Chhaya Malik, Deputy Director of Dispute Resolution

Chhaya Malik is the Deputy Director of Dispute Resolution at the California Civil Rights Department. She oversees a team of experienced neutrals whose exclusive role at CRD is to mediate and resolve civil rights disputes.

Prior to joining CRD, Chhaya practiced as a mediator and as an attorney focused on complex litigation, government service, and public interest advocacy. Chhaya served as Special Counsel at Ramsey & Ehrlich spearheading investigations into misconduct, as well as defending individuals in enforcement actions brought by governmental authorities.

Chhaya also served at the United States Department of State working on human trafficking and as civil a litigator at Hogan Lovells LLP. She was the Thurgood Marshall Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and served as counsel at the Advancement Project working on a wide range of matters related to voting rights, race discrimination, and poverty law. In 2024, the California State Bar Board of Trustees appointed Chhaya as Chair of the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (JNE).

Chhaya received her J.D. and undergraduate degree in Business Administration from U.C. Berkeley. While in law school, she had the opportunity to work on the appellate team for the U.C. Berkeley School of Law’s Death Penalty Clinic. Before law school, Chhaya worked as a financial analyst in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs.