—Memphis.” A partner since 2006 at Adams and Reese, McLaren is part …
'Someone Should Just Go Get Her'
Shaimaa Hussein goes the extra mile for refugees and asylum seekersShortly after Donald Trump implemented his Jan. 27, 2017, travel ban of seven Muslim-majority countries, Shaimaa Hussein and her colleagues at Willkie Farr & Gallagher heard—via a faculty member of the Fordham University law school—the story of Alma Kashkooli, a 12-year-old Iranian girl who desperately needed timesensitive eye surgery. Alma’s mother, Farimah, was studying law at Fordham on a student visa. She and her husband had already scheduled their daughter’s surgery at a …
Cheers to Michael Madigan
How to build a thriving alcohol practice before last callCall Michael Madigan the anti-Andrew Volstead. In 1919, Volstead, a Minnesota congressman and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, shepherded the Volstead Act, aka the National Prohibition Act, aka the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, through Congress. It was enacted “to prohibit intoxicating beverages” and “to regulate the manufacture, sale, or transport of intoxicating beverages.” Didn’t take. One hundred years later, Madigan is on the forefront of an industry still …
Taking the ‘A’ Train
John Mancebo makes a connection on the way to Ice Hockey in HarlemJohn Mancebo, an employment and personal injury lawyer at Tressler in New York, immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 8, and quickly became enamored of a sport that wasn’t exactly big in his native Dominican Republic: ice hockey. A New Jersey Devils fan, Mancebo played in high school, and as an adult volunteered as a coach for Ice Hockey in Harlem, a 31-year-old nonprofit that introduces city kids to the game. Mancebo is featured in the latest issue of New York Super Lawyers magazine. I was a …
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