Director's Biography
Phyllis W. Cheng is Director of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). Appointed in January 2008 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate, she heads the largest state civil rights agency in the nation. The DFEH takes in, investigates, conciliates, mediates and prosecutes discrimination complaints against employers, housing providers and businesses throughout California. The Department enforces the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), Unruh Civil Rights Act, Disabled Persons Act and Ralph Civil Rights Act. Under her direction, the DFEH has launched a new civil rights era. The Department has automated appointment and right-to-sue systems, established telephone intake to be user friendly, and launched a cost-effective cloud-based case management system; developed a case grading system to better target resources; re-established a special investigations unit to address systemic discrimination; achieved an historic multi-million-dollar class action settlement regarding family leave; launched a new mediation division to encourage out-of-court settlements; sponsored legislation and promulgated procedural regulations; partnered with numerous stakeholders to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the FEHA; conducted outreach in person and via mass media to hundreds of communities statewide; developed partnerships with the University of California, Irvine and Davis, Schools of Law and other universities/colleges to train future civil rights lawyers and investigators; and introduced new resources to educate the public on civil rights compliance. In the process, the Department has reduced 50 percent of its overhead, while promoting training, retaining jobs and providing upward mobility for its staff. As a result, productivity has doubled, quality has improve, and substantial savings have been returned to the State's general fund.
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. Ms. Cheng also served as a deputy attorney general in the Civil Rights Enforcement Section of the California Department of Justice. Ms. Cheng began her legal career as an associate at Hadsell & Stormer, a Pasadena civil and human rights firm where she practiced employment litigation representing plaintiffs. Ms. Cheng was additionally a two-term member of the FEHC, where she served as vice chair, regulations subcommittee chair, and ruled on nearly 80 administrative decisions. Among her published appellate court decisions are: Colmenares v. Braemar Country Club, Inc. (2003) 29 Cal.4th 1019 (definition of “physical disability” under California's FEHA is broader than that of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act); and Fair Empl. & Hous. Com. v. Super. Court (Las Brisas Apartment, Ltd. Partnership) (2004) 115 Cal.App.4th 629 (30-day statute of limitations period under Government Code section 11523 applies to writ of administrative mandate actions challenging Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) decisions).
Before becoming a lawyer, Ms. Cheng founded and directed a citizens’ commission to address sex discrimination at the Los Angeles Unified School District, was Title IX coordinator and monitored a Title VII consent decree promoting women into administration in the school system. She was responsible for the passage of California’s version of the federal Title IX law (Ed. Code, § 200 et seq.) 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 (USC), and a debate panelist on KNBC-TV’s Emmy-winning “Free 4 All” program.
Ms. Cheng has been a member of the State Bar Committee of Bar Examiners and the executive committees of the Labor & Employment Law and Public Law Sections. She co-founded the Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Subsection of the State Bar’s Real Property Law Section. Ms. Cheng also edited both the California Labor & Employment Law Review and the Public Law Journal, is an attorney editor of two chapters of Employment Litigation (The Rutter Group California Practice Guide, 2009-current editions) and a chapter contributor to an upcoming California Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Practice Guide (The Rutter Group, California Practice Guide, in progress), 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 further served on the California Commission on the Status of Women and the Interagency Coordinating Task Force on Early Intervention.
Ms. Cheng received her B.A. and M.Ed. from UCLA, her Ph.D. from USC, where she was a James Irvine Fellow, and her J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law. She is an immigrant from Hong Kong and a native speaker of Chinese in three dialects.
