Koeleveld Joins NYS Department of Financial Services as General Counsel

Celeste Koeleveld has been appointed general counsel at the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS).

Koeleveld will lead DFS’s Office of General Counsel and be responsible for all legal matters in the agency, reporting directly to the superintendent.

Since 2008, she has been executive assistant corporation counsel at the New York City Law Department, serving as a member of the senior management team overseeing 700-plus attorneys. Koeleveld’s oversight responsibilities have included the Special Federal Litigation Division and the Tort Division, which litigate a wide range of claims against the city in federal and state courts.

Previously, Koeleveld spent nearly two decades at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she held a number of supervisory posts, including chief of the Criminal Division.

In that position, she led more than 160 assistant U.S. attorneys assigned to nine different units – spanning securities fraud, other complex frauds, public corruption, terrorism, organized crime, and narcotics trafficking – in all aspects of criminal investigations and prosecutions, including charging decisions, plea negotiations, trial strategy, and appeals. During her tenure at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she also served as chief appellate attorney for four years.

Topics USA New York