The President's Lawyer

Newport Beach, Calif., a wealthy community nestled between Los Angeles and San Clemente, has long been a kind of Republican stronghold-by-the-sea. Shortly after Richard Nixon moved into the White House, Newport Police Chief James Glavas telephoned a resident knowledgeable in G.O.P. affairs:

Chief: Who the hell is Herb Kalmbach?

Resident: He is a lawyer in Newport Beach.

Chief: I know that, but is he anyone to be talking for the President?

Resident: Did he call you about negotiations for the San Clemente house?

Chief: Yep.

Resident: And did he talk about arranging security and that kind of stuff?

Chief: Yep.

Resident: Well, the only thing I can tell you. Chief, is that if Herb Kalmbach called you and said he was calling for the President, he was.

In recent weeks other interested parties have been asking the same question: Who is Herb Kalmbach? His name has figured prominently in stories about the exclusive Lincoln Club of Orange County, a group of millionaire businessmen who like to boast that without their munificent fund-raising efforts, Nixon would not be President. According to insiders, the man in charge of funneling funds into G.O.P. coffers is one Herbert W. Kalmbach. Last week potential backers of the Republican Convention in San Diego received copies of a letter signed by John Keeney, chief of the U.S. Justice Department's fraud division. While ordinary political contributions are not tax-deductible --contributions by corporations are in fact illegal--the letter all but assures that contributions to the convention can be written off under a new federal law effective April 7. In convoluted legalese, Keeney explains that to be deductible as a business expense the contribution must be made to a nonprofit organization and its basic intent must be to stimulate business. "The fact that the convention is political in nature," says the letter, "would not preclude the contribution being made for the primary purpose of bringing the political convention to the community with the reasonable expectation of financial return to the contributor." The law firm which requested, received and relayed the message: Kalmbach, De Marco, Knapp & Chillingworth.

Helpful Image. There is nothing improper about the letter; Democrats as well as Republicans solicit convention contributions in much the same manner, and both stand to benefit from the new law. However, coming from the Justice Department, the letter is intriguing in light of the current flap over the convention contributions of International Telephone and Telegraph. Written six weeks before the ITT controversy erupted, the letter is the first definite link in San Diego between the convention and the Justice Department. It also confirms that Kalmbach and his law firm have clout in representing Nixon in the West. Indeed, Kalmbach's career is a case study in the good fortune that can befall a tireless political fund raiser.

At the University of Southern California law school, Kalmbach was a classmate of Presidential Adviser Robert Finch. In 1960 he quit his job with an insurance firm to work with Finch in Nixon's presidential campaign. After losing the 1962 gubernatorial race in California, Nixon sent a note to his campaign workers: "If you need a job get in touch with Herb, and he will fix something up for you." Herb subsequently became vice president of the Macco Corp., a land-development company, and was later tapped as one of Nixon's chief fund raisers in the 1968 campaign. After the election, Kalmbach was offered the post of Under Secretary of Commerce, but he turned it down. He had bigger things in mind.

The year before, Kalmbach and three partners had founded a law firm. He soon became known in West Coast money circles as "the President's lawyer." The image did not hurt. In four short years the firm grew from a small four-man operation with a handful of local clients to a major enterprise with 22 attorneys representing some of the U.S.'s largest corporations. The firm has added 30 new clients since it was founded. Among them: the Morrison-Knudsen Co., one of the world's largest building contractors; the Marriott hotel chain, which has an airline catering service headed by Richard Nixon's brother Donald; MCA Inc., owner of Universal Studios and other widespread properties; and Dart Industries, a large consumer-products firm.

Super-WASP. The firm also has such federally regulated clients as United Air Lines, The Flying Tiger Line and California Federal Savings and Loan. While praising the firm's expertise in tax and real estate law, California Fed Chief Counsel Lloyd Dunn admits that Kalmbach's political clout figures in. "I'd be less than candid if I said anything different," Dunn told TIME Correspondent Donn Downing. Kalmbach's main occupation these days is talking and raising money. He has journeyed abroad on several occasions to remind such wealthy Nixon-appointed ambassadors as Arthur Watson in Paris and Walter Annenberg in London of their indebtedness to the party. Kalmbach is no piker. Two years ago, he and his friend, White House Aide Bob Haldeman, reportedly raised $3,000,000 to help finance the campaigns of key G.O.P. senatorial candidates.

A private man who refuses all interviews, Kalmbach, 50, is described as a "super-WASP" who "never shows what's beneath the veneer." Bob Finch has been known to kid him about his "laundry list," a daily schedule of chores that range from picking up the cleaning to putting the arm on a Republican campaign contributor. In all his doings, acquaintances say he is the picture of the perfect Nixonian--calculating, methodical, conservative and, above all, discreet.

Indeed, he works so much behind the scenes that he is still not widely known in the Los Angeles legal community. He would like to keep it that way. When Who's Who recently asked him for the first time to submit his application, he dutifully listed the names of his wife, his three children, the three country clubs he belongs to and his various jobs and titles. Though it will never appear in Who's Who, his No. 1 occupation is best summed up by a fellow Los Angeles attorney: "I have never heard another lawyer talk about Kalmbach as a lawyer. He is known as a fund raiser and a friend of the White House."

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