American Notes JUDICIARY

In the summer of 1981, California State Judge Eugene Lynch asked San Francisco Attorney E. Robert Wallach to talk to his good friend Edwin Meese, then White House Counsellor, about helping the judge get an appointment to the federal bench. Wallach says it was "likely" that he did so. At a hearing on Sept. 17 of that year, Lynch orally approved a payment of $1 million to Wallach's law firm as its part of a $1.74 million out-of-court settlement won by the firm for two girls who had been badly burned in a tent fire. The following January Lynch was chosen to become a federal district judge.

While those facts, reported last week by the San Francisco Chronicle, were not denied, Lynch insisted that there was no connection between his promotion and Wallach's generous award. Lynch said he had not approved the fee in writing and had referred the matter in December to another judge. After the father of one of the girls objected to paying the lawyers 57% of the award (25% is normal in such cases), the second judge in 1982 reduced their fee to $322,000. The California state bar is reportedly investigating Wallach's firm for seeking the high payment. The office of Independent Counsel James McKay said it was examining the Lynch appointment as part of its ongoing investigation of Attorney General Meese.