Counseling

CDO counselors are available to advise you as you evaluate your employment goals, explore professional possibilities, and navigate your job search. Your counselor can provide you job-search advice; discuss relevant resources; facilitate professional connections with your fellow students and alumni; review your application materials; conduct mock interviews; guide you through the offer and acceptance stages; and counsel you on navigating on-the-job challenges and how to succeed in the workplace. First-year students are assigned a CDO counselor in September. 

Also, CDO offers you the opportunity to meet with a professional, certified coach in one-on-one sessions or in a group coaching series. You will partner with your coach in a thought-provoking and creative process that will aid you in maximizing your personal and professional potential. Coaching supports awareness, learning, and growth, empowering you to set and achieve goals on your own terms. Visit our coaching web page to learn more.
 

Make an Appointment 

• Sign up online by clicking the counselor name below
• Phone: 203-432-1676
• Email cdo.law@yale.edu
• or sign up at the CDO reception desk 

Meet the CDO Counselors 
  

Kiran J. Singh
Interim Assistant Dean
Counseling focus: government employment
k.singh@yale.edu
Make an Appointment with Dean Singh

Dean Singh leads the strategic vision and comprehensive administration of the Career Development Office. She advises students and alumni across all sectors, with a specialized focus on government and public interest pathways. Dean Singh brings diverse expertise with a legal career spanning the education, government, and non-profit sectors. Over the past 14 years, she has provided dedicated career counseling to thousands of students and alumni at Yale Law School (since 2022) and at Columbia Law School (2012–2022). Prior to her leadership in higher education, Dean Singh served as Assistant General Counsel at Success Academy Charter Schools in New York City. She began her legal career as an Assistant District Attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. As a trial attorney, she prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases involving domestic violence, hate crimes, weapons, narcotics, violent crimes and financial crimes. Her foundational commitment to civic leadership began prior to law school, when she was awarded an Urban Fellowship to work in New York City government. Dean Singh earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University with a degree in Political Science. While at Brown, she was awarded the CV Starr Institute Award for Leadership in Public Service.
 

Norma P. D'Apolito
Director, Public Interest
Counseling focus: public interest employment and fellowships
Phone: 203-436-2580
norma.dapolito@yale.edu
Make an appointment with Director D'Apolito

Director Norma D’Apolito provides advising to alumni, JD and LLM students regarding public interest employment including public interest fellowships. Norma also counsels first-year students in her advising cohort on summer job searches across an array of sectors. She has an extensive public interest law background as well as experience in law school education and administration. Most recently, Norma served as the Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice in Boston. Prior to that, she worked as a staff attorney for both the Juvenile Law Reform Project in Boston and the Prisoners’ Rights Project in New York City and as the assistant to the Special Master in a multi-institution class action lawsuit in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. Norma also brings academic and counseling experience to her position in CDO, having served as Associate Dean and Adjunct Professor at Cardozo School of Law, as Director of Cardozo’s Political Asylum Clinic, and as an Assistant Professor in Johnson & Wales University’s Law Department. Norma has sat on the Board of Directors for a number of non-profit organizations, including a legal services corporation, a domestic abuse agency, and a community arts center. Norma is a graduate of New York University School of Law and has a Master’s in History from Brown University.
 

Rochelle McCain 
Director Judicial Clerkships
Counseling focus: Clerkships
rochelle.mccain@yale.edu
Make an Appointment with Director McCain

Rochelle provides primary comprehensive career counseling and resources to students and alumni across a broad array of employment opportunities, with an emphasis on supporting those exploring judicial clerkships. A graduate of the University of Houston Law Center and the University of Chicago, Rochelle is a first-generation professional. Prior to joining CDO, Rochelle served as the Executive Director of the Professional Development Office at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the Co-Director of its Externship Program. In these roles, Rochelle counseled many students and alumni on all aspects of job searching and career development, focusing on examining governmental (federal, state, and local) opportunities, broader public sector careers, and judicial clerkships. In practice, Rochelle worked in consumer litigation for several years.

Rochelle is an active member of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), having served in several roles within its public service and judicial clerkship sections, and has served as a presenter at several of its conferences. Rochelle is one of five (5) law school members of the Online System for Clerkship Application and Review (OSCAR) Working Group, which advises members of the federal judiciary on the online system. She is currently the co-chair of Equal Justice Works' National Advisory Council (NAC).
 

