Overland concedes she does not know if or when Valcq stopped receiving shareholder payments or to what extent she may have benefited from the firm’s work.

“Whatever the specifics, there was a time when Chair Valcq did receive remuneration from Quarles related to the firm’s representation of WPSC in the Badger Hollow docket — there is an overlap,” she wrote in the petition. “This goes beyond the appearance of impropriety. It is a direct financial conflict of interest.”

Overland said she is also planning to file conflict-of-interest complaints with the state and the State Bar of Wisconsin as well as a complaint about Quarles & Brady’s efforts to block her clients from participating in the case.

The commission could not have approved the project without Valcq’s participation as the votes took place while the Evers administration had blocked Commissioner Ellen Nowak from participating because of legal questions surrounding her confirmation late last year.

The Supreme Court has since reinstated her, pending a decision on the legitimacy of the state Legislature’s lame-duck session.