PHYLLIS W.  CHENG, ESQ .

Phyllis W. Cheng is an accomplished mediator and strategic problem-solver, serving on the neutral panels of ADR Services, Inc., the California Court of Appeal (Second and Sixth Appellate Districts), and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. A 2024 Fellow of The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, she previously led the Mediation Practice Group at the Central District for four years, and has been featured in the Daily Journal’s Resolution Issue cover story and virtual mediation article.

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Over her distinguished career, Ms. Cheng has successfully resolved a broad spectrum of disputes—including employment, wage-and-hour, civil rights, class actions, Title IX, and appellate matters—for individuals, corporations, and public agencies. Prior to her full-time mediation practice, she was a Partner at DLA Piper, Of Counsel at Littler Mendelson, and an Associate at Hadsell & Stormer, where she honed her expertise in employment and civil rights law.​

 

Ms. Cheng served in four California gubernatorial administrations, including Governors George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown. For nearly seven years, she was Director of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (later Civil Rights Department), the largest state civil rights agency in the United States. During the Great Recession, Ms. Cheng oversaw six and seven-figure judgments and settlements, the—largest systemic cases in a half century, filed over 500 actions on behalf of Californians, and spearheaded significant reforms to the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). She also established DFEH’s dispute resolution division, special investigations unit, an automated complaint system, and forged educational partnerships with law schools and colleges. 

 

Earlier in her career, Ms. Cheng served as a Senior Appellate Court Attorney, Deputy Attorney General, and Vice Chair of the Fair Employment and Housing Commission and Comparable Worth Task Force, and member of the Commission on the Status of Women. She began her professional journey as Title IX Coordinator of the Los Angeles Unified School District, founded an independent commission to monitor a Title VII class action consent decree promoting women administrators, and played a key role in enacting California's version of the Title IX law. 

 

A prolific author and editor, Ms. Cheng co-edits California Fair Housing and Public Accommodations (The Rutter Group Civil Litigation Series), writes the California Lawyers Association's Labor & Employment Case Law Alert for the California Lawyers Association, and served as managing editor and is a columnist for the California Labor & Employment Law Review. Her articles also appear in the Los Angeles & San Francisco Daily Journal, Bender's Labor & Employment Bulletin, Legal Perspectives, and the AAM-A-GRAM.

 

Her many honors include the State Bar of California’s 2012 Ronald M. George Public Lawyer of the Year and a feature article in Inside Counsel Magazine. She is a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences.  

 

Ms. Cheng received her B.A. and M.Ed. from UCLA, J.D. from Southwestern Law School, and Ph.D. from USC, where she was a James Irvine Fellow in Urban and Regional Planning.