Lisa Polak Edgar

Associate in Law

Email:
lisa.edgar@law.ufl.edu

Expertise

Administrative Law • Florida Administrative Law • Regulation •

About

Lisa Polak Edgar is an Associate in Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and a Senior Fellow with the University of Florida Public Utility Research Center (PURC).

She is past President of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC). She served three terms on the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) (2005-2016), serving as Chairman (2006-2007) and Senior Commissioner (2007-2016).

As NARUC President and Florida Utility Regulatory Commissioner, she focused on a number of important regulatory law and policy issues, including hurricane preparedness, response, and cost recovery; fuel diversity, conservation, and energy efficiency; fair and affordable rates for consumers; convergence of energy, water, and communications services; federal clean power plan and state responses; natural gas pipeline safety; executive management and leadership; and more.

Lisa has served as a member of many professional Boards and Committees, including the Florida Energy Commission, FCC Joint Board for Universal Service, NARUC Board of Directors and Executive Committee, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Advisory Committee, among others, and has worked closely with many state and federal agencies. She has testified and presented before U.S. Congressional Committees, the Florida Legislature, FERC, EPA, DOE, DOI, ECOS, CAMPUT, CEER, ERRA, the World Forum on Energy Regulation, and many trade associations and interest groups.

Prior to serving on the FPSC, she served as Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Chief Environmental Policy Analyst in the Florida Governor’s Office, Senior Environmental Cabinet Aide for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), and Staff Attorney for the Florida Senate Regulated Industries Committee. Lisa received her B.S. and J.D. degrees from Florida State University and is a member of The Florida Bar.

The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.