Minnesota Lawyer

After working for 14 years in the affordable housing arena, paralegal Nancy DiPasquale brought valuable expertise to Messerli & Kramer when she joined the firm in April 2010.

When the city of St. Paul faced a class-action lawsuit filed by 32 protesters arrested outside the 2008 Republication National Convention, Susan Tindal used her specialized expertise to help craft a successful defense. The William Mitchell College of Law graduate joined the Bloomington-based firm Iverson Reuvers in 2001 as a law clerk; she is now a senior associate. A Bloomington native, Tindal made her career choice while an undergraduate at the College of St. Benedict.

Tax law, says Adam Thimmesch, "is a very complex area where there is a lot of law to analyze and a lot of ways transactions can be recast."

In 2006, Andrew Muller had a relatively rare experience: starting a new law firm in partnership with his father. Muller and his father, Noel Muller - a former Grey Plant Moody partner - formed Minneapolis-based Muller & Muller.

Choosing the somewhat esoteric area of adoption law as a specialty was a logical move for Stacia Driver; her father, Wright Walling, has practiced in family law since the late 1970s and co-founded Walling Berg & Debele in 1991. She also has an adopted sister, Bria.

As an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Christine Cassellius was not planning on a legal career. But majoring in criminal justice and sociology at UMD was good preparation for her current career: practicing family law and also handling routine criminal prosecutions as an assistant attorney for the city of Apple Valley and for the city of Coates in Dakota County.

As a law student, Caldwell Camero was attracted by the challenges and variety of in-house law practice, and she has found both as in-house counsel for two of the fastest-growing companies in the Midwest: Menards and Best Buy.

As chief public defender for Minnesota's 3rd Judicial District, Karen Duncan has spent several years coping with a worsening funding crunch, exacerbated by the state's current, $5 billion-plus budget shortfall. Duncan took bold action to address the issue last year, asking a Steele County District Court judge's to permit her overburdened staff to withdraw from representing 46 defendants.

Minneapolis attorney Jim Behrenbrinker had never handled a police excessive-force case until December, 2006, when Katie Felder contacted him, seeking justice for her late son, Dominic Felder. He had been shot and killed by two Minneapolis police officers.

When Legal Aid attorney Galen Robinson decided to challenge Gov. Tim Pawlenty's authority to unilaterally cut the state budget in 2009, he wasn't intimidated by the inevitable David vs. Goliath comparisons.