NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - A federal bankruptcy court in New York, arguably the nation's most influential court handling corporate reorganizations, has installed a new chief judge to replace the retiring Arthur Gonzalez.

Ceceila Morris, who hears cases in the upstate town of Poughkeepsie, will on March 1 become chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan, the board of judges in the Southern District said on Wednesday.

Morris is the "consummate bankruptcy jurist," Southern District Chief Judge Loretta Preska said in a statement. "She has a keen technical expertise and is a fantastic problem-solver."

While a handful of Southern District bankruptcy judges have gained notoriety in recent months at the helm of high-profile cases such as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, assigned to Judge James Peck, and MF Global Holdings Ltd, which landed in Judge Martin Glenn's courtroom, Morris has kept a relatively low profile as the sole bankruptcy judge based in the Southern District's Poughkeepsie outpost.

Recently, Morris was assigned to oversee the bankruptcy of power company Dynergy Holdings LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in November.

She also has issued rulings in bankruptcies for the Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers of New York, Delta Air Lines Inc, Northwest Airlines Corp and Adelphia Communications Corp.

Morris made headlines last year by rejecting a U.S. trustee's motion to dismiss a joint bankruptcy filing by a same-sex couple in New York who had married in Vermont.

She did so, she wrote, because it was "clear from the case law . . . that the debtors, as a legally married couple, would qualify to file a joint petition if not for the existence of the Defense of Marriage Act," a federal law that prohibits recognition of same-sex marriages.

Before being appointed to the New York bankruptcy court in 2000, Morris served as clerk for the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court from 1988 until 2000. She previously worked as an assistant district attorney in Griffin, Georgia, and clerked at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Georgia.

Morris graduated from West Texas State University and earned her law degree from the John Marshall Law School.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye)

Follow us on Twitter: @ReutersLegal