We at Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger are proud to announce that Doris Cheng has been selected for membership in the American College of Trial Lawyers. This special honor was made even more special when the ACTL asked Doris to “speak for her class” of 82 new members at the organization’s recent annual meeting.
The ceremony put Doris in mind of her family, who originally came from China. She told the audience because of their experience with communism, many of her relatives, including her mother, distrusted lawyers. But as time went on, her mother grew to respect the work that lawyers do, and became proud of her daughter. Doris also shared how her father, after migrating to the U.S., regularly needed the help of an attorney to fight deportation threats.
Attorneys matter because people need to be able to fight for their rights in court, Doris said. She recalled her time helping to reform the judicial systems in Kosovo and Macedonia, which included the creation of jury trials in those countries. She argued for the value of trials, especially before juries, as the forum where ordinary people’s civil rights are protected.
Quoting a poem her father wrote, she read, “Behold the mountains and river and climb the crooked path. Without realizing it you have reached the cliff of the immortals.”
“That is what I wish for all of us, that we shall reach that cliff to change history,” she said.
Please join us in congratulating Doris Cheng for this well-deserved recognition of her achievements in the law.