Thomas A. Wallace

Thomas A. Wallace, a leading Oklahoma trial lawyer, died November 8, 2005, in Oklahoma City. He was 82. Mr. Wallace courageously battled cancer from July 23, 2004, until his death. Mr. Wallace was born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, October 12, 1923 to Thomas Andrew Wallace and Lucille Wallace. His father was a well-known trial lawyer whose oratory 'could bring tears or make leaves fall off of trees' according to family legend. Thomas A. Wallace was the youngest of five brothers. His oldest brother, W.R. Wallace, Sr., served as a District Judge for the Oklahoma United States District Court. Older brother, Creekmore Wallace, Sr., served as District Judge for Mayes County, Oklahoma. Older brothers Grady Wallace and Herbert Wallace were both lawyers. Herbert Wallace served as Secretary of State for Oklahoma. He is preceded in death by his brothers and sisters Mary Spohn and Jewell Wallace. His mother Lucille Wallace was a renowned golfer and twice was the Oklahoma State Amateur Champion. Thomas A. Wallace graduated from Cascia Hall Preparatory School in 1941, where he was awarded the Cascia Medal given annually to the student who exhibited outstanding moral, academic, athletic, and leadership skills. He attended Princeton for two years before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps for service in WWII. After receiving an honorable discharge at the rank of First Lieutenant, Mr. Wallace spent a year in China studying the Mandarin dialect. He returned to the United States and graduated from Columbia University with a B.S. degree in 1951 and a law degree in 1953. 'My basic philosophy is that all men are created equal,' he said at Mercy Hospital on July 23, 2004, after receiving word that his illness was terminal. 'The 18th century philosophy of John Locke did away with the belief in a divine right of kings and aristocracy,' he said. 'Thomas Jefferson captured the concept that all men are created equal in the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln nailed it in his Gettysburg Address. For me, these 18th century principles that all men and women are created equal are about fairness. In every culture, fairness is the first consideration. It is from fairness and the sense of fairness that we get our justice. This is why I became a trial lawyer.' Thomas A. Wallace was a gifted intellectual legal talent. Honesty and courtesy were a part of who he was both in his personal and professional life. He practiced law in Oklahoma for over fifty years during which he served the public as a trial lawyer. He was president of the Oklahoma Trial Lawyers Association in 1976. His skills as an appellate lawyer were well known to the judges before whom he appeared including the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. He was an appellate counsel for Tom Lee in the 1984 landmark products liability case of Lee v. Volkswagen. In Dodson v. Henderson Properties, Inc., he challenged the right of a trial judge to substitute his opinion for the jury and the Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed with him and said, 'The trial judge is not a thirteenth juror.' Mr. Wallace was a frequent lecturer to law students and lawyers on topics ranging from evidence, civil procedure, jury instructions, products liability cases, and legal writing. He served on the Oklahoma Supreme Court's standing committee on Uniform Jury Instructions from 1993 to 2001. He was a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association Sub-Committee on the Oklahoma Evidence Code from 1973-1977. He was vice chair and member of the Oklahoma Bar Association Committee on Civil Procedure from 1979 to 2001. At different times in his legal career, he was a law partner with his cousin, Creekmore Wallace, II, Jack Sellers, John Norman, Henry A. Meyer and Garvin Isaacs. He is survived by his wife Rebecca Wallace. Surviving family members include his sons and daughters-in-law: Tom and Susie Wallace of Long Grove, IL., son Jim and Ellen Wallace of Seattle, WA, son Bill and Kathleen Wallace of Apex, NC, daughter and son-inlaw Pamela and Phillip Lipscomb of Muskogee, OK, and grandchildren: Patrick Shea, Kevin Shea, Megan Shea, Bryan Shea, Julia Wallace, Amelia Wallace, Olivia Wallace, Ella Wallace, Caroline Wallace, Colin Wallace, Katherine Wallace, and Ethan Wallace. A memorial service will be held at Baggerley Funeral Home, 930 S. Broadway, Edmond, Oklahoma, at 10:00 AM, Saturday, November 12, 2005.