Team Member
and access,
Merle F. Wilberding has more than fifty years' experience advising and representing clients in the areas of business planning, non-profit organizations, real estate law, taxation, and zoning. This experience affords his clients a unique, skillful, and practical management of matters ranging from general corporate legal and strategic business management issues to complex reorganizations involving asset sales, public and private financing, and spin-offs. He has represented a wide range of corporations (both for-profit and not-for-profit corporations), developers, and religious organizations located both within and outside of the United States. He has served as chairman and general counsel for the Greater Dayton Foreign Trade Zone, Inc. He has a broad range of legal and business experience and is an active adviser and board member to a variety of businesses and community non-profit organizations. Wilberding served as chairman of the firm's Tax Department for ten years. He has briefed and argued a number of tax cases in the Ohio Supreme Court, including Dupps Company v. Lindley, 62 Ohio St. 2d 305 (1980), and Dayton Supply & Tool vs. Montgomery County Board of Revision, 111 Ohio St. 3d 367 (2006). Merle's professional publications include articles in national law reviews and other legal and business media. In addition, he is a free-lance writer with a number of articles, books, and Op Ed Columns as listed in his attached Curriculum Vitae. He has testified before the United States Congress and before the Ohio legislature as well as giving a number of speeches and presentations as listed in his attached Curriculum Vitae. Prior to his association with Coolidge Wall, Merle practiced with the Arent Fox law firm in Washington, D.C. During the Vietnam War, Merle served as a U.S. Army Captain, Judge Advocate General's Corps, Government Appellate Division, Washington, D.C., where he briefed and argued appeals in the Presidio Mutiny case and the Lt. William L. Calley - My Lai Massacre case.
