Phyllis W. Cheng is Director of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in January 2008, she heads the largest state civil rights agency in the nation.

Immediately prior to her current position, Ms. Cheng was of counsel at the Los Angeles office of Littler Mendelson, the national employment and labor law firm representing management clients. She was formerly a senior appellate court attorney to the Honorable Laurie D. Zelon, Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Seven. She was also a deputy attorney general in the Civil Rights Enforcement Section of the California Department of Justice. As a former associate at Hadsell & Stormer, a civil rights and human rights firm, she practiced employment discrimination law representing plaintiffs. Former Governor Pete Wilson appointed Ms. Cheng to two terms on the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission, where she served as vice chair, regulations subcommittee chair, and ruled on nearly 80 Fair Employment and Housing Act, Unruh Civil Rights Act, and Ralph Civil Rights Act cases.

Before becoming a lawyer, Ms. Cheng founded and directed a citizens’ commission to address sex discrimination, was Title IX coordinator, and monitored a Title VII consent decree promoting women into administration at the Los Angeles Unified School District. She was responsible for the passage of California’s version of the Title IX law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. She was also a researcher on school desegregation at the RAND Corporation, adjunct faculty at UCLA Graduate School of Education, director of a mentoring program for at-risk minority girls at the University of Southern California, and a debate panelist on KNBC-TV’s Emmy-winning “Free 4 All” program. Former Governor George Deukmejian appointed her to the California Commission on the Status of Women and the Interagency Coordinating Task Force on Early Intervention.

Active with the California State Bar, Ms. Cheng has been a member of its Committee on Bar Examiners, and served on the executive committees of the Labor & Employment Law and Public Law Sections. She is currently launching a new Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Subsection under the State Bar’s Real Property Law Section. Ms. Cheng is a partner of the National Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association, and a member of the Southern California Chinese American Lawyers Association. She edited both the California Labor & Employment Law Review and the Public Law Journal, edits two chapters of the Employment Litigation (The Rutter Group California Practice Guide, 2009 Edition), authors a regular column on cases pending before the California Supreme Court, and provides a free case alert service on new labor and employment law decisions to thousands of practitioners. She has additionally published widely in both legal journals and newspapers.

Ms. Cheng received her B.A. and M.Ed. degrees from UCLA, her Ph.D. degree from the University of Southern California, and her J.D. degree from Southwestern University School of Law. She is an immigrant from Hong Kong and a native speaker of Chinese in three dialects.