Carolyn Chen

Carolyn joined the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in 2020 as an advocacy attorney in the Legal Division. In that role, she represented the Public Advocates Office in a variety of communications, energy, and wildfire safety matters, including the Verizon/TracFone merger, general rate cases of telephone companies, electric rate design, clean energy financing, the Alberhill electrical substation project, broadband deployment, emergency network resiliency, and wildfire mitigation plans (WMPs) of investor-owned utilities to minimize risk of catastrophic wildfire.

Prior to joining the CPUC, Carolyn was a litigator and administrative law practitioner for the federal government, as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and assistant regional counsel for the Social Security Administration. In that role, she represented the Commissioner of Social Security in actions in federal district courts, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and various administrative forums. Before practicing law, Carolyn worked in site design and planning.

Carolyn holds a Juris Doctor degree from Northeastern University School of Law, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Art and Design, Architectural Design discipline, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.