The Honorable Jill A. Morris was appointed in 2020 as a United States Magistrate Judge in the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City. She teaches regularly for the Federal Judicial Center at trainings for newly appointed judges and at national workshops. Judge Morris previously served as Director of the Court’s Mediation and Assessment Program (MAP), overseeing and mediating numerous matters in all areas of the law. Before joining the Court in 2013, Judge Morris was in private practice as a partner in two law firms and specialized in employment law. Following graduation from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law in 1996, she served as one of the first law clerks to District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey in the Western District of Missouri.

While running the Court’s ADR program, Judge Morris co-chaired the ABA's Section of Dispute Resolution Court ADR Committee for several years and served as the only ADR representative of an AO national working group. She has conducted mediation training for other federal courts’ outside mediator panels and at the U.S. Department of Justice National Advocacy Center. Judge Morris has also guest lectured in mediation clinics, ADR courses and system design classes at several law schools and has trained mediators, including international lawyers and judges, at Pepperdine University.