Stanley Sporkin

Stanley Sporkin (February 7, 1932March 23, 2020) was a director of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), general counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency and United States federal judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. His 40-year federal judicial career, beginning in 1961 at the SEC, at times attracted both derision and admiration for his perceived judicial activism, at times also displaying a quick mind and pugnacity on the bench. Education and career Sporkin was born in 1932 to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, the son of Ethel (Weiner), a homemaker, and Maurice Sporkin, a judge. He cites his father, involved in desegregation in Philadelphia in the early 1950s, as instilling in him "the whole concept I had of doing justice." He received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1953. He received a Bachelor of Laws from Yale Law School in 1957. From 1957 to 1960, Sporkin was a law clerk for Judge Caleb M. Wright of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, and also for Judge Paul Conway Leahy of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware in 1960. He was in private practice of law in Washington, D.C. from 1960 to 1961. Sporkin served with the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1961 to 1981, in a number of roles. He was a staff attorney of the SEC Special Studies of the Securities Markets from 1961 to 1963; in the SEC Division of Trading and Markets in 1963; Chief of the SEC Branch of Enforcement from 1963 to 1966; Chief Enforcement Attorney of the SEC Office of Enforcement from 1966 to 1967; Assistant Director (Enforcement) for SEC from 1967 to 1968; Associate Director (Enforcement) for SEC from 1968 to 1972; and Deputy Director of the SEC Division of Enforcement from 1972 to 1974. Sporkin served as the Director of the SEC Division of Enforcement from 1974 to 1981, where he led lawyers in enforcement actions against Gulf, Exxon, Mobil, Lockheed, R.J. Reynolds, and 3M, among others; one of his first major SEC cases led to the 1974 conviction of George Steinbrenner for illegal campaign contributions, and he became an advocate for the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enacted in 1977. From 1981 to 1986, Sporkin was the General Counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1978, he was awarded the Rockefeller Public Service Award for administering justice and reducing crime.