Eugene Robert “Bob” Wallach (1934–2022): Brilliant Bay Area Lawyer Embroiled in Reagan Administration Scandal

Bob Wallach and gravemarker

Plot 76

E. Robert “Bob” Wallach was one of California’s most accomplished and enigmatic trial lawyers, a courtroom virtuoso whose career intersected with national politics, personal upheaval, and a dramatic public fall followed by exoneration. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he developed an early love of argumentation through competitive debate at the University of Southern California. At Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, he excelled academically and formed a lifelong friendship with fellow law student Edwin Meese III, later U.S. Attorney General under Ronald Reagan. 

Their moot-court partnership would eventually draw Wallach—reluctantly, and at significant personal cost—into the political orbit of the Reagan administration and Attorney General Ed Meese. [In an Oakland connection of note, members of the Meese family are interred at Mountain View Cemetery. Learn more HERE. As of the date of this post, Edwin Meese III is still alive.]

Wallach began his legal career at the respected San Francisco litigation firm Walkup Downing. His talent was immediately recognized: in one of his earliest cases, a railroad-crossing wrongful-death trial, he defeated two of California’s leading trial lawyers. The win helped establish his reputation as a brilliant young litigator whose poise, preparation, and instinctive connection with juries set him apart. He rose quickly to become a name partner. But in the early 1970s, because of significant domestic challenges—his wife’s serious physical and mental-health struggles—he left the firm and restarted his career as a sole practitioner working from his Piedmont home. The shift was dramatic, but it reinforced his independence and his ability to thrive under pressure.

Across five decades, Wallach accumulated a trial record that bordered on mythic: 222 cases tried to verdict, with only 12 losses. Colleagues described him as elegant, perceptive, analytical, and deeply attuned to human behavior—qualities that juries responded to. He served as a mentor to generations of lawyers and co-founded the Hastings College of the Law Center for Trial and Appellate Advocacy, serving as its dean and chairman. His dedication to professional standards made him a model of courtroom decorum in an increasingly mediated legal culture.

His high-profile clients reflected his wide-ranging practice and intellectual curiosity. Wallach represented the Fang family during their controversial purchase of the San Francisco Examiner and served for fourteen years as advisor and counsel to The Sharper Image, whose founder had been one of his students. He preferred complex, high-stakes personal-injury litigation but was equally known for his willingness to advise on unusual or sensitive matters.

Sunday, NY Times feature on Meese and Wallach

The turning point in Wallach’s public life came during the 1980s, after his friend Ed Meese called on him to join the Reagan administration. Wallach, a lifelong Democrat, accepted a presidential appointment to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and performed informal advisory roles for the administration. The decision cost him socially and professionally—he later said that both Democrats and Republicans distrusted him—but he believed he was answering a civic calling.

This move, however, placed him squarely in the pathway of the Wedtech scandal. In 1987 he was indicted on racketeering, fraud, and conspiracy charges for allegedly helping the Wedtech Corporation secure federal contracts through his Washington contacts, including Meese. After a lengthy trial, he was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to six years in prison, fines, and forfeitures. But the case quickly unraveled when key prosecution witnesses admitted giving false testimony. In 1991, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the conviction. A retrial in 1993 ended with a hung jury, and the government dropped all remaining charges. Wallach, in the eyes of the law, was fully exonerated.

The ordeal devastated him financially and professionally. He later said the case removed him from his practice for four years, and his seven-year odyssey through trials, appeals, and waiting periods left him economically “starting over from scratch.” Yet he returned to San Francisco determined to rebuild. His resilience—what he called the “Icarus fallen” arc of American public life—became an essential part of his personal narrative. Having spent decades representing catastrophically injured clients, he often noted that nothing he endured compared with the adversity he had witnessed in their lives.

In the years after the scandal, Wallach slowly reconstituted a thriving practice. Referrals from other attorneys—who trusted his judgment even when the political world had turned against him—remained his lifeline. He continued to try cases, mentor younger lawyers, and speak publicly about the realities of litigation. His philosophy emphasized both humility and rigor: that trial lawyers should not romanticize the profession, that courtroom experience is irreplaceable, and that civility is a professional obligation. His personal style, from his sartorial formality to his insistence on dining with a tablecloth, became part of his lore.

Wallach died at his home in Alameda on May 15, 2022, at age 88. His life embodied the contradictions of American legal and political experience—meteoric success, public humiliation, vindication, and renewal. 

Sources: New York Times obituary (May 29, 2022); Sunday, NY Times, June 19, 1988; Plaintiff Magazine profile (June 2010); National Registry of Exonerations; Mountain View Cemetery historical materials (Meese family); Lives of the Dead; Yuma Daily Sun