HARRISBURG (April 1, 2015) - The Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Commission on Women in the Profession will present its annual Anne X. Alpern Award to Penina K. Lieber of Pittsburgh.

An awards ceremony will be held during the commission's 22nd annual conference, "Pathways to Success: Building Blocks & Stumbling Blocks," May 7, at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel, Philadelphia.

The Alpern Award is presented annually to a female lawyer or judge who demonstrates excellence in the legal profession and who makes a significant professional impact on women in the law. Established in 1994, the award was named for Anne X. Alpern, Pennsylvania's attorney general in 1959 and the first woman state attorney general in the nation.

Lieber is active within the legal profession and within the academic and nonprofit communities.

Lieber is currently a partner in the Pittsburgh law offices of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP. She practices in the area of nonprofit and tax-exempt law and represents nonprofit organizations and associations in a wide range of legal matters. Lieber is an approved mediator and early neutral evaluator in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Lieber is a past president of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI), the educational arm of the PBA. She is a life trustee of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation and is a sustaining fellow of the Allegheny County Bar Foundation. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a member of its Consultative Members Group on Principles of Nonprofit Law.

Lieber served a three-year term as secretary of the PBA and is a past At-Large Governor representing women lawyers on the PBA Board of Governors. She is a past chair of the PBA Charitable Organizations Committee and the PBA Attorney Discipline Study Committee. She is a charter member of the PBA Commission on Women in the Profession and served on its executive council. She served as co-chair of the 2009 Women in the Profession Annual Conference and as co-chair of the PBA Annual and Midyear meetings. Last year, Lieber received a President's Award in recognition of her outstanding commitment to the PBA.

She is a member of the American Bar Association's Board of Governors, representing Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She also is a member of the ABA Commission on Youth at Risk and a past chair of the ABA Commission on IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts). She served as chair of the Pennsylvania IOLTA Board and as a member of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

As an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, she teaches courses on nonprofit and tax-exempt law.

She has published three books on nonprofit legal issues and has been a featured speaker about the charitable sector at state, national and international conferences.

Lieber served as a director of the United Way of Allegheny County, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and the Pittsburgh Public Theater.

Lieber is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where she is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Harvard University. She earned a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she was a member of the Law Review.

The award will be presented during the May 7 luncheon, which also will include a keynote presentation by Nikki Johnson-Huston, who overcame childhood poverty and homelessness to become an award-winning young tax attorney in Philadelphia. Details and registration information for the PBA Commission on Women in the Profession conference are posted on the PBA's website at www.pabar.org.

Founded in 1895, the PBA strives to promote justice, professional excellence and respect for the law; improve public understanding of the legal system; facilitate access to legal services; and serve the 27,000 lawyers who are members of the association.