Belle Yan

Belle Yan (she/her) is currently a deputy public defender at Contra Costa Public Defenders.

She has interned or post-bar clerked at public defender’s offices in San Francisco, Alameda County, Santa Clara County, and at the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C., and was a judicial extern to the Honorable Therese M. Stewart, First Appellate District, California Court of Appeal. During law school, Belle was involved with Hastings-to-Haiti Partnership, Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, Hastings Law Journal, and Legal Education Opportunity Program.

Before law school, Belle was a paralegal at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, and served as a City Hall Fellow with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. She has also volunteered as a board member to her neighborhood association in southeast San Francisco, and a commissioner to the San Francisco Youth Commission.

Belle was a first-generation college and law student, graduating from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in Asian American Studies and Political Science in 2012, and UC Hastings, magna cum laude, in 2019.