E Robert Wallach

E. Robert Wallach, whose career as a heavyweight trial lawyer in California was overshadowed by his connection to one of the biggest corruption scandals to hit Washington during the Reagan administration, died on May 15 2022. He graduated at the top of his law school class from the University of California, Berkeley, and was widely considered one of the best personal injury lawyers in California. He was a progressive Democrat - so it came as a shock to many when, in the early 1980s, he shuttered his practice and moved to Washington to become an unofficial adviser to Edwin Meese III, a close friend since law school who had become a counselor to President Ronald Reagan. Most of his work in Washington was pro bono, including advising a small defense contractor in the South Bronx called Wedtech. Wallach wrote memos to Mr. Meese extolling Wedtech. Mr. Meese in turn pushed skeptical Army officials to seal the deal, and in 1982 Wedtech won a no-bid contract for $32 million. It later emerged that the company had poured huge sums into the coffers of politicians, lobbyists and former administration officials to win big Pentagon deals, often doctoring invoices to hide bribes. Wedtech soon had $250 million in contracts. Mr. Meese was President Reagan’s attorney general, and Mr. Wallach was on retainer with Wedtech. Along the way Mr. Wallach had persuaded Mr. Meese to hire a financial adviser named W. Franklyn Chinn to handle his nest egg in a blind trust; Mr. Chinn, as it happened, was a member of the Wedtech board. Wedtech went bankrupt in 1986, and the next year Mr. Wallach, Mr. Chinn and another associate were indicted on 18 charges, including mail fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. Meese finally resigned in August 1988. Wallach was convicted of fraud in 1989 and sentenced to six years in prison. But Mr. Wallach prevailed in appealing the case. In 1993, with the jury deadlocked, the Department of Justice decided to drop it. He was legally clear but financially ruined. After his return to California he spent a decade as senior counsel to the Sharper Image, and in 2012 and 2013, at an age when most lawyers retire, he spent 134 days in court, working on three trials. In 2016 he became senior counsel at Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver. Mr. Wallach’s marriage ended in divorce. Along with his daughter Nancy Garvey, he is survived by two other daughters, Jamie Wallach and Bonny Wallach, and seven grandchildren.