PC Native earns Masters Degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution

Phillips Country Native, Lawyer in Dominica, earns Master's Degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University, Florida

Jeffrey Douglas-Murdock, son of Patricia Murdock and the late James A. Murdock of Whitewater, recently graduated with a Master of Science Degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University, Davie/Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Although the degree was awarded on July 31st, 2020, the virtual graduation only took place in October this year due to the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic which caused the actual on-site graduation ceremony to be cancelled.

Jeffrey is a practicing attorney-at-law who has been an Associate Lawyer at the legal firm of Optimum Legal Practitioners & Corporate Services Inc. in the Commonwealth of Dominica where he has been employed for the past ten years since being called to the Legal Bar there in October 2011. He also is the company secretary for the corporate law firm and has been the treasurer of the Dominica Bar Association for the past six years.

Jeff earned his Bachelor of Laws Degree (called an "LLB" in Commonwealth countries and is equivalent to a JD or Juris Doctorate in the United States) from the University of London in 2009, then went on to earn his two-year Legal Education Certificate from Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad in 2011. This certificate qualified him to practice law in any Caribbean country which operates under the common law system derived from the United Kingdom. Since 198, he chose to settle in the Commonwealth of Dominica, the Nature Island of the Caribbean, where he met and married his wife, Athlene, a Dominican citizen.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Business from Montana State University in Bozeman in 1982, Jeff embarked on a life-enriching adventure by joining the United States Peace Corps and served as a Volunteer 4-H club supervisor (Mookameli oa Mokhatlo oa Balemi Ba Bacha) in Lesotho, Southern Africa, from 1982 to 1986. Since then, he has worked in various positions such as associate director, program manager, consultant and training director for the Peace Corps in its Headquarters Washington, D.C., and in various other countries around the world, including: Dominica, St. Vincent, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Albania, Cape Verde, Russia Far East, Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Namibia, Belize, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Ethiopia. He also taught English, Social Studies, Health and Family Life Education, and Physical Education at St. Mary's Academy, a Catholic all-boys secondary school in Dominica, for four years before turning his attention to the legal profession.

Douglas-Murdock remarked that, "My worldwide experience over the years working in various challenging cultural, social, political, and developmental environments around the world made for very exciting dialogues and discussions with my classmates who sometimes wondered if I was making up many of the fantastic adventures I had been immersed in and lived through. Those real-life encounters also equipped me with a vast array of cultural insights and diverse perspectives regarding actual conflict situations that I could call on to relate to the theories and learnings that were part of the two-year Master's Degree program."

Douglas-Murdock stated that he has served in the role of a 'conflict manager' for nearly 40 years while working as an international human resource development consultant through the Peace Corps and certainly when it comes to attempting to resolve conflicts between or among parties in legal disputes. He said he enjoys the efforts he makes in trying to help parties settle, which is one of the expectations of a legal practitioner in order to allow the parties to agree to terms rather than having them imposed on them by a judge or magistrate in court. Douglas-Murdock explains that resolutions of conflicts are always possible, but if a party refuses to budge from its original position in dispute resolution dialogue, settlement is likely impossible and then the outcome needs to be determined through court litigation.

Asked how he would like to take advantage of his degree, Douglas-Murdock says, "I had planned to go back into international development work, but just as I was completing my last term of studies, COVID-19 hit, and a lot of my colleagues in international development world said they were pulled back to America from their overseas work to save them from being stranded while the coronavirus rampaged around the globe. So, for now, I continue with my legal practice, waiting to see what the future has in store for me." As for COVID-19, he said they have experienced no deaths and few confirmed cases of the virus on small island-nation of approximately 65,000 people. All cases originated from people travelling from overseas back to Dominica.

Jeff and his wife, Athlene, are the parents of three children: Daisy, Hector, and Emma. Daisy is a Specialist (Signal Support Systems) in the United States Army based at Fort Campbell located astride the Kentucky-Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee. Fort Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

Hector is a Specialist (Military Police) in the United States Army at Fort Bliss in New Mexico and Texas with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Said base is comprised of over 1million acres. Among other brigades and commands, it is home to the 1st Armored Division, which returned to US soil in 2011 after 40 years in Germany.

Emma is married and living in Columbia, Maryland, where she is a licensed Cosmetologist.