Professor O'Connell teaches in the fields of family law, children's law and property. She serves on the editorial board of the interdisciplinary journal Family Court Review, and is active in a number of projects and associations that work to bridge the gap between the legal and mental health professions.
Professor O'Connell teaches regularly in the Postdoctoral Forensics Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She also teaches an annual seminar to the judges of the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court and serves as an advisor to the court's Steering Committee on Administrative Reform. Along with law students from the Youth Advocacy Caucus (YAC), Professor O'Connell also runs a mentoring program at three area group homes for teens in state custody.
After graduating from the School of Law, Professor O'Connell was the first law school graduate to clerk for the Supreme Judicial Court of the state of Maine. She was an associate at the Boston firm Foley, Hoag & Eliot from 1976 through 1980, where she handled contract, insurance and public utility cases while running a pro bono family practice.