Yale Law School Bulletin of Yale University
 
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Career Development Office

The Career Development Office (CDO) offers informational materials, programs, and individual counseling to educate students and alumni about the diverse career paths open to them as graduates of Yale Law School. With the assistance of CDO, students and alumni gain the confidence and knowledge to identify and achieve their career goals.
CDO’s services include:

  • Offering advice from attorney counselors specializing in the public interest and private sectors, as well as in judicial clerkships, fellowships, and law teaching.

  • Sponsoring more than sixty programs each year, including panels, lectures, and informal discussions on various employment options, self-assessment, job search and interviewing skills, and quality of life issues.

  • Hosting a recruitment program every fall for second- and third-year students. More than 250 legal employers register, from all parts of the country and abroad, to interview students for summer and permanent positions. Approximately twenty employers interview first-year students at CDO’s spring interview program. Yale also cosponsors two public service recruitment events and one international graduate student interview event off-campus each year.

  • Maintaining a library of materials as well as publishing guides and brochures on career development topics and specific employment sectors. CDO also manages an online job posting system where hundreds of employers post opportunities for Yale Law students and graduates, available on CDO’s Web site at www.law.yale.edu/cdo.

  • Coordinating, with the Office of Alumni Affairs, YLS Career Connections (formerly the Alumni Mentoring Network) where students and alumni have access to more than 1,400 graduates who have offered to serve as career advisers. CDO also invites graduates to serve as mentors in residence where they meet individually with students seeking information about particular careers.

Upon graduation, virtually all Yale Law students have accepted employment. Each year, more than 40 percent accept judicial clerkships, and more than 40 percent accept jobs with private law firms. Approximately 10 percent accept public interest or government jobs. However, after taking into account the first jobs taken by students after their judicial clerkships, the total percentage of graduates in public service typically rises to approximately 20 percent.

Geographically, New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles are the most popular destinations for Yale Law School graduates, but members of the Class of 2006 accepted employment in twenty-eight different states.

Nearly all first- and second-year law students who seek summer legal employment are able to secure positions with law firms, government agencies, or public interest organizations. Through Summer Public Interest Fellowships, the Law School ensures that everyone who needs funding for summer public interest or government work—in the United States or abroad—receives it.

All graduates since 1988 are eligible for the Law School’s Career Options Assistance Program (COAP). COAP is a loan deferral and forgiveness program that provides full, need-based loan repayment to graduates earning approximately $45,000 or less a year and partial repayment for many alumni earning above that amount. See Career Options Assistance Program for further details.

The Law School has long taken a vigorous stand against any discrimination on grounds of age; color; handicap or disability; ethnic or national origin; race; religion; religious creed; gender (including discrimination taking the form of sexual harassment); marital, parental, or veteran status; sexual orientation; or the prejudice of clients. Accordingly, all employers using Yale Law School’s placement services are required to abide by this policy.


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