Legal Career
In 1900, enticed by the Klondike Gold Rush, Walsh moved to the Yukon. After being called to the Yukon bar in 1900, he became a partner in the firm, Tabor, Walsh, & Hulme in Dawson. He was created a King's Counsel in 1903. He also invested in gold-mining, but failed to gain profits from the investments. In 1904, Walsh was an unsuccessful candidate for Mayor of Dawson.
Walsh moved to Calgary in 1904, and was admitted to the bar on June 10 of that year. He joined a law firm as a senior partner of the firm Walsh, McCarthy and Carson. One of his first cases, in 1904 was defending a man accused of horse theft, being heard by the Chief Justice Arthur Sifton and the Supreme Court of Alberta. He served as a member of the Benchers of the Law Society of Alberta from 1907 to 1912, and in 1910 was appointed as one of two counsels to the Royal Commission on the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal.
Walsh was a prominent trial lawyer, claiming several victories in several "major precedent-setting cases". Fellow lawyer and future Prime Minister of Canada R. B. Bennett reportedly referred to Walsh as "the best potential railway lawyer in the province". He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Alberta in 1912, and upon its restructuring of courts into appellate and trial divisions in 1921, became a judge of the Appellate Division in Calgary.
He travelled all over the province, going as far north to Peace River, and south to Lethbridge to hear cases. The most notable trial that Walsh presided over was that of Emilio Picariello, for the murder of Alberta Provincial Police Constable Stephen Lawson. After the murder charge was laid by Attorney General of Alberta John Edward Brownlee, Picariello and his accomplice, Florence Lassandra were found guilty of their crimes and were sentenced to hang. The execution was carried out on May 2, 1923. Walsh was a strong believer that capital punishment was a strong deterrent to crime, sentencing 18 convicted criminals to hang, earning him the nickname, "the Hanging Judge".
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