Linda J. Morgan, 1952-2015

Linda J. Morgan, 63, the former U.S. Surface Transportation Board Chair who led the agency during the railroad megamergers of the 1990s, died Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, after a long battle with cancer.

Morgan was a Partner at Nossaman LLP, a Washington D.C.-based transportation law firm. Prior to joining Nossaman in 2011, she was a Partner at Covington & Burling LLP, a U.S.-based international law firm. She also served on the Board of Visitors for the Georgetown University Law Center and the Business Advisory Committee for Northwestern University’s Transportation Center. She was a long-time member of Canadian Pacific’s board of directors.

Morgan was Chairman of the STB and its predecessor, the Interstate Commerce Commission, from March 1995 to December 2002. “It would be hard to identify a single individual who had a greater role than Linda in shaping the current regulatory framework of the rail industry,” said George Joseph, Nossaman’s Managing Partner. “She was a phenomenal lawyer, and an even more phenomenal person.”

“We are all incredibly sad to have learned of Linda’s passing,” said CP Chief Executive Officer E. Hunter Harrison. “Linda was a tremendous asset to our board and will be greatly missed by all. On behalf of everyone at CP, we express our profound condolences to Linda’s family and will keep them all in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”

Morgan joined CP’s board of directors in 2006 and was recently Chair of the Health, Safety, Security, and Environment Committee and Member of the Audit Committee. “Linda was universally respected for her remarkable combination of integrity, wisdom and incisiveness,” said Andrew Reardon, Chairman of the Board of CP. “She will be missed as a leader in this industry, a colleague on our board, and a dear friend to us all.”

Kevin Sheys, a partner at Nossaman who worked closely with Morgan, shared his recollections of his colleague with Railway Age. “Linda was very proud of her work on the Staggers Rail Act during her tenure with the Senate Commerce Committee,” he said. “She spoke often of the hard and controversial decision she made in 2000, while Chair of the Surface Transportation Board, to impose a 15-month moratorium on railroad mergers. There will never be complete agreement, of course, but I think the consensus today is that at the time the merger moratorium was the right decision.”

“Linda cared deeply for the efficient functioning of the railroad network for the benefit of all stakeholders,” Sheys said. “She devoted substantial time in the past year to the Chicago Gateway Blue Ribbon Panel. The panel’s October 2015 report makes recommendations for improved operating practices and hones in on two critical infrastructure projects, the Englewood Flyover and the 75th Street Corridor improvements. This is quintessential Linda Morgan—she focused on the most important and most practical solutions to big challenges.”

“The North American rail industry has lost a true pioneer, a trailblazer,” said Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ed Hamberger. “Linda was a well-respected lawyer who had sound legal and political judgement, honed during her many years as counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee, which included the period when the Staggers Rail Act was passed into law in 1980. She was the first chair of the Surface Transportation Board when there was much activity in the U.S. rail industry, including a significant round of consolidations. She was always aggressive in her defense of ensuring shippers had a forum and process to redress their grievances, at the same time, recognizing the need to maintain the ability for railroads to compete and grow in the marketplace. Linda was the right person, at the right place, at the right time.”

“Linda led the STB with a steady hand through turbulent times and set high standards that we’ve all tried to maintain,” said STB Chairman Daniel R. Elliott III. “She will be missed as a practitioner, a dedicated public servant, and, most of all, a decent human being.”

“I was lucky to meet Linda Morgan early in my career, and have had great admiration and affection for her ever since,” said STB Vice Chairman Ann Begeman. “Simply put, Linda led by example. She taught me that public servants have to do more than play the part. They have to roll up their sleeves and really get to work in order to produce fair and reasoned outcomes for the public. She also taught me that good public policy should and can trump politics. And perhaps above all, Linda taught me that a good leader isn’t just smart and clever, but also caring and kind.”

“Linda oversaw the agency during some difficult times,” Begeman said. “She closed down the Interstate Commerce Commission (the oldest federal agency) and set up the new Surface Transportation Board, all while knee deep in game-changing rail merger proposals. She never shied away from taking on the hard issues, and remained determined to uphold the law as she believed it was intended, at times withstanding downright political bullying in the process. Linda Morgan made an impact not only on the nation’s freight rail network, but on every single person that she met along the way. She will not be forgotten.”

Railway Age Capitol Hill Contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner, who interacted for many years with Morgan—as Assistant Vice President for Policy at the AAR when Morgan was ICC chairman, as Chief of Staff to STB’s vice chairman when Morgan was STB chairman, and as a journalist—said, “Linda could be polarizing as is the case with most exceptionally gifted intellects. But even among her detractors, she held their abiding respect.”

At Nossaman, Morgan focused her practice on railroad transactions and disputes, along with associated legislative and policy issues. She regularly counseled on the group’s rail transportation projects.

Morgan was named 2015 Washington, DC “Lawyer of the Year” for Transportation Law by Best Lawyers, which also named her 2014 Washington D.C. “Lawyer of the Year” for Railroad Law. Each year she had been in private practice, her talent in the area of railroad law had been recognized by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America and Washington D.C. Super Lawyers. She was a longstanding and active member of the Association of Transportation Law Professionals, which honored her with its Presidential Award in 2008.

Morgan, a Democrat from Maryland, was originally nominated to the ICC by President Bill Clinton on February 2, 1994, and took the oath of office on April 28, 1994, for a five-year term expiring Dec. 31, 1998. On March 23, 1995, President Clinton designated her as the ICC’s Chairman. After passage of the ICC Termination Act, which abolished the ICC and created the STB, she was designated Chairman on Jan. 2, 1996. On Nov. 10, 1999, by a vote of 96-3, the Senate confirmed her for a second term at the Board expiring December 31, 2003, and on Nov. 15, 1999, President Clinton re-designated her as Chairman. In January 2001, she was asked by the Administration of President George W. Bush to continue to serve as Chairman. In December 2002, the Bush Administration designated a new Chairman.

At the time of her appointment to the ICC, Chairman Morgan had served for 15 years in various positions with the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where she was responsible for much of the legislation that established the framework for today’s surface transportation system. Most recently, she had served as the first female General Counsel of the Committee, then chaired by Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.). Before joining the Committee, Morgan was an associate for two years in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Welch & Morgan, where she worked on a variety of legal and regulatory matters.

A native of the Washington D.C. area, Morgan graduated from the Sidwell Friends School in 1969, and from Vassar College in 1973 with an A.B. in Hispanic Studies. She received her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1976, and upon graduation, was presented the 1976 Law Center Award for the Most Outstanding Student Contribution. In 1991, she completed the Program for Senior Managers in Government at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In January 1998, she was named by The Washington Post as one of five “People to Watch” for that year, and in December 1998, she received the Women’s Transportation Seminar’s Woman of the Year Award. In April 1999, she received a Georgetown University Law Center Alumna of the Year Award for her contributions to the legal profession and society in general. She was a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Supreme Court Bar.

Morgan was tapped by Amtrak to serve on a blue-ribbon panel established to review rail traffic congestion in Chicago, and made recommendations for addressing it and improving rail service overall.