PARTNER | lisa@mrg-law.com | 503 595 3925

Best Lawyers® Portland “Lawyer of the Year” in Administrative/ Regulatory Law, Communications Law, Energy Law, & Energy Regulatory Law - 2024

Best Lawyers® Portland “Lawyer of the Year” in Administrative/ Regulatory Law - 2023

Best Lawyers® Portland “Lawyer of the Year” in Administrative/ Regulatory Law - 2020

Best Lawyers® Portland “Lawyer of the Year” in Administrative/ Regulatory Law - 2016

LISA F. RACKNER

Lisa's practice focuses on energy and telecommunications law with an emphasis on providing regulatory and transactional advice to natural gas and electric utilities, and telecommunications carriers. She appears regularly before the Public Utility Commission of Oregon and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, and has represented clients before FERC and the FCC.

LEGAL EXPERIENCE

After graduating from law school in 1987, Lisa joined the Portland law firm of Lindsay Hart Neil and Weigler LLP and was made partner in 1995. In 2000, she joined Ater Wynne LLP as partner, where she served as Head of the Telecommunications Practice Group and Chair of the Regulated Industries Department. She left Ater Wynne in 2007 to establish McDowell & Rackner, now McDowell Rackner Gibson PC.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

  • Represented NW Natural in its successful request for approval of corporate reorganization to create a holding company.

  • Represented Cascade Natural Gas Corporation in its 2015 General Rate Case in Oregon; represented Cascade Natural Gas Corporation in its 2017 General Rate Case.

  • Represented NW Natural in its 2011 General Rate Case.

  • Represented NW Natural in its successful request for preapproval of acquisition of interest in gas reserves as utility resource.

  • Represented NW Natural in its successful request for approval of Compressed Natural Gas tariff for transportation.

  • Represented Idaho Power Company in Rate Cases before the Public Utility Commission of Oregon.

  • Represented T-Mobile in successful request for designation as Eligible Telecommunications Carrier.

  • Represented Investment Firm in acquisition of interest in Puget Sound Energy.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Member of the Oregon and Washington State Bars.

  • Member of the Oregon State Bar Energy, Telecom and Utilities Section, and Labor and Employment Section.

  • Selected by her peers for inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America for Energy, Administrative/Regulatory, and Communications Law for many years.

  • Selected as an Oregon “Super Lawyer” in energy and natural resources law.

EDUCATION

Lisa received her BA from Reed College in 1981, and her JD from New York University School of Law in 1987, where she was a member of the law review and an Arthur Garfield Hayes Civil Liberties Fellow.