Karen DaPonte Thornton

Karen DaPonte Thornton serves as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University Law School, where she maintains active roles as a research fellow with the Acquisition Innovation Research Center and a director on the Procurement Round Table's Acquisition Workforce committee.

Her academic foundation includes a BA in Political Science from Providence College (where she earned ROTC scholarship recognition and Distinguished Military Graduate honors), a JD from Georgetown University Law Center, and an LLM in Government Procurement Law from George Washington University.

Her research centers on government procurement systems with specialized focus on defense acquisition policy and legislative oversight mechanisms. This expertise stems from her direct involvement in shaping National Defense Authorization Act provisions during her tenure as Counsel for the U.S. House Committee on Armed Services, where she negotiated hundreds of acquisition-related legislative items.

Ms. Thornton demonstrates significant program leadership through her development of GW Law's Government Procurement Law Program, including the creation of the Master of Studies in Law in Government Procurement for non-attorneys and the Government Procurement Law Concentration for JD candidates. Her teaching portfolio spans first-year Legal Research & Writing (now Fundamentals of Lawyering) and advanced law courses.

Her career trajectory integrates military legal service as an Army JAG Corps procurement attorney at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with federal oversight experience at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, establishing a unique practitioner-academic perspective on public sector contracting systems.