Megan Helfend is an Associate Attorney at The Bloom Firm. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Global Media Studies from the University of Michigan and received her Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
Megan comes from a family of lawyers with her father and grandfather both being criminal defense attorneys in Los Angeles. It is no surprise that Megan followed in their footsteps pursuing a legal career.
While earning her law degree, Megan was a Loyola Scholar and received a merit-based scholarship from the Women’s Lawyers Association of Los Angeles to pursue a career in public service. She also received an award for a criminal law writing competition that led to her publication in the California Criminal Law Journal.
Megan’s passion for representing underserved communities started well before law school but was the impetuous for pursing a legal education. During her time at Loyola, Megan was a member of the Juvenile Justice Clinic where she represented children charged with offenses in juvenile delinquency court. Additionally, one of Megan’s proudest accomplishments is the successful drafting of a clemency petition to the Department of Justice for a client’s early release from prison under federal sentencing guideline changes through the Clemency Project. Her client originally received an exorbitant sentence for a drug offense in the 1990s. Megan’s client was granted clemency in November 2016 by President Obama, reducing his 20-year sentence by six years.
Megan continued to pursue avenues seeking justice and victim advocacy through her summer internships. Megan spent her first summer interning at the Children’s Law Center of California, a non-profit organization that represents children in the Los Angeles foster care system. Megan spent her second summer as a summer associate at the civil rights and criminal defense firm Kaye McLane Bednarski and Litt LLP.
Megan’s practice has continued to highlight her commitment to seeking justice for victims of abuse, harassment and discrimination. For close to five years, Megan was a Staff Attorney at the Children’s Law Center. She represented foster children in abuse and neglect proceedings advocating for issues related to child safety, parentage, custody, education, and mental health, among others. Megan then served as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, New York for the Kings County District Attorney’s Office for nearly three years, prosecuting violent and nonviolent offenses in one of the largest prosecutor’s offices in the country.
Megan has handled countless cases from arraignment through disposition, presented hundreds of cases before grand juries, and spearheaded investigations into serious criminal activity and incidents of abuse and neglect against children.
She is admitted to practice law in California, New York, Washington D.C., and the United States District Courts for the Central District of California and the Southern District of New York.
Megan is currently based in New York City. In her free time, Megan enjoys traveling, skiing, snowboarding, attending concerts, tending to her plants, and exploring new areas of the city. Megan is an avid sports fan. She grew up passionately rooting for the Lakers and Dodgers, and continues that tradition today – but she has since added Michigan sports to the list.
