DETROIT, MI, JANUARY 3, 2017– Assistant United States Attorney Lynn Helland has been selected to serve as Executive Director of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission. Helland has significant experience with Michigan legal ethics as professional responsibility officer, discipline hearing panelist, and ethics instructor. He has been responsible for helping colleagues comply with the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct.
“The Commission is enormously fortunate to have a veteran prosecutor with Lynn Helland’s extensive experience assume this leadership role, and we look forward to his fair and objective guidance,” said the Commission’s chair, Court of Appeals Judge David Sawyer.
Helland’s 34 years as a federal prosecutor have been devoted to complex crimes involving public corruption, health care fraud, national security, and civil rights. He has investigated complex economic, environmental and non-drug money laundering crimes. In addition, he has worked internationally within the legal systems of the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong (before and after the 1997 transition), Switzerland, France, Ireland, England, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Japan, and Canada to obtain documents and/or testimony for prosecution of complex economic crimes.
Helland also served as senior legal advisor for the United States Embassy, Kabul, Afghanistan. He promoted the rule of law by mentoring Afghan narcotics investigators, prosecutors, and judges in international standards, with emphasis on systemic improvements, group training in critical case analysis and investigative methods, and analysis of individual cases to identify appropriate investigative steps and review for prosecutive merit. Additionally, Helland advised the government of Latvia concerning laws against official corruption, in order to facilitate entry into the European Union.
Helland is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School, magna cum laude. He served as law clerk to the Honorable Cornelia Kennedy, who was on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His community involvement includes serving as a board member for Save the Afghan Children, a charity that supports girls’ orphanage and school in Kabul, Afghanistan; was a board member for Veahavta, a charity that supports girls’ orphanage in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka; served as a board member and president, Parent’s Association, Oak Trails Montessori School; and has participated in humanitarian trips to Sri Lanka and Haiti. When he’s not pursuing public policy, Helland can be found on a bicycle, on the golf course, with grandkids, reading, or traveling. Helland will take the reins at the JTC on February 6.