STATE BAR TO HONOR WESTLAKE LEGAL EAGLE AND JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES.

Byline: Don Holland Daily News Staff Writer

To say that Wallace Friedman has had a colorful career is something of an understatement.

In fact, Friedman hasn't had just one career, but several: an Air Force technician and pilot, a recording artist, an aerospace engineer and, finally, an attorney.

``My wife says I've lived five lives in one,'' said Friedman, 67, a Westlake Village resident.

Through each chapter in his life, Friedman has had a hand in some remarkable event. His latest chapter - retirement - has led him back to the law and volunteer work at the Conejo Free Clinic in Thousand Oaks, where he spends at least eight hours a week advising residents about landlord-tenant disputes, bankruptcies and other areas of the law.

His work as an unpaid legal consultant has won praise from the clinic and clients alike. And the State Bar of California plans to honor Friedman on Oct. 2 with its President's Pro Bono Service Award, a distinction bestowed on only two lawyers each year.

``It's a very prestigious award as far as the State Bar is concerned,'' said Anne Charles, director of communications for the bar association. ``It's the top honor by the top official of the State Bar of California.''

Born to a poor family, Friedman was raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., until his parents moved to far-off California when he was in his teens. After graduating from high school at age 16, Friedman studied science and journalism in college.

With the outbreak of the Korean War, Friedman enlisted in the Air Force.

``I wanted to learn how to fly,'' he said. ``At that time, I was just about 19, but to become a pilot, you had to be 21. So they sent me to study radar (repair) in Philadelphia.''

When he turned 20, he applied for pilot training and was put on the waiting list. In the meantime, he was trained as a radar observer and shipped to Alaska, where his wife, Beverly, gave birth to the first of their two sons.

Friedman eventually made it into pilot school, then was bounced from Georgia to Texas and finally to Norton Air Force Base in Southern California, where he was made chief of communications and electronics.

After his discharge from the Air Force, Friedman returned to school while working as a technical writer. Eventually he went to work at Litton's computers and controls lab in Culver City before moving on to Lockheed, where he worked on the Midas and Agena spy-satellite programs.

From there he went to Rocketdyne, where he wrote specifications for the Gemini space program.

``I enjoyed engineering work, but I started to see there was no security, there was no retirement,'' he said. ``You always went to where the contracts were, and you were always subject to cutbacks or layoffs.

``I didn't want to build nuclear bombs. I had to do something to satisfy myself.''

In 1959 he decided to take a year off and see what he could make out of a career in the music business. Under the name Wally Fane, Friedman cut two records, ``Hold Out Your Hand'' and ``Lonely Without Love.''

One music industry trade magazine dubbed one of his recordings a ``best bet.''

``A lot of disc jockeys played it, so it became an air hit,'' recalled Friedman. ``But it didn't get a lot of sales in the record stores.''

Although he made it onto Dick Clark's ``American Bandstand'' and appeared three times on Johnny Otis' local talent show, Friedman's singing career didn't take off quite as he had hoped.

And when strong-arm types in the recording industry took an interest in his music, it made all the easier to go back to engineering.

But his glimpse into some of the underhanded dealings that go on in the entertainment world fueled his interest in the law. When he told his wife, he recalled, ``she almost had a fit.''

Friedman worked days as an engineer and attended night classes at the San Fernando Valley School of Law. The GI Bill helped with tuition, and the family's modest, 1,400-square-foot home kept payments down to $96 a month.

``It was very tough. We had to do without a lot of things,'' he said. ``But it worked out. When I passed the bar (in 1966), my wife was very proud, and she thought it was good for the boys to see how hard their father worked.''

In 1965, Friedman and his family moved into an Encino condominium, a new phenomenon in the real estate market at the time. Soon he was enmeshed in the details of condo law and was one of the earliest such experts in the state.

But perhaps his most notable accomplishment as an attorney came after his son, Stephen, was denied admission to the University of California medical school, although his test scores were among the top 3 percent in the nation.

``I sued the University of California for reverse discrimination,'' Friedman said. ``And after about four years of litigation, they decided to settle.''

By that time, the younger Friedman was a doctor, and the settlement help him set up a dermatology practice in Encino.

Today Friedman spends his retirement taking care of business as a board member of the North Ranch homeowners association, but he still finds time occasionally to handle legal work for friends and longtime clients.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO Wallace Friedman and his wife, Beverly, relax with Coco Chanel, the family dog, at their Westlake Village home.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News