Bio
After graduating from Bay High School, Lisa continued working with her family’s ventures including managing a successful seafood restaurant, seafood market and assisting in her father’s international tuna distributorship. In 1994, Lisa received her associates degree from Gulf Coast Community College and then transferred to American University in Washington, DC. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Law & Society in May 1996.
After spending the summer back home in Panama City Beach, Lisa began classes at Stetson Law in St. Petersburg, Florida. Throughout law school, she played on the powder-puff flag football team and even led her team to the intramural championship in her third year. In addition to her regular course work, she was selected for the Moot Court Board and received awards for her oral arguments at the 1997 National Criminal Procedure Moot Court Competition in San Diego, California, and at the 1998 Jessup International Moot Court Competition held in Gainesville, Florida. She clerked for the Honorable Thomas Pennick, Florida State Court Circuit Judge and the Honorable Mary Scriven, Federal Magistrate for the Middle District of Florida. Lisa also participated in the prosecution clinic and assisted prosecuting cases handled by Sixth Circuit State Attorney Bernie McCabe’s office. She spent a semester in Rhodes, Greece and earned credits in admiralty and maritime law at Tulane University’s International Study Abroad program. In her third year, she worked for Carlson & Meissner providing litigation support and preparing pretrial motions and memoranda in their civil division.
Upon graduating from Stetson Law in 1999, she was offered a position as the Judicial Staff Attorney in her hometown of Panama City. In 2001, she went into private practice and has practiced exclusively criminal defense.
She chaired the First Saturday legal clinic and currently serves as Bay County’s Chapter Representative to the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Lisa is a member of the National College for DUI Defense (NCDD), an organization devoted to improvement of the criminal defense bar. In 2005-2006, she tried 12 consecutive DUI cases–all resulting in acquittals.
Her defense practice has included criminal representation on cases such as possession, trafficking, grand theft, aggravated battery, sex offenses, violations of probation, fleeing & eluding, stalking, DUI, and all traffic offenses.