Penina Lieber

Penina Lieber practices in the area of nonprofit and tax-exempt law. She represents many public charities and private foundations. She counsels clients in all issues relating to nonprofits, from start-up incorporation and qualification to complex corporate restructuring, governance, policies, licensing and accreditation matters.

Lieber is currently a partner in the Pittsburgh law offices of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP. She 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 Pennsylvania Bar Association (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 (ABA)'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.