Lynne A. Battaglia was raised in Silver Creek, New York and arrived in the Maryland area when she went to college in 1963. She received her B.A from American University in 1967 and her M.A. degree in 1968. After having been awarded a National Defense Education Act Title IV Fellowship, an award to candidates interested in pursuing a career of teaching in institutions of higher education, Judge Battaglia entered Georgetown University in 1968 to embark on her doctoral studies in American Government. Before receiving her doctorate, Judge Battaglia entered the University of Maryland Law School, where she received her Juris Doctor degree in 1974; she was Articles Editor of the Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif.
She began her legal career in 1974 at the Baltimore law firm of Semmes, Bowen & Semmes. In 1978, she was recruited to serve as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, where she spent the next four years. In 1984, Judge Battaglia became Senior Trial Attorney within the Office of Special Litigation in the Department of Justice. In 1988, she was chosen by Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran to become the Chief of the Criminal Investigations Division and within three years was recruited to become the Chief of Staff to United States Senator Barbara A. Mikulski. She was appointed and confirmed by the United States Senate to serve in the position of United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, and served from August, 20, 1993 to January 26, 2001. She became a judge on the Court of Appeals, now the Supreme Court, that same day and retired on April 14, 2016, when she turned 70.
Judge Battaglia has received numerous honors and awards during her distinguished career. In November, 2007 Judge Battaglia was elected to membership in The American Law Institute, an elite group consisting of judges, practicing lawyers and legal scholars from all areas of the United States, as well as some foreign countries, who are selected for membership on the basis of professional achievement and demonstrated interest in the improvement of the law. She received Maryland Icon Honors from the Daily Record in 2022. She is also a model leader and mentor, having served on and chaired numerous committees and boards, especially the Professionalism Center and the Editorial Committee of the Finding Justice Project, which in April of 2015 released a book entitled, Finding Justice: The History of Women Lawyers in Maryland Since 1642.
Since retirement, Judge Battaglia has served as a trial judge in Anne Arundel and Howard Counties in the family law area and presided over the congressional redistricting challenges in 2022. She mediates for the Appellate Court of Maryland and sits on the Appellate Court and the Supreme Court. She also graduated in 2019 from the Johns Hopkins School of Education with a master’s degree in professional counseling and now serves as a Licensed Professional Counselor for the Pro Bono Counseling Center for which she does virtual counseling