Georgetown Law

B.A., University of Rochester; J.D., University of Pennsylvania. Professor Lione is an attorney and senior executive with intellectual property, business strategy and corporate governance experience. She is presently Senior Counsel with Dentons, a global law firm. She started teaching at Georgetown University Law Center as an adjunct professor of intellectual property law in the Fall of 2015 and from 2012 to 2014 she was an adjunct professor of intellectual property law at Marquette University Law School. In the Spring of 2016, Professor Lione also taught an intellectual property licensing course at Washington College of Law at American University. She currently serves as a corporate director of Sargento Foods Inc and Badger Meter, Inc (NYSE:BMI); and she formerly served as a director of The F. Dohmen Co. and Imperial Sugar Company (NASDAQ:IPSU). She is also a Fellow of the ESG Center (f.k.a. the Governance Center) of The Conference Board and was elected to the American Law Institute in 2015.

For more than 23 years, Professor Lione served as General Counsel of 3 U.S. based companies in 3 different industries. In her most recent assignment, she was the Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of Harley-Davidson, Inc. until May 2010. She also served as President of The Harley-Davidson Foundation from 2006 until May of 2011 when she retired from the company. During her almost 14 year career with Harley-Davidson, she was a member of the executive leadership team and also served as Vice President of Human Resources for approximately 2 years. As general counsel and chief compliance officer for this Fortune 500 public company, she managed all worldwide legal affairs, corporate governance and compliance for the company including its financial services subsidiary and its trademark holding company. For the 7 years prior to joining Harley-Davidson, Professor Lione was General Counsel and Secretary of U.S. News & World Report and its affiliates, The Atlantic Monthly Company, Applied Graphics Technologies, Inc and Applied Printing Technologies. Her first General Counsel position from 1986-89 was with Sun Life Group of America in Atlanta, Georgia where she managed the legal affairs and all regulatory activities of five insurance companies licensed in 50 states. Professor Lione started her legal career as an attorney with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

From 2000 to 2010, Professor Lione served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Manufacturers and was a Trustee of its Manufacturing Institute from 2002 to 2007. She was also a Trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA from 1996-1999. Professor Lione currently serves as a Trustee of the University of Rochester and is the founding Co-Chair of the Global Women’s Network for the University. Professor Lione is a member of The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation and an immediate past member of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary and the Board of Managers of the Law Alumni Society of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Professor Lione received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Rochester in 2011 and was named the Milwaukee BizTimes Woman Business Executive of the Year for 2012. In 2013 she was recognized by Tempo Milwaukee with its annual Mentor Award and in 2014 she received the ABA’s Mayre Rasmussen Award for the Advancement of Women in International Law. In 2017, Professor Lione was honored by DirectWomen with the Sandra Day O’Connor Board Excellence Award for serving with distinction as an independent director of public companies and for working to advance the value of diversity in board positions. From 2017 to June 2019, she served as the Chair of the Women United Global Leadership Council of United Way Worldwide and, for her leadership of this organization, she received the Linda T. Mellowes Woman Leader of the Year Award in 2019. In 2019, she also was featured in Winning the Board Game: How Women Corporate Directors Make the Difference by Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire and listed in WomenInc Winter 2019-2020 issue as a 2019 Most Influential Corporate Director.

Professor Lione is a frequent speaker on intellectual property, corporate governance and women’s issues.