The demise was introduced by the San Francisco legislation agency of Rains Lucia Stern, the place Mr. Wallach labored in recent times. The trigger was not disclosed.

Early in his profession, Mr. Wallach established a popularity as one in all California’s prime trial legal professionals, successful the state’s first million-dollar settlement in a medical malpractice case, adopted by a $3.6 million verdict in New Mexico, after a baby suffered mind injury at beginning.

In San Francisco, he was referred to as a liberal Democrat who briefly sought the U.S. Senate nomination in 1976 as a supporter of homosexual rights and legalized marijuana. By 1980, Mr. Wallach had turn out to be a supporter of the presidential marketing campaign of Republican Ronald Reagan, largely due to his friendship with Meese, one in all Reagan’s prime advisers. Meese had been Mr. Wallach’s legislation faculty classmate and moot court docket companion on the College of California at Berkeley.

After Reagan’s election, Mr. Wallach got here to Washington as an off-the-cuff adviser to Meese, who was counselor to the president earlier than changing into lawyer basic in 1985.

Mr. Wallach was named a U.S. Consultant for Human Rights and served on the Advisory Fee on Public Diplomacy, however past sharing lunches and memos with Meese, he exercised little actual authority.

Early in 1981, Mr. Wallach grew to become the conduit to the Reagan administration for Wedtech, a small manufacturing agency within the Bronx looking for leverage on Pentagon initiatives. The corporate’s house owners, unschooled within the methods of Washington, had employed a personal detective to seek out out why they weren’t successful protection contracts.

“I didn’t suppose investigating the secretary of the Military and a few procurement officers was going to assist,” the detective, Harold Lipset, informed The Washington Put up in 1987. “I believed they wanted a lobbyist in Washington and [Mr. Wallach] was the one one I knew who knew any individual in Washington.”

Mr. Wallach, who had spent his early years in New York Metropolis, noticed the corporate’s blue-collar executives because the type of scrappy underdogs he had been as a younger man. He wrote memos to Meese touting Wedtech as an inspiring firm on the rise, and Reagan praised it in speeches.

Over the following few years, Wedtech landed Pentagon contracts value an estimated $250 million, a lot of them awarded on a no-bid foundation. Mr. Wallach admitted he had pocketed at the least $1.3 million in shares and charges as he helped the corporate achieve a foothold in Washington.

As Wedtech struggled to meet its contracts, federal prosecutors purchased expenses of bribery, racketeering and fraud towards firm officers, who had rewarded themselves with costly vehicles and lavish meals. A number of political figures have been additionally swept up within the widening scandal, together with Mr. Wallach, former White Home communications director Lyn Nofziger and members of Congress.

In the long run, greater than 20 folks have been convicted in federal court docket. U.S. Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.) and former Bronx borough president Stanley Simon every spent greater than two years in jail on corruption expenses. Meese was not prosecuted, however within the midst of the scandal he resigned from his publish as lawyer basic in 1988.

Mario Biaggi, N.Y. congressman convicted of corruption, dies at 97

Mr. Wallach was convicted of racketeering in 1989 and sentenced to 6 years in jail, resulting in the non permanent suspension of his legislation follow in California whereas he appealed the choice. His conviction was overturned in 1991, after a key witness was discovered to have dedicated perjury. (Nofziger and others equally had their convictions reversed.)

Nonetheless, Mr. Wallach’s authorized troubles weren’t over, and in 1993 he confronted a brand new trial in New York on related expenses. He refused to make a plea deal, sustaining he had by no means dedicated against the law in selling Wedtech to federal officers.

“I’m responsible of nothing however being within the mistaken place on the mistaken time,” he stated.

Having spent greater than $1 million on his protection and nonetheless owing greater than $700,000, Mr. Wallach was lowered to performing as his personal lawyer nearly out of desperation.

“If I get convicted a second time, I’ve nothing left,” he stated. “I’ll lose all the pieces, together with my livelihood.”

When the arguments have been completed, the deadlocked jury couldn’t attain a call. The choose dismissed all expenses towards Mr. Wallach, who went again to San Francisco to rebuild his profession.

Eugene Robert Wallach was born April 11, 1934, in New York Metropolis. His mother and father labored in a hat manufacturing facility and divorced when their son was 7.

He moved together with his mom to Los Angeles, the place she labored in an airplane meeting plant throughout World Warfare II.

Mr. Wallach was a champion debater in highschool and graduated in 1955 from the College of Southern California. As a legislation pupil at Berkeley, he grew to become particularly near Meese, as they studied collectively within the Meese household basement.

“I used to like going to their dwelling,” he informed journalist James Traub for his 1990 guide concerning the Wedtech scandal, “Too Good to Be True.” “Ed and I have been writing briefs down within the basement, his mom would come down with the sandwiches. It was proper out of Andy Hardy. It was the type of dwelling I had by no means skilled.”

After graduating in 1958, Mr. Wallach joined a San Francisco legislation agency, then referred to as Walkup & Downing, and shortly grew to become acknowledged as a prime courtroom advocate. He established a solo follow in 1971 and was recognized for a string of victories, usually in instances involving accidents or medical malpractice. One in all his courtroom victories, involving Lady Scouts burned in a automotive crash, led to the adoption of median boundaries on some California highways.

“He was referred to as being one of the best lawyer within the courtroom in entrance of a jury,” Eustace de St. Phalle, a companion at Rains Lucia Stern, stated in an interview. “He was at all times listening and was a fantastic strategist.”

As Mr. Wallach’s authorized popularity grew, he cultivated an air of eccentricity: He grew to become referred to as “e. bob” — spelling his identify with out capital letters — and infrequently went out in public with an unique Saluki canine. He wore a yellow rose in his lapel.

He was married two occasions, to Barbara Wallach and later to Glenda Jones. Survivors embrace three daughters from his first marriage and 7 grandchildren.

After returning to San Francisco, Mr. Wallach represented the Fang household because it bought the San Francisco Examiner newspaper in 2000 from the Hearst firm. He was additionally the longtime company counsel of the Sharper Picture retail agency.

Mr. Wallach taught at a number of Bay Space legislation faculties and was an off-the-cuff mentor to numerous legal professionals. He joined Rains Lucia Stern in 2016 and continued to follow legislation via 2019. Based on the agency, he tried 283 instances that reached a verdict — and misplaced solely 14 occasions.

“The one factor I’m guilt-ridden about,” Mr. Wallach stated in 1993, “is my stupidity and poor judgment in venturing off into the minefields of Washington.”