Merle Wilberding, long-time Coolidge Wall attorney, has established an endowment to create the Susan Newhart Elliott Award for Excellence in Legal Scholarship fund to recruit legal scholars to write for the University of Dayton Law Review. Wilberding also established a trust last year to support the law review in perpetuity. “These gifts honor Susan’s longstanding service and contributions to legal scholarship, and the law review, for which I have a great deal of respect and admiration and is close to my heart,” said Wilberding who wrote the law review’s first article, “Banks and the Equal Pay Act, 1 U. Dayton …

At a press conference on November 17, 2017, Congressman Mike Turner announced that he had just introduced a bill in Congress to name the federal building in Dayton the “Walter H. Rice Courthouse,” to be named after Judge Walter H. Rice, long-time United States District Court Judge and long-time civic leader in the Dayton community. The nomination was based on a recommendation by a Citizens Committee appointed by Mike Turner and chaired by Merle Wilberding from Coolidge Wall Co., L.P.A. The committee also included Amanda Wright Lane (Wright Brothers Family), Idotha “Bootsie” Neal (former Dayton City Commissioner), Debbie Lieberman (Montgomery …

Congressman Mike Turner invited Merle Wilberding as his guest at the Congressional Dialogues at the Library of Congress on Tuesday, October 24, 2017. These educational conversations for a limited number of Senators and Members of Congress are hosted by David Rubenstein, the Chairman of the Board of the Library of Congress. At this convocation, David Rubenstein interviewed John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, followed by a Q&A session. During the evening, Merle Wilberding, long time attorney at Coolidge Wall, had the opportunity to meet the Chief Justice, and they posed for this photograph.

On Sunday, March 5, 2017, Merle Wilberding was at Carillon Park where he gave a presentation to The Lincoln Society of Dayton entitled “The Lincoln Memorial.” The presentation covered the planning, construction, and dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922, as well as its living history ever since. Over the years, the Lincoln Memorial has been the gateway and background to protests, performances, open dialogue and classic connections and confrontations. These events have included the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King, the many protests during the Vietnam War, and the pre-inauguration celebrations by Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama …

The January 24, 2017 Ideas & Voices section of the Dayton Daily News featured an article by Coolidge attorney Merle Wilberding about the National Veterans Affairs Archives being moved to the Dayton VA Medical Center. The project is expected to generate a $20 million investment and become an anchor for economic development in west Dayton.  

Merle F. Wilberding, a long-time attorney at Coolidge Wall and a graduate of St. Mary’s University of Minnesota Class of 1966, was recently awarded the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to his community and the nation. In 1969, he received a JD from Notre Dame Law School, and subsequently received an MBA from the University of Dayton, an LL.M in Taxation from George Washington University, and an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. During the Vietnam War, he served as a U.S. Army JAG Captain and represented the Army in 800 appeals and argued …

Merle Wilberding, a senior member of Coolidge Wall Co., L.P.A., was part of the City of Dayton Delegation that visited Sarajevo to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords. The delegation was led by Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, City Commissioner Matt Joseph, Montgomery County Treasurer Carolyn Rice, and Sister Cities Chair Hunt Brown. The Dayton City Commission had appointed Wilberding to the Sister Cities Committee a number of years ago. The Dayton Delegation was invited to a special reception at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, and later toured the Tunnel of Hope that served as a life-line during …

Merle Wilberding, a senior member of Coolidge Wall Co., L.P.A., co-authored with Susan Elliott, the Director of the Law Library at the University of Dayton School of Law, a book entitled Haki Finds Common Ground. The Ohio State Bar Foundation awarded a $40,000 grant to Children’s Historical Publishing Company to pay for the printing and distribution of Haki Finds Common Ground. This book is part of the Haki series, with the first book being entitled, Haki and the Rule of Law. This series is aimed at supplementing the core courses at the inner city public schools throughout the major cities …