Former Deputy Director General of Estonian Internal Security Service Eerik Heldna to join NOVE

Eerik Heldna, who until July 2017 held the position of Deputy Director General of Estonian Internal Security Service (Kaitsepolitseiamet), is joining law firm NOVE as Legal Counsel.

Heldna will be advising NOVE’s clients on corporate internal investigations, maintenance of confidential information, and risk management whilst focusing on risk mitigation in destination countries for companies entering foreign markets and on advising foreign companies entering the Estonian market.

Eerik Heldna has valuable long-term experience in preventing corruption endangering national security and ensuring the economic security of Estonia. “That, however, can only happen in cooperation with private enterprises. Experience like that is first and foremost important in sensitive economic sectors such as the defence industry, transit, extensive financial operations, and energetics where the state and private enterprises must be reliable partners,” says Heldna. “After all, we are all working towards a wealthier and safer Estonia.”

In addition to the above, Heldna plans to put his existing investigative experience to use in supporting clients prevent, discover, and prove cases of abusive conduct by company employees and executives along with offering advisory services on gathering evidence necessary for a successful litigation.

Eerik Heldna has 20 years of experience as a criminal police and security officer. He has years of experience working as a senior manager at the Narcotic Crimes Department of the Criminal Police in Tallinn, the Criminal Department of the Northern Police Prefecture, and also the Central Criminal Police. For the past 8 years Heldna worked for the Estonian Internal Security Service heading the conduct of proceedings of corruption offences. Under his leadership many of the ISS procedural priorities were restructured and an approach of preventing security threats at the earliest possible stages was adopted. Heldna has also headed many significant criminal intelligence operations that led to convictions and has played an important role in the field of international cooperation. In 2016 Estonia holds the rank 22 (out of176 countries and territories assessed) and the highest position among CEE countries in theTransparency International Global Corruption Perception Index.

The Director General of the Estonian Internal Security Service Arnold Sinisalu has recognized Eerik Heldna for his work. “Eerik has been a capable and proactive leader whose contribution to the development of the organization can hardly be overestimated,” said Sinisalu. The President of the Republic has granted Eerik Heldna an Iron Cross of the Cross of the Eagle.

According to Urmas Volens, the co-founder of the law office, with the addition of Heldna NOVE will be taking increasingly stronger steps in implementing its strategy based on distinct specialization, the combination of practical, academic and legislative experience, and focus. “Our first year of activity has shown that legal counselling based on such principles is highly valued by clients. We plan to remain true to those general principles in the future as well. Of course, this entails extremely high standards set both for ourselves as well as anyone who joins our office, standards that Eerik completely meets. In addition to that, his immaculate record up to now proves he follows the same underlying values as NOVE, resulting in a team stronger than ever.”

Eerik Heldna has graduated from the Police College of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences having specialized in pre-trial investigation, obtained a Master’s degree in public administration at Tallinn University of Technology and a Master’s degree in law at Tartu University. He is an alumnus of the reputable Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Academy and has further educated himself in the field of security studies in Germany at the George C. Marshall Center and in the U.S. at the National Defence Intelligence College.

The boutique law office NOVE founded in 2016 by attorneys-at-law Andrus KattelVeikko Puolakainen, Kristjan Tamm and Urmas Volens specializes in resolving and preventing complex economic disputes.