The American Board of Trial Advocates is honoring Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger shareholder Doris Cheng with its inaugural Champion of Justice Award for her leadership in advancing ABOTA’s overall purposes of the preservation and promotion of the civil jury trial.
“I cannot think of a more fitting nominee to receive the first Champion of Justice Award,” said Lewis R. Sifford, 2022 ABOTA National President. “Doris Cheng is an extremely accomplished trial lawyer and has served ABOTA and the Seventh Amendment tirelessly and passionately. She is much deserving of this honor.”
Doris is the first recipient of the National ABOTA Champion of Justice Award while serving as a current national representative for the San Francisco Chapter of the organization. Doris is the sixth Walkup partner to lead the San Francisco Chapter of ABOTA and is the Program Director of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s Western Region Advocacy Teacher Training Program. She’s also a recent past president of the Justice & Diversity Center of The Bar Association of San Francisco, and the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association.
As a prominent plaintiff lawyer, Doris ranks as one of the Top 50 women lawyers and Top 100 lawyers in Northern California. Ms. Cheng has obtained multimillion-dollar settlements and verdicts for disabled citizens throughout California, specializing in complex injuries caused by third party negligence. Doris received the 2021 Outstanding Female Attorney Award from the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. She has made the list of The Best Lawyers in America for the past 10 years. She is a standout litigator in Medical Malpractice Law-Plaintiffs, Personal Injury Litigation-Plaintiffs, and Product Liability Litigation-Plaintiffs.
Doris has traveled abroad to train lawyers and judges in Kosovo, Macedonia, Mexico, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.
ABOTA is also presenting the Champion of Justice Award posthumously to the late Nathaniel S. Colley Sr., who fought against housing and educational discrimination in California.
Both award recipients have demonstrated an ongoing, strong, and exceptional commitment to trial by jury. Their efforts improve the ethical and technical standards in the practice of law, educate students and the public, advance fair and diverse juries, and preserve the judiciary’s quality and independence.
ABOTA is an invitation-only national association of 7,300 experienced trial lawyers and judges dedicated to preserving and promoting the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to civil jury trials. ABOTA will hold the annual awards dinner on May 14, 2022 at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago.