JAMS is dedicated to having a premier panel of neutrals. Nowhere is that dedication better exemplified than in the Dallas Resolution Center’s independently contracted neutrals, Cecilia H. Morgan and Judge Harlan Martin (Ret.).
“If I was going to write a book about my experience with JAMS, mediation and ADR, the title would be No Means KNOW. You can’t go into mediation automatically saying ’no’ to the first two or three things you hear or throw up your hands and just give up. A mediator must be tenacious. You have to keep trying and help the parties gain more knowledge about what’s going on. That’s really what mediation is all about,” Morgan says.
Morgan has conducted more than 3,000 mediation sessions and arbitrated more than 1,000 civil cases throughout Texas and 31 other states, many under JAMS, AAA and ICDR rules.
“I was the first ‘Jammer’ who was not a former judge,” she says. Her invitation to join JAMS in Dallas was a breakthrough that not only came about unexpectedly, but was a position in the law she was not pursuing.
After handling more than 200 cases at other law firms, she decided to open her own practice in 1994. She was in the process of negotiating parking spaces and buying furniture for her new practice when the president of JAMS called. He had heard about her from professors at Pepperdine University where she had conducted some mediation training. The firm made an offer.
“I wasn’t a former judge like the other members of that team. I was a practitioner, a business litigation attorney. I was more than interested and was soon associated as an independent contractor.”
Morgan was named one of Texas’ Best Alternative Dispute Resolution Lawyers by The Best Lawyers in America in 2008 through 2024. She has more than 40 years of experience as an attorney and ADR professional and is respected for her work at JAMS in the areas of employment, energy, health care, financial services and others.
She grew up in Lubbock and graduated from Abilene Christian, earned her Juris Doctor from Texas Tech Law School, and clerked in Dallas after her second year. She worked for a small firm where early on she gained considerable courtroom and appellate experience. She was also a partner at Chantilis & Morgan.
Morgan says one of the paramount advantages of services offered through the Dallas Resolution Center is the preservation of client confidentiality. That confidentiality is a real advantage of mediation, particularly in business disputes. Corporate America doesn’t want all their information out in the public domain. “And, if you’re the victim of a sexual harassment or some kind of behavior that was inappropriate, and you’re a 30-year-old upwardly mobile young woman who wants to have a good future in her industry, the last thing you want is that information in the public domain. We provide a proven means for getting resolution out of the public eye.”
“We have a focus on always hiring the best and brightest,” Judge Martin says. “I’d been with JAMS for four years when Cecilia joined and she’s always been steady at it. She is one of those associates and partners you can count on to stay the course and do the work. And she’s good at what she does.”
