Chhaya Malik sworn in as Santa Clara County Superior Court judge

Chhaya Malik became a judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court, the county's trial court, on Thursday, Nov. 12, when she took the oath of office, according to a court news release. Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed her Sept. 18 to fill the seat left open when Judge Socrates P. Manoukian retired.

Judge Malik's extensive experience in dispute resolution, civil rights, public policy, and private practice bring a valuable perspective to our bench.

Who she is

Malik, of Alameda County, has been deputy director of dispute resolution at the California Civil Rights Department since 2022. The department is the state agency that enforces California's civil rights laws, including those against discrimination at work and in housing. Malik leads its team of mediators, neutral go-betweens who help the two sides of a discrimination complaint reach a settlement instead of going to court, according to her department biography. The department says that mediation is free and, in most cases, voluntary.

Before joining the state, she worked as a mediator at Devi Legal Mediation Services from 2020 to 2022 and as special counsel at the law firm Ehrlich & Craig from 2012 to 2022, the court says. There, her biography says, she led investigations into misconduct and defended people in enforcement cases brought by government agencies. (The biography lists the firm as Ramsey & Ehrlich.)

Earlier, she worked on human trafficking as a policy liaison at the U.S. State Department in 2011 and 2012. From 2009 to 2011 she was a staff attorney at the Advancement Project, where her biography says she worked on voting rights, race discrimination and poverty law. She also held a Thurgood Marshall Fellowship at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. She began her legal career in 2005 as a civil litigator at the law firm Hogan Lovells.

Before law school, Malik was a financial analyst in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs, the biography says. She earned an undergraduate degree in business administration and her law degree at UC Berkeley, where she worked on the appellate team of the law school's Death Penalty Clinic. She has been licensed to practice law in California since December 2003, according to State Bar records.

She also has experience on the other side of judicial appointments. In 2024, the State Bar's Board of Trustees named her chair of its Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, the panel that reviews candidates for judgeships, according to State Bar board records.

The job

The governor's office lists Malik as a Democrat. The job pays $244,727 a year, according to the governor's office. The court's release does not say which courtroom she will be assigned to.

Source: Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, news release, Nov. 12, 2026; Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom, judicial appointments, Sept. 18, 2026; California Civil Rights Department, executive biography and mediation FAQ; State Bar of California, attorney profile and Board of Trustees agenda item.