{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Short description|American judge (1912–2014)}} {{for multi|the Illinois state representative|Lawrence M. Walsh Jr.|the Illinois state senator|Lawrence M. Walsh Sr.|the Roman Catholic bishop|Lawrence Welsh|the Irish politician|Laurence Walsh}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Lawrence Walsh | image = Lawrence Walsh at the Oval Office in 1960.jpg | office = 5th United States Deputy Attorney General | president = Dwight D. Eisenhower | term_start = December 29, 1957 | term_end = January 20, 1961 | predecessor = William P. Rogers | successor = Byron White | office1 = Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York | appointer1 = Dwight D. Eisenhower | term_start1 = April 28, 1954 | term_end1 = December 29, 1957 | predecessor1 = Seat established | successor1 = Lloyd Francis MacMahon | birth_name = Lawrence Edward Walsh | birth_date = {{birth date|1912|1|8}} | birth_place = Port Maitland, Nova Scotia, Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|2014|3|19|1912|1|8}} | death_place = Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. | party = Republican | education = Columbia University (AB, LLB) | spouse = Mary Walsh (m.1936) | children = 5 }}
'''Lawrence Edward Walsh''' (January 8, 1912 – March 19, 2014) was an American lawyer and judge who was United States Deputy Attorney General from 1957 to 1961 and a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was appointed Independent Counsel in December 1986 to investigate the Iran–Contra affair during the Reagan Administration.
==Early life and career==
Walsh was born in Port Maitland, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Cornelius Edward (1879–1927) and Lila May (Sanders) Walsh. His father was a family doctor and his grandfather was a sea captain.<ref name=spencer>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/29/reviews/iran-profile.html|title=Lawrence Walsh's Last Battle|last=Spencer|first=Scott|date=July 4, 1993|work=New York Times|accessdate=March 1, 2010}}</ref> Walsh grew up in Queens, New York, and became a naturalized citizen at the age of 10.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/20/world/white-house-crisis-look-prsecutor-man-jurist-varied-roles-lawrence-edward-walsh.html|title=THE WHITE HOUSE CRISIS: A LOOK AT THE PRSECUTOR; MAN IN THE NEWS: A Jurist in Varied Roles: Lawrence Edward Walsh|last=Greenhouse|first=Linda|date=December 20, 1986|work=New York Times}}</ref> He graduated from Flushing High School.<ref name=spencer/>
Walsh received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 1932 and a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1935. After graduating from law school, he served a varied career in public life, including as special assistant attorney general of Drukman Investigation from 1936 to 1938 and as a deputy assistant district attorney of New York County from 1938 to 1941. After a period in private practice of law in New York City from 1941 to 1943, he served as assistant counsel to New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey from 1943 to 1949 and as Counsel to the Governor from 1950 to 1951. He was a Counsel for the Public Service Commission from 1951 to 1953, and the general counsel and Executive Director of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor from 1953 to 1954.<ref name="auto">{{FJC Bio|2491|nid=1389321|name=Lawrence Edward Walsh<!--(1912–2014)-->}}</ref>
==Federal judicial service==
Walsh was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on April 6, 1954, to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, to a new seat authorized by 68 Stat. 8. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 27, 1954, and received his commission the next day. His service terminated on December 29, 1957, due to his resignation, having served only three and one-half years as a judge. <ref name="auto"/>
==Later career==
After his resignation from the federal bench, Walsh served as Deputy Attorney General in the Eisenhower administration from 1957 to 1960. Thereafter, Walsh resumed the private practice of law in New York City, where he practiced from 1961 to 1981 as a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell. During this period, he worked on the Bendectin litigation and represented companies such as General Motors and AT&T.<ref name=spencer/> In 1969, on the recommendation of his former boss, Secretary of State and former Attorney General William P. Rogers, Walsh was named as an ambassador in the United States Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks in 1969, but held the position for only a short period of time. He served as president of the American Bar Association from 1975 until 1976. In 1981, approaching Davis Polk's mandatory retirement age,<ref name=spencer/> Walsh moved his practice to his wife's hometown of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where he joined the firm of Crowe & Dunlevy.
==Independent Counsel==
On December 19, 1986, Walsh was named as the independent counsel in charge of the Iran-Contra investigation. His investigation led to the convictions of both former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Vice Admiral John Poindexter and former NSC staffer Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, though both convictions were subsequently reversed. Walsh also brought an indictment on two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice against former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in June 1992. That September, one count, obstruction of justice, was dismissed.
