Phyllis Cheng

Phyllis W. Cheng is an American lawyer providing mediation, investigation and expert witness services in Los Angeles, California. She retired as a partner from DLA Piper LLP (US), a global law firm, where she practiced employment law representing businesses. Before that, Cheng served for nearly seven years as director of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), the largest state civil rights agency in the country. Cheng abruptly resigned days before release of a report that was expected to be critical of her department.

Early life Phyllis W. Cheng, born on the Fourth of July, emigrated from Hong Kong as a girl and speaks three dialects of Chinese.

Education Cheng received her B.A. in art and M.Ed. from UCLA, her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (USC), focusing on civil rights policy and planning, and her J.D. degree from Southwestern Law School,

Career Before becoming a lawyer, Cheng worked in the field of education. She was the Title IX coordinator at the Los Angeles Unified School District, spearheaded a citizens' commission to remedy district-wide sex discrimination, and monitored a Title VII consent decree promoting women in school administration.

Cheng was also a researcher on school desegregation at the RAND Corporation, adjunct faculty at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, director of a mentoring program for at-risk girls at USC, and a debate panelist on KNBC's Emmy-winning "Free 4 All" program.

DFEH Director

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Cheng to be the Director of the DFEH in January 2008. Governor Jerry Brown retained her when he came into office. She was unanimously confirmed by the California State Senate. She harnessed new technology to automate appointment and right-to-sue systems, establish user-friendly telephone intake, launch a cost-effective cloud-based case management system, and develop a case grading system to better target resources. The case management program caused investigators to duplicate some of their work, had frequent system crashes, and created a 1,200-case backlog. The Senate Rules Committee documented Cheng's shortsighted attempts to quicken investigations by nixing face-to-face interviews. Prior to the release of this report, Cheng abruptly resigned. and introduced new resources to educate the public on civil rights compliance. Cheng also helped Governor Jerry Brown reform California's civil rights enforcement in 2012. In the process, the Department reduced 50 percent of its overhead, resulting in substantial savings to the State, while promoting training, retaining jobs, and providing upward mobility for its staff. The State Bar's Council on Access and Fairness further named the DFEH Educational Partnerships winner of the 2013 Education Pipeline Award Cheng abruptly resigned days before release of a report that was expected to be critical of her department.