Lee County has been Lisa’s home for the last 27 years. She is married to J. Frank Porter and has two adult step-children, Jordan and Steven Porter, along with daughter-in-law Rachel Goss Porter. Lisa believes there is no better place to live and work than Southwest Florida, and she would be honored to serve as your next Circuit Judge.
Lisa has been preparing her entire career to become a circuit court judge. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the Florida State University in 1991 and later went on to law school at Mississippi College School of Law, graduating in 1996. She began her law career in the insurance defense field and later accepted an opportunity to return home as a staff attorney with the Administrative Office of the Courts in the 20th Judicial Circuit. In 1998, while working as a staff attorney, Lisa was appointed by the Chief Judge as a child support hearing officer and general master presiding over various family law issues and probate/guardianship matters.
Knowing that litigation experience is invaluable to a judge, in 1999, Lisa began her private practice career with a statewide law firm and rose to partner in 2005. She practiced primarily civil litigation, defending cases ranging from personal injury to medical malpractice to employment discrimination in both state and federal courts, while still acting as a General Master/Magistrate on an as needed basis.
Eager to return to public service, even though it resulted in a pay reduction, Lisa was hired in 2007 as the full-time General Magistrate serving in Charlotte County, as well as part-time in Hendry and Glades Counties. She resigned in April 2012 due to a resign to run policy which required her to resign from her Magistrate position in order to run for circuit judge. As a Magistrate, Lisa presided over a wide range of matters in family law cases, as well as presiding over juvenile dependency, civil, probate, guardianship matters and Baker and Marchman Acts. Lisa has conducted thousands of non-jury trials in this quasi- judicial role.
In addition, Lisa has been nominated several times for appointment to judicial vacancies by the Twentieth Judicial Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC).
Recently, Lisa has been involved in various court improvement initiatives such as civil case management and juvenile dependency court improvement and serving on committees related to those initiatives for the betterment of our local court system.
