Here is another example, that uses OFFSET instead of LEA:
ORG 100h
MOV AL, VAR1 ; check value of VAR1 by moving it to AL.
MOV BX, OFFSET VAR1 ; get address of VAR1 in BX.
MOV BYTE PTR [BX], 44h ; modify the contents of VAR1.
MOV AL, VAR1 ; check value of VAR1 by moving it to AL.
RET
VAR1 DB 22h
END