Iran-Contra prosecutor to speak

Lawrence E. Walsh, independent counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation from 1986 to 1993, will present the 10th Annual Thomas E. Fairchild Lecture at the Law School on Friday, Oct. 23.

Walsh will speak at 4 p.m. in Room 2260 of the Law School (with an overflow room provided if necessary) on “The Future of the Independent Counsel Statute.” He will discuss the history and future of the federal statute allowing appointment of special prosecutors, as well as the law’s present use and possible abuse in the ongoing Whitewater investigation. Admission is free and open to the public.

Walsh, now counsel to the Oklahoma firm of Crowe & Dunlevy, began his career as a prosecutor in Thomas E. Dewey’s racket-busting district attorney’s office in New York from 1938 to 1941. When Dewey was elected governor of New York, Walsh served on his staff for eight years as counsel and then as legislative liaison. Dewey later asked Walsh to organize the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor to reduce crime on the docks.

President Eisenhower appointed Walsh a federal judge in New York (1954-57) and deputy attorney general of the United States (1957-60). In the latter post he was responsible for overseeing the continued desegregation of public schools in Little Rock, Ark., after military forces had been withdrawn.

Walsh next worked in private practice until his appointment as Iran-Contra special prosecutor in 1986. He is a former president of the American Bar Association.

The Fairchild Lectureship was established at the UW–Madison Law School as a tribute Thomas E. Fairchild, a 1937 Law School graduate, former justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and now senior circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.