Biography
Ms. Morgan is available to conduct virtual mediations, arbitrations and other ADR proceedings on Zoom and other online platforms.
Texas Bar Card #10199300
As an attorney, mediator and arbitrator, Cecilia H. Morgan has gained extensive experience in matters involving issues related to energy, renewables, and oil and gas. She has represented parties and companies involved in the oil and gas industry. As a full-time neutral, Ms. Morgan has mediated and arbitrated a wide range of disputes arising out of the energy industry.
As a result, Ms. Morgan has gained a working knowledge of the industry’s practices, language and laws. She regularly tracks the daily rig count and the price of oil, gas and other minerals as she reviews Statements of Oil and Gas Payments and Oil & Gas Revenue Details.
She has mediated, arbitrated or facilitated more than 3000 cases in many different areas of law in Texas and 31 other states since 1991. She regularly remediates litigated matters from state and federal courts.
Representative Matters
- Mediation of credit and security agreement and AAPL Form 610 - 1982 Model Form Operating Agreement. Dispute between operator, non-operator and bank over $88.8 million in assets. Breach of contract; gross negligence; breach of fiduciary duty; equitable subordination; fraudulent transfer pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 548; fraudulent transfer pursuant to Section 24.00(a) of the Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act; recovery of avoided transfers under 11 U.S.C. § 550; disallowance of all claims under 11 USC § 502(d); and Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 38.001(8) attorneys’ fees claim.
- Mediated environmental claim against pipeline operator for cleanup costs from pipeline leaks and personal injuries arising from site pollution
- Multi-day mediation between siblings—with $60,000 per month of royalty income held in trust from oil and gas properties in Texas and Oklahoma— involving partition of real property, division of personal property, partition of surface interests; dividing, distributing and exchanging properties including assignment of Oklahoma Indian leases; IRS Code § 1031 like kind exchange
- Mediation between U.S.-trained Guianan National engineer over working conditions on offshore rig in Gulf of Mexico
- Mediation in Oklahoma of dispute between sole female engineer in field servicing office over alleged discriminatory working condition
- Mediation of dispute between self-taught, high school graduate mechanic over termination arising from prior criminal conviction. Termination was particularly difficult for employer given that employee had improved several pieces of oil field equipment in his shop.
- Mediated case between truckers and oil field service company supplying oil and gas equipment to fracking operations in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana
- Mediated and arbitrated numerous employment disputes between employees and oil and gas companies with fields in Oklahoma, Texas, Alaska, Colorado, Nigeria, Iraq and Afghanistan
- Mediated family settlement agreement between husband and wife over shares in closely-held oil field servicing company. Husband’s separate property interest included stake in oil and gas royalties, surface rights and wind turbine farm. Division of assets was equalized to compensate wife for husband’s separate property.
- Mediated dispute over royalties between sister and brother, both third-generation royalty owners, after death of siblings’ mother in car accident
- Arbitration arising from serious oil field-related injuries sustained on rig in Central Texas
- Arbitrated claim of engineer who suffered heart attack on off-shore rig in Gulf of Mexico, requiring helicopter evacuation
- Franchise dispute arbitration between generator supplier and manufacturer over attempt to cancel franchise agreement
- Wrongful termination dispute between former oil field worker and employer following alleged altercation on rig site that led to worker’s dismissal
Completed Virtual ADR training conducted by the JAMS Institute, the training arm of JAMS.
- Member, Roster of Mediators, American Health Law Association (AHLA), 2021-2022
- D Best Lawyer, Alternative Dispute Resolution / Mediation Category, Best Lawyers in Dallas, D Magazine, 2013-2020
- Repeat Guest Lecturer, “Why Ethics in Negotiations Count,” Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law, Oil & Gas Contracts Class, February 2019; February 2020
- Steve Brutsché Award, Association of Attorney-Mediators, 2019
- Best Lawyer, Arbitration and/or Mediation Category, Best Lawyers in America, 2008-2022
- Lawyer of the Year for Mediation in Dallas/Fort Worth, Arbitration and Mediation Category, Best Lawyers in America, 2018
- Lawyer of the Year for Arbitration in Dallas/Fort Worth, Arbitration and Mediation Category, Best Lawyers in America, 2017
- Lawyer of the Year for Mediation in Dallas, Mediation Category, Best Lawyers in America, 2012
- Top Lawyer in Dispute Resolution, D Magazine, 2013-2018
- Super Lawyer, Texas Super Lawyers by Thompson Reuters, 2012-2019
- Justice Frank G. Evans Award for Outstanding Contribution to Texas ADR, State Bar of Texas ADR Section, 2010
- Credentialed Distinguished Mediator, Texas Mediator Credentialing Assoc. (2004-present); Texas Mediator Credentialing Assoc. Board (2010-2012)
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation (2018-present); Life Fellow, Texas Bar Foundation (1992-present); Life Patron Fellow, Dallas Bar Assoc. Foundation (member, 1991-present)
- Fellow (2012-present), 5th Circuit Credentials Committee member (2016 to present), College of Labor & Employment Lawyers
- Member, American Bar Assoc., State Bar of Texas, Dallas Bar Assoc., and Plano Bar Assoc.
- Admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas and the United States Courts of Appeal, Fifth Circuit
- Member (1991-present), Immediate Past Chair (2008-2009), Chair (2007-2008), Chair Elect (2006-2007), Treasurer (2004-2006) and Council Member (2003-2009), State Bar of Texas ADR Section
- State Bar of Texas ADR Section Representative to Texas Mediator Credentialing Assoc. (2009-2012)
- Council Member (2005-2012), Vice Chair (2010), Chairman (2011), Immediate Past Chair (2012), Dallas Bar Assoc. Labor and Employment Law Section
- Member, State Bar of Texas Oil, Gas & Energy Resources Section (2014-2016)
- Member, Dallas Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, Antitrust and Business Litigation Section, Construction Law Section, Health Law Section, Labor and Employment Law Section, Litigation Section, Oil, Gas, and Energy Resources Law Section
- Member, JAMS Foundation Board (2017-present)
- American Health Lawyers Association ADR Dispute Resolver (2007-present)
- Member, Center for American and International Law’s Institute for Energy Law (2014-2019)
- Adjunct Professor, Texas Tech University School of Law (Spring, 2013-2017)
- Member, Local Organizing Committee for the Global Pound Conference Series, Austin, Texas (January, 2017)
- Member, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Introduction to International Arbitration (2012)
- Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rated since 1988
- A former commercial litigator, Ms. Morgan has tried and argued cases from the trial courts to the Texas Supreme Court, the 5th Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court
- Completion of all Texas statutory requirements to act as mediator in all types of cases, i.e., forty classroom hours of training in dispute resolution techniques and twenty-four hours of training in the fields of family dynamics, child development, and family law including a minimum of four hours of family violence dynamics training (2018)
- Negotiation, mediation, and advanced mediation courses, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, 1991-2010
- Mediation and negotiation courses, Harvard Law School, 1992
- Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Introduction to International Arbitration, 2012
- College of the State Bar of Texas
- J.D., Texas Tech University School of Law
- Phi Delta Phi
- National Order of Barristers
- B.A., (Mass Communications), Abilene Christian University
- Extensive travel with two trips around the world including one in 2013 covering ten countries in 73 days; has traveled six continents and is culturally sensitive to many different customs and religions
Counsel Comments
- “I greatly appreciate Cecilia’s hard work as well as the work of the others involved. This was an excellent mediation.”
- “We were very pleased with the service. Cecilia is always an excellent choice”
- “Cecilia is great, and is one of my go-to mediators."
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