Our Team

Michelle Cherande joined the law school in January 2009 as the first Director of the Judicial Clerkship Office, and began supervising the Academic Careers Program in 2012. Following graduation from NYU, Michelle clerked for Judge John M. Walker, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. After her clerkship, Michelle worked as a litigation associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where she managed the largest consolidated securities litigation in history and had an active pro bono practice, which included representing a death row inmate. Michelle is an adjunct professor at the Law School and graduated from Brown University in 1994 and from NYU School of Law in 1997.

Naomi Sunshine joined the Academic Careers Program and the Public Interest Law Center in 2018 after teaching in NYU’s Lawyering program, where she was Associate Director. Prior to that, Naomi was an associate at public interest law firms in New York and San Francisco. There, she represented workers and consumers in federal and state wage and hour, employment discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, consumer, and disability access class actions. She previously clerked for Judge Constance Baker Motley and Judge Victor Marrero of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Naomi earned her BA from Yale University and her JD from NYU School of Law, where she was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow.

Jocelyn Ye is the Program Administrator for the Furman Scholars Program and the Academic Careers Program at NYU School of Law. Previously, she worked as an office assistant in the Office of Career Services. Jocelyn graduated summa cum laude from New York University in the Class of 2023 with a BA in Psychology.