Chester T. Lane

Chester T. Lane (1905–1959) was counsel to the newly formed Security and Exchange Commission, a Lend-Lease administrator, and later, as a partner at Beer, Richards, Lane, Haller & Buttenwieser, was defense counsel to Alger Hiss during appeal.

Background Chester Tevis Lane was born on June 7, 1905, in London, United Kingdom, to American parents. He had a brother and sister. In 1926, he graduated from Harvard University. In 1930, he graduated from Harvard Law School, where he also taught and tutored in classics. In 1931, he passed the New York bar. In 1938, he became SEC general counsel. Harold Rosenwald (one of the first lawyers to join the Alger Hiss defense team) was a member of the firm.

Hiss case appeal

In 1950, Lane became defense counsel to Alger Hiss in his appeal on conviction for two counts of perjury in January 1950. The appeal started in 1950 as United States vs. Alger Hiss, 185 F. 2d 822 with appellant counsel listed as Robert M. Benjamin, Harold Rosenwald, Chester T. Lane, and Kenneth Simon.

In January 1952, Lane's defense begin; it focused on attacking the Woodstock N230099 typewriter as "planted."

In April 1952, The New York Times covered Lane's efforts, reporting how Lane called testimony by Chambers "false," claimed that "his fraudulent plot now stands exposed," and stated he had new evidence that showed untrue that Hiss' wife, Priscilla Hiss, had typed up State Department documents on the Woodstock typewriter. Lane speculated, "Some signs point to the conclusion that, though his personal interest may have been to protect himself in the libel suit [$75.000 libel action brought by Hiss against Mr. Chambers], the availability of the means for such self-preservation may have been part of a much larger scheme involving other people and for larger objectives than the mere framing of Alger Hiss."

The appeal continued as United States of America, Appellee, v. Alger Hiss, Appellant, 201 F.2d 372 (2d Cir. 1953), with counsel listed as Chester T. Lane, Robert M. Benjamin and Helen L. Buttenwieser.

Lane's efforts proved unsuccessful.

Personal life and death In 1927, Lane married Persis McClennen; they had four children. Reminiscences of Chester Tevis Lane (1951)