Christian M. Lapham

Christian Lapham is a shareholder of Bean, Kinney & Korman and has been practicing law since 2002. He has a diverse background representing clients in domestic relations and civil litigation matters.

As a divorce lawyer, Christian has successfully litigated complex custody matters, including cases involving relocation, mental illness, substance abuse, and parental alienation. He has also handled numerous complex equitable distribution and support matters, including matters involving federal employees and military service members, valuation issues pertaining to businesses and sophisticated asset-tracing issues. A former small business owner himself, Christian appreciates the challenges and nuances of a separation and divorce where one party owns a business.

Christian’s approach to family law incorporates three fundamental aspects: education, counseling, and advocacy. As the son of an Arlington elementary school teacher, he believes you cannot make an informed decision unless you are educated on how to understand the legal implications of this decision. Christian is a former founder and current frequent lecturer at Second Saturday, a workshop designed to educate potential clients on the separation and divorce process and is the author of a divorce toolkit, offering open source to potential clients to provide valuable insights into this process even prior to the initial consult. He takes a measured approach to his legal counsel of clients, understanding that decisions made during the separation and divorce process are complex and may have lasting implications for the greater family dynamic. Finally, Christian is a zealous advocate for his clients both inside and outside the courtroom and has been negotiating and litigating family law matters in all Northern Virginia jurisdictions for two decades.

Prior to joining the firm, Christian was a partner at Cooch & Lapham in Fairfax. In his spare time, Christian is busy chasing his two boys around the streets of Arlington and the ski slopes of Snowshoe, West Virginia. 

Christian is fluent in German.

Virginia Business, Legal Elite in Family Law/Domestic Relations, 2019-2020

Arlington Magazine, Top Attorney - Family, 2019

Virginia Super Lawyers in Family Law, 2014 - 2021

Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers in Family Law, 2015 - 2021

Best Lawyers in America in Family Law, 2014 - 2021

Northern Virginia magazine, Top Lawyer, 2013

AV Rated by Martindale Hubbell

• Represented a client to prevent the relocation of the client’s youngest daughter to another state in a hotly contested custody and relocation case in Fairfax Circuit Court. The daughter was not relocated.
• Represented a client in the settlement of complex equitable distribution/asset tracing issues involving a large sum of separate assets maintained in trust, thereby saving the client tens of thousands of dollars in litigation expenses.

Collaborative Professionals of Northern Virginia

Fairfax Bar Association (Family Law Section)

Virginia State Bar (Family Law Section)

Virginia Bar Association (Family Law Section)

Virginia Commerce Bank (Alexandria Advisory Board)

Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (Family Law Section)

Second Saturday – Fairfax (Founder & Lecturer)

SCAN of Northern Virginia (Board of Directors)

Habitat for Humanity (Participant, Global Village Program in Portugal)

Christian enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children when he isn’t in the courtroom. His hobbies include tennis, running and watching football and baseball.