Following her graduation from Boalt, Echaveste specialized in corporate litigation at the former Los Angeles firm Wyman Bautzer and at Rosenman & Colin in New York.

Echaveste managed President Clinton's domestic policy initiatives on education, civil rights, immigration and bankruptcy reform.

[5] She also coordinated relief efforts within the White House for foreign and domestic disasters, and specialized in international issues related to Latin America including the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the Africa Growth Opportunity Act, and Plan Colombia, a federal effort to assist Colombia in its anti-drug campaign.

At the end of the Clinton administration, Echaveste was responsible for managing the White House preparations for the millennium celebrations and the 2000 presidential transition.

She currently resides in both California and Washington, D.C., and is the President and CEO of the Opportunity Institute, a research-oriented non-profit focusing education policy and economic mobility generally.