Robert Wallach, whose career as a 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 at his home in Alameda, CA. He was 88.

From the moment he graduated at the top of his law school class from the University of California, Berkeley, Mr. Wallach was widely considered one of the best personal injury lawyers in California. Yet, in the early 1980s, he shuttered his practice and moved to Washington to become an unofficial adviser to Edwin Meese III, a 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. Mr. Wallach wasn’t the only Washington figure working with Wedtech. 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. Wallach was convicted of fraud in 1989 and sentenced to six years in prison. The case was thrown out on appeal. He returned to the Bay area and began to rebuild his reputation. Over the course of his 58-year career, he took 283 cases to verdict and lost just 14 of them.