Elizabeth K. Peck
Director, Private Sector & Coaching
Counseling focus: law firm employment; individual and group coaching
elizabeth.peck@yale.edu
Make an Appointment with Director Peck

Liz advises JD students regarding law firm employment and coaches students to assist them in defining and meeting their goals. She also counsels first-year students in her advising cohort on summer job searches across an array of sectors and advises clerkship seekers during peak hiring season. Prior to joining CDO, Liz advised thousands of law students and alumni at Cornell Law School, Washington and Lee University School of Law, and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. A graduate of Duke Law School and Tufts University, she began her legal career as an employment litigator with Perkins Coie in Seattle, WA and served as a judicial clerk in Fairbanks, Alaska. Liz is an active member of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP): she has served on myriad NALP committees since 1997 and has been selected to speak at nine NALP Annual Education Conferences. Liz holds a Professional Certified Coach credential from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is a member of ICF.
 

Van Ann Bui
Private Sector Consultant
vanann.bui@yale.edu
Make an Appointment with Van Ann Bui

Van Ann (she/her) provides career advising to students on a remote, part-time basis, with specialized expertise in private sector employment and opportunities for students with diverse backgrounds. With over a decade of experience in the legal profession, Van Ann has counseled and mentored hundreds of students and new attorneys starting out in their careers. Prior to joining CDO, she served as the Director of the SEO (Sponsors for Educational Opportunity) Law Program, where she matched incoming law students with internships at corporate law firms nationwide, counseled students and alumni on excelling in their respective internships and careers, and advised law firms on recruiting best practices.

Van Ann is a former Chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Diversity Pipeline Initiatives Committee and a former practicing attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP, where she practiced debt finance and was a co-Chair of its Asian Lawyers Affinity Group. She received her JD from Columbia Law School and her BA in Political Science and BBA in Marketing from Southern Methodist University.
 

Naomi Mann
Public Sector Career Counseling Consultant
Counseling focus: public sector employment
naomi.mann@yale.edu
Make an Appointment with Naomi Mann

Clinical Associate Professor Naomi Mann is the Executive Director of the Civil Litigation & Justice Program. She is Founding Director of the Access to Justice Clinic (A2J Clinic), an innovative clinic which pairs individual client representation with systems change projects. Students in A2J represent individual clients facing multiple systemic barriers (e.g., gender, race, class, and disability) in housing, family law, and employment cases. Students actively analyze and tackle the individual and structural injustices that their clients face and learn how individual client representation and/or systems change projects can address important access to justice gaps. Students build their own access to justice systems change projects in the second semester, and, in the process, develop their own professional networks. Before coming to Boston University, Professor Mann worked as a Civil Rights Attorney in the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights where she investigated, mediated, and resolved claims involving educational institution compliance with federal civil rights laws including Title IX, Title VI, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. From 2003 to 2010, Professor Mann worked as a staff attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services and Washington Empowered Against Violence, representing low-income domestic violence and sexual assault survivors in family law and restraining order cases. Professor Mann writes in the areas of Title IX, sexual assault, and constitutional due process.
 

Meredith O'Keefe
Career Counseling Consultant
meredith.okeefe@yale.edu
Make an appointment with Meredith O'Keefe

Meredith O’Keefe (she/her) is an attorney and career counselor with over fifteen years of experience in the legal profession. She currently serves as a CDO career counseling consultant and is well versed in advising law students on a variety of topics and legal career paths. She previously served as Director of the Center for Career Development at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where she counseled thousands of JD students and alumni and led advising, resource development, and events supporting career paths in the private sector, public interest and government, and judicial clerkships.

In recognition of her impact on law student career development, Meredith received a Graduate of the Last Decade Award from the UConn School of Law Alumni Association. Prior to her work in higher education, Meredith practiced as a litigation associate in New York and Connecticut. She earned her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Florida. She has co-authored articles for the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Bulletin on finding fulfillment in law school and returning to legal practice after a career gap and has presented nationally on law student and lawyer well-being.
 

Jennifer Bird, YLS 2004
Private Sector Alumni Career Counseling Consultant
Counseling focus: private sector employment
jennifer.bird@yale.edu
Make an Appointment with Jen Bird

Jen joined CDO in 2020 as a Remote Career Counseling Consultant and provides advising to alumni and first-year students in her advising cohort regarding private sector employment. Jen earned her B.S. in Psychology from Brown University where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa and received her JD from Yale Law School. Prior to earning her JD, Jen worked as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy. During law school she worked as a summer law clerk for the Federal Court of Australia and interned for the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union. Between 2004 and 2007, she worked as a Tax and Trusts & Estates Associate at White & Case LLP, focusing her practice on wealth planning for high net worth clients and general tax matters. In 2008, Jen transitioned to recruiting and in 2018 co-founded the legal search firm, Springboard Search Group. Over the past several years, Jen has advised and placed hundreds of Partners, Counsels and Associates across practice areas at top law firms around the country. She has also placed numerous attorneys in-house at companies ranging from a solar energy start-up to asset managers to a major sports league. She has also held workshops for lawyers seeking to pursue alternative careers and has spoken on Bar Association panels regarding associate career paths and the move in-house.