When budget cuts threatened court closures in San Francisco this summer, Doris Cheng came to the aid of the region’s lawyers. At a July 22 hearing before California’s Administrative Office of the Courts, Cheng spoke on behalf of The Bar Association of San Francisco, whose members had concerns about the impact on civil cases, particularly complex litigation. The AOC ended up giving the courts $3.1 million in a deal that prevented some of the closures.
Cheng, 38, a partner at Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger in San Francisco, served for two years on the bar association’s judiciary committee, which rates the qualifications of candidates running for the state and federal bench in San Francisco. In 2008, when she was chairwoman, the committee rated 17 candidates, including two embroiled in a hotly contested election against San Francisco Superior Court Judge Thomas Mellon. “With the election, it was just a tricky thing because it was so public,” she said.
