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Helland’s practice, volunteering aimed at helping businesses

Helland’s practice, volunteering aimed at helping businesses

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Alison Helland - Murphy Desmond (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)
Alison Helland – Murphy Desmond (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)

Murphy Desmond’s Alison Helland acknowledges she has a packed schedule between her work in the firm’s business group and her volunteering for the State Bar of Wisconsin and the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Dane County.

“You really have to love the things you do outside your practice to fit them in,” she said. “And I do. I really enjoy using my tax background and business background to help businesses through both my practice and volunteer work.”

At Murphy Desmond, Helland specializes in business law and has a particular interest in tax law.

“I really enjoy the technical aspect of tax law and working through the regulations and figuring out how to help businesses solve their problems,” she said.

After graduating from Northwestern University with a law degree and an LL.M, Helland worked at a law firm for four years before spending five years in public accounting. She joined Murphy Desmond last year.

Tim Valentyn, president of Murphy Desmond, said her experience and skills “also have enabled her to become one of those rare practitioners who can carry on a highly technical discussion with a client’s accountant one minute and then summarize those same technical concepts for the client — or the attorney who doesn’t practice tax law — the next.”

Helland joined the State Bar of Wisconsin Taxation Section Board in 2009 and served two years as chairwoman, a term that ended in June. During that time she helped oversee a membership survey meant to identify the benefits and services most important to members.

“We did a lot of work diversifying the services and also tried to recruit tax attorneys from multiple environments — private practice, accounting firms and public interest programs,” said Helland, who was recently appointed to a two-year term to the bar’s Legislative Oversight Committee.

In addition to her professional volunteer efforts, Helland is a member of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Dane County’s board of directors. Helland, who is fluent in Spanish, meets with members to determine how the chamber can better meet their needs. She also works with the chamber to develop and present Spanish-language recordkeeping seminars through the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp.

“This is a growing segment of the population and I wanted to make sure they are having their business needs served,” she said. “I really love helping small businesses and my work with them is another way to do just that.”

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