Anthony "Tony" Abbott Lapham was the 3rd

General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency The General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) serves as the agency’s chief legal officer, responsible for overseeing all legal matters related to CIA operations, policies, and activities. The position ensures that the agency oper ...

(CIA), acting as the CIA's chief legal officer during the chaotic period of the

Church Committee The Church Committee (formally the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence ...

. Lapham was also known as an environmentalist, and was chairman of

American Rivers American Rivers is a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization focused on protecting and promoting the health of rivers in the United States. Established in 1973, the group is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Activities River restoration A ...

, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving rivers, and died while on a

trout fishing Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera ''Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the fam ...

trip on the

Cane River The Cane River (French: ''Rivière aux Cannes'') is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 3, 2011 in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, originating from a portion o ...

. He served on the board of the Krebser Fund for

Rappahannock County Rappahannock County is a county located in the northern Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, US, adjacent to Shenandoah National Park. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 7,348. Its county seat is Washington. The name "Rappah ...

Conservation and was a trustee of

Ocean Conservancy Ocean Conservancy (founded as The Delta Corporation) is a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States. The organization seeks to promote healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems, prevent marine pollution, climate ...

American Farmland Trust American Farmland Trust (AFT) is a non-profit organization in the United States with a mission to protect farmland, promote environmentally sound farming practices, and keep farmers on the land. AFT is staffed by farmers, policy experts, researche ...

, Audubon, National Audubon Society, Environmental Defense Fund and the Audubon Naturalist Society of the Central Atlantic States.

Life

Lapham was born in San Francisco. His father was Lewis A. Lapham, who had helped create the Professional golf tours, and was President of the Bankers Trust New York, Bankers Trust New York Corporation and several shipping companies. In 1958, Lapham earned his bachelors degree from Yale University. Even though his father had been a member of the Skull and Bones, Lapham himself was a member of the Manuscript Society, Yale's senior society dedicated to Arts and letters. Later in 1958, Lapham moved to Washington, D.C., where he attended night school at Georgetown University Law Center, holding down a day job in Capitol Hill. He earned his law degree from Georgetown in 1961. During this time, Lapham served in the United States Army with the 226th Military Intelligence Corps (United States Army), Military Intelligence detachment. After his service in the Army, Lapham joined the United States Navy, working in the Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps for a legal unit. From 1962 to 1966, Lapham served as the Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. From 1965 to 1967, Lapham served as the Executive Assistant to the Special Assistant to the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of the Treasury. Beginning in 1967, Lapham joined the Washington–based law firm Goodwin Procter, Shea and Gardner as an associate. Three years later, he became a Partner. In 1976, Lapham was the first General Counsel to be brought in from "outside" the CIA. Lapham was the lawyer who was ultimately responsible for drafting the CIA's public apology for its part in the MKUltra program. Lapham also presided over the CIA's legal response to many other public revelations during the

. Michael Hayden (general), Michael Hayden said that this was "a period of momentous change and challenges for the agency." In 1980, Lapham returned to Shea and Gardner, which had been absorbed by the Boston law firm, Goodwin Procter. While in private practice, Lapham represented Adolfo Calero, the leader of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, and later represented the chief paymaster for Charles Taylor (Liberian politician), Charles Taylor. Most notably, Lapham also represented his former boss, Stansfield Turner, when Turner himself sued the CIA. Lapham was also on the Board of Trustees for WETA-TV, WETA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lapham, Anthony 1936 births 2006 deaths Yale University alumni Georgetown University Law Center alumni Central Intelligence Agency