On the eve of the 1992 presidential election, on October 30, Walsh obtained a grand jury re-indictment of Weinberger on one count of false statements. One phrase in that superseding indictment referred to President George H. W. Bush. Some believe that Bush had been closing the gap with Bill Clinton, and that this event stopped his momentum.<ref name=Davis/><ref>{{cite book|last=Abshire|first=David M.|author2=Richard E. Neustadt |title=Saving the Reagan presidency: trust is the coin of the realm|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=2005|pages=[https://archive.org/details/savingreaganpres0000absh/page/180 180]–81|isbn=1-58544-466-9|url=https://archive.org/details/savingreaganpres0000absh|url-access=registration|quote=walsh weinberger indictment election week.}}</ref><ref name=nyt1212/> Clinton administration attorney Lanny Davis called the decision to indict a week before the election rather than after the election "bizarre."<ref name=Davis>{{cite book|last=Davis, Lanny|author-link=Lanny Davis|title=Scandal: How "Gotcha" Politics Is Destroying America|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2007|pages=129–133|isbn=978-1-4039-8475-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1cyhfAvg2HMC&q=walsh+weinberger+indictment+election+week&pg=PA130}}</ref> Judge Thomas F. Hogan dismissed the October indictment two months later for being outside the statute of limitations.<ref name=nyt1212>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/12/us/charge-in-weinberger-case-that-caused-furor-before-election-is-thrown-out.html?pagewanted=1|title=Charge in Weinberger Case That Caused Furor Before Election Is Thrown Out|last=Johnston|first=David|date=December 12, 1992|work=New York Times|accessdate=March 1, 2010}}</ref> Weinberger's subsequent pardon by President George H. W. Bush in December 1992 preempted any trial. Walsh steadfastly denied that the investigation was politically motivated, while Bush and others criticized it as "the criminalization of policy differences."<ref name=spencer/>
Walsh submitted his final report on August 4, 1993, and later wrote an account of his experiences as counsel, ''Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up''. In 2003, Walsh published his autobiography, ''The Gift of Insecurity: A Lawyer's Life.''
Walsh was the model for the hero of Jacob Appel's novel, ''The Biology of Luck'' (2013).<ref>The Biology of Luck, Back Matter, Elephant Press, 2013</ref> Walsh described having a fictional character based upon him as "flattering" during an August 2013 interview.<ref>Montana Appeal, August 2013</ref>
==Personal life and death==
In his senior year of college, Walsh began to date Maxine Winton of Tampa, Florida, a former Barnard College student then attending Columbia Business School. They were married from 1936 until her death from cancer, at age 52, in 1964. In 1965, Walsh married Mary Alma Porter; they were married until her death on December 22, 2012. He was the father of five children — Barbara, Janet, Dale, Sara and Elizabeth.
On January 8, 2012, Walsh celebrated his 100th birthday.<ref>{{cite web|last = Robinson|first = William T.|title = Judge Lawrence E. Walsh's 100th Birthday Noted in Conversation with ABA President Robinson|publisher = American Bar Association|date = January 12, 2012|url = http://www.abanow.org/2012/01/judge-lawrence-e-walshs-100th-birthday-noted-in-conversation-with-aba-president-robinson/|accessdate = January 17, 2012}}</ref> On March 19, 2014, Walsh died at the age of 102 in Oklahoma City.<ref>{{cite news|last = Bowmer|first = Rick|title = Lawrence E. Walsh, Iran-contra special prosecutor, dies at 102|newspaper = The Washington Post|date = March 20, 2012|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/lawrence-e-walsh-iran-contra-special-prosecutor-dies-at-102/2014/03/20/bf505f74-b04a-11e3-95e8-39bef8e9a48b_story.html|accessdate = March 20, 2014}}</ref>
==See also== * List of centenarians (jurists and practitioners of law)
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==Sources== * {{FJC Bio|2491|nid=1389321|name=Lawrence Edward Walsh<!--(1912–2014)-->}} * [https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/ Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters] * {{cite book | last =Walsh | first =Lawrence | title =Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up | url =https://archive.org/details/firewallirancont00wals | url-access =registration | publisher =W. W. Norton & Company |year=1997 | isbn = 0-393-04034-8 }} *[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-12-14-mn-3224-story.html Walsh, a Democrat who often served under Republicans, is no stranger to controversy.]{{unreliable source?|reason=The source states he was a Democrat, which is not true. Should it be dropped?|date=June 2023}} *{{C-SPAN|1400}}
== External links == * [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_11502873 Finding aid to the Lawrence E. Walsh Papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library]{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-new|seat}} {{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York}}|years=1954–1957}} {{s-aft|after=Lloyd Francis MacMahon}} |- {{s-bef|before=William P. Rogers}} {{s-ttl|title=United States Deputy Attorney General|years=1957–1961}} {{s-aft|after=Byron White}} {{s-end}} {{Special Prosecutors and Independent Counsels of the U.S.}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Lawrence}} Category:1912 births Category:2014 deaths Category:American men centenarians Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States Category:Canadian men centenarians Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:Columbia Law School alumni Category:Davis Polk & Wardwell lawyers Category:Flushing High School alumni Category:Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Category:Lawyers from New York City Category:Lawyers from Oklahoma City Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Yarmouth County Category:Special prosecutors Category:United States deputy attorneys general Category:United States district court judges appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower