Business resource: Relishing 'variety' of challