Central High

James Steiner

From 1958 Centralian

"He's nice, short, and a real good sport." Spanish Club, Creative Writing Club, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Boys' "C" Winner.

His friends called him "the bulldog."

Longtime Minneapolis attorney James Steiner was tenacious in the courtroom, with a relentless drive to win. Outside the courtroom, his persistence drove him to live life to the fullest whether it was paddling a lake in the wilderness or dropping out of an airplane.

"He didn't give up," said longtime colleague Terry Joy. "He was like the ocean -- the waves just keep coming at you. I learned a lot from him. He was one of the best litigators I ever saw."

Steiner, an attorney with the Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi firm until he retired in 2000, died Monday (June 13, 2011) at Hennepin County Medical Center of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 71.

Steiner, who resided in Tonka Bay and Marco Island, Fla., grew up in the working-class south Minneapolis neighborhood that once was home to Central High School. "It was a tough neighborhood, and Jim wasn't a big guy," said Dick Allyn, who considered Steiner a mentor, colleague and friend. "It's probably the reason he was as tough as he was ... and it served him well."

Steiner was a disciplined, buttoned-down attorney who commanded attention in the courtroom.

"He talked so softly you had to listen," said David Evinger, Steiner's colleague for 23 years. "But he was totally intimidating. His eyes, his quiet, firm nature -- it was like my dad. He would give you that look and you knew that you'd better be paying attention. Judges ... attorneys just got mesmerized. They had to listen. They just knew this guy wasn't going to go away. No one could outwork him. No one could outplay him. He was a giant."

His notable cases included Philadelphia's One Meridian Plaza high-rise fire in 1991 and the 1994 salmonella outbreak involving Schwan's ice cream. As a skilled litigator, Steiner was quick to share his skills. In 1980, he founded the Robins Trial Advocacy Program, which was nationally recognized as a model for in-house advocacy training.

Like most others, Susan Nelson, a longtime colleague of Steiner's and now a federal judge, was struck by his perseverance and courage. "He was the definition of courage," she said. "He faced real challenges throughout his life, including Parkinson's. But it didn't stop him."

Together Steiner and his best friend and wife of 31 years, Gwyn, biked in Europe, paddled the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, sailed Lake Superior, rafted whitewater and kayaked. "I was right alongside him," Gwyn Steiner said. "Well, for some things. When he did skydiving, I wouldn't do that," she said. "He just wanted to experience everything and the Parkinson's didn't even slow him down. When he was feeling good, he didn't waste a minute. He had such an amazing spirit and sense of adventure."

He loved to sing, recording duets a la karaoke with Frank Sinatra, James Taylor and Ray LaMontagne. He handed out compact discs to friends, relatives, clerks at the dry cleaner's or Postal Service store. If a band was performing at a party, Steiner often grabbed a mike, his wife said.

"Jim would light up a room. He would do it with a turn of a phrase or just the sharpness of his mind," Evinger said.

Besides his wife, he is survived by sons Brian Steiner of Maple Grove, John Steiner of Eden Prairie and Jon Gulenchyn of Bonita Springs, Fla.; daughter, Lisa Starke of Victoria; sister Lynn Osborn of Waconia; and two grandchildren.

Published in Star Tribune from June 15 to June 16, 2011

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