(1914 - 1994)
Through preparation and scholarly demeanor - not courtroom flamboyance - Bruce Walkup was enabled to persuade juries throughout the country to award substantial verdicts to his injured clients. His reputation became national in 1973 when he obtained a $4 million verdict for a Marin County child injured in a school yard mishap. Bruce was also involved in aviation litigation following a number of highly publicized airline crashes, including the wreck of two planes in the Canary Islands that killed 581 people. He had enthusiastic admirers on the defense side as well as the plaintiff's side. A prominent San Francisco defense attorney told a reporter, "It's a pleasure to litigate with him. He fights fair and square. He's a lawyer's lawyer." Bruce clung to two basic beliefs: A deal is a deal, and nothing is too good for a friend. Bruce demonstrated that superior results could be achieved while remaining polite and professional and displaying respect for opposing parties and counsel. That said, Bruce once told Terry O'Reilly that the best client was one who left immediately after being signed up - for missionary duty in China.
Behind Bruces desk in his office was a quote from Teddy Roosevelt made on April 23, 1910, at the Sorbonne: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Bruce served as President of the Inner Circle from 1977-1979.
