Evan J. Wallach - CONFIRMED

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

On July 28, 2011, President Obama nominated Judge Evan Wallach, age 62, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judge Wallach is currently a judge on the United States Court of International Trade. President Obama, noting Judge Wallach’s “distinguished . . . legal career in both the public and private sectors,” has said that Judge Wallach “possesses a keen intellect and a commitment to fairness and integrity that will serve him well as a judge on the Federal Circuit.”

Biography

Judge Wallach was born in Superior, Arizona in 1949. In 1969, prior to completing his B.A., he enlisted in the United States Army and served in the Vietnam War from 1970 to 1971 as a terrain reconnaissance sergeant in the 8th Engineer Battalion, service for which he was awarded the Bronze Star. He received his B.A. in Journalism (high honors) in 1973 from the University of Arizona, his J.D. in 1993 from the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law in 1976, and an LL.B. with honors in international law from Cambridge University in 1981. Following law school, he joined the Las Vegas, Nevada firm Lionel Sawyer & Collins as a litigation associate from 1976-1982 and as a general partner from 1982-1985, specializing in media representation. From 1987-1988 he worked as General Counsel and Public Policy Advisor to Senator Harry Reid. In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed Judge Wallach to the United States Court of International Trade.

Legal Experience

During his time on the bench of the Court of International Trade, Judge Wallach has presided over hundreds of international trade and customs law cases. His judicial experience extends to the federal trial and appellate courts where, sitting by designation, he has heard numerous cases to come before the Court of Appeals for the Second, Third, and Ninth Circuits. Judge Wallach has significant experience in the area of military law. He served as Legal Advisor to the Brigade Commander in the Nevada Army National Guard from 1989 to 1995 (Captain to Major) and was in active service from February-June of 1991 during the Persian Gulf War as an Attorney/Advisor in the International Affairs Division of the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Army at the Pentagon. From 1988-1995 he served as General Counsel for the Society for Professional Journalists and, from 1989-1995, as General Counsel for the Nevada Press Association.

Professional and Academic Activities

Judge Wallach has served as Adjunct Professor in Law of War at New York Law School and Brooklyn Law School from 1997 to the present. He has been a Visiting Professor of the Law of War at the University of Munster from 2001 to the present and is an honorary Fellow of Hughes Hall College, University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. From 1981 to 1982, Judge Wallach was an instructor in the Political Science Department of the University of Nevada. Judge Wallach is a member of the American Law Institute and is an ALI advisor on the Principles of World Trade Law: National Treatment. He has served on ALI Members Consultative Groups in the areas of International Trade and International Jurisdiction & Judgments. The author of numerous articles on the law of war, he is also the author of Legal Handbook for Nevada Reporters (1994), co-editor of the Nevada Civil Practice Handbook (1993), and webmaster of the International Law of War Association site www.lawofwar.org.

A member of the Nevada Bar Association, Judge Wallach has been awarded the American Bar Association Liberty Bell Award (1993) and the Clark County School Librarians Intellectual Freedom Award (1995).

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