Before being elected as a Member of Parliament, she worked as a branch manager at the Finnish National Workers' Savings Bank (1984–1988), as a lawyer at the Turku Labour District (1988–1995) and as a lawyer at the Labour and Economic Development Centre of Southwest Finland.

[1] Lapintie was a candidate in the European Parliament elections held in June 2009.

She received 29,112 votes, the highest within his party, but was not elected, and the Left Alliance remained without a seat in the European Parliament.

[3] Lapintie would have been elected if not for the electoral alliance between the Christian Democrats and the Finns Party, which enabled Sari Essayah to enter the parliament.

[5] In 2019, the Legal Policy Association Demla awarded Lapintie the 'Defender of Justice' recognition for actively promoting and ensuring the implementation of fundamental and human rights, as well as the rule of law principle.