On September 24, 2026, the Northern California Power Agency recognized Spiegel & McDiarmid senior counsel Lisa Dowden as a Public Power Champion for her decades of service to public power and NCPA. NCPA General Manager Tony Zimmer recognized Lisa’s tireless advocacy before RTOs and ISOs, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the federal courts. Lisa’s work has given public power equal and open access to the transmission systems of the investor-owned utilities, and she has advanced market rules and litigation that provided billions of dollars in benefits to public power nationwide.