Lance B. Wickman
Lance Bradley Wickman has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1994 and is the current general counsel of the LDS Church. In 2010, he became an emeritus general authority.
Wickman was born in Seattle, Washington to Alton C. Wickman and Irene Carlson. He was raised in New Jersey and Glendale, California. Wickman graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in political science. In 1966, Wickman, a U.S. Army Ranger, was sent to fight in Vietnam as a platoon leader in the United States Army and on a second tour of duty as a military advisor to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. During the war he was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Valorous Unit Award and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
After his return from Vietnam, Wickman graduated from Stanford Law School in 1972. He practiced law in Los Angeles and San Diego with the law firm of Latham & Watkins. In 1986, Wickman was elected to the board of directors of Rancho Bernardo Savings Bank. Wickman has been awarded the Silver Beaver and Silver Buffalo by the Boy Scouts of America.LDS Church service
From 1961 to 1963, Wickman was a LDS Church missionary in the church's Central British Mission. Prior to his call as a general authority, Wickman was a bishop, stake president, and regional representative in the LDS Church. He became a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy in 1994.
In 2000, Wickman was transferred to the First Quorum of the Seventy. In 2006, Wickman was part of an interview with Dallin H. Oaks regarding homosexuality and the LDS Church. On June 24, 2008 Wickman issued a plea to the media to make clear the distinction between the LDS Church and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
On October 2, 2010, at the LDS Church's semi-annual General Conference, Wickman was released from the First Quorum of the Seventy and given general authority emeritus status. In 2013, Wickman spoke on behalf of the LDS Church at the National Religious Freedom Conference in Washington, D.C..
As of 2016, Wickman is the general counsel of the LDS Church and has spoke extensively on religious freedoms.Personal life
Wickman married Patricia Farr in 1963 in the Los Angeles California Temple.
