Hon. Donald L. Allen, Jr. is a judge for the Fifty-Fifth District Court of Michigan in Ingham County. He was appointed to the bench by former Governor Jennifer Granholm on December 22, 2008, filling the vacancy created by the appointment of the Hon. Rosemarie E. Aquilina to the Thirtieth Circuit Court.
During his judicial tenure, Allen has served as the presiding judge for the Sobriety Court and was appointed Chief Judge of the Fifty-Fifth District Court by the Michigan Supreme Court in 2016.
Prior to his appointment, he was the director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, a position to which he was appointed by Governor Granholm in 2006. Before that, Allen worked briefly as deputy legal counsel to the Governor (2005 to 2006).
He also spent seventeen years as an assistant attorney general with the Michigan Department of Attorney General (1988 to 2005), where he held assignments in the Social Services, Revenue, Corrections, and Health Care Fraud Divisions. Allen was a member of the Attorney General’s Litigation Advisory Board.
He completed a J.D. at Wayne State University Law School in 1983.
His memberships have included the Michigan Bar Association (Fellow), the Ingham County Bar Association (Fellow), the Lawyers and Judges Assistance Program (special advisor), and the Michigan Association of Treatment Court Professionals.
Allen is a co-founder of the Okemos-Ingham Families Against Narcotics (president) and the Mason Prescription Drug Task Force. He has also served as a member of the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyers Assistance Programs Diversity Committee (past chair), the Ingham Opioid Work Group, the Communities for School (board member), and the Mason Promise Scholarship Board.
He is a recipient of the Frederic Douglass Social Reformer Award from the Greater Lansing Area NBPW Club (2017); the Integrity in the Community Award from Western Michigan University, Thomas M. Cooley Law School (2017); the Distinguished Service Award from Community Health Authority (2015); the Kevin D. Bibbs Citizenship Award from Turning Point (2013); the Citizen of the Year Award from Central Michigan Heritage Enterprise (2011); and the Outstanding Barrister Award from the Lansing Black Lawyers Association (2009). Allen was also named the Jean Chabut Health Policy Champion by Michigan Public Health in 2016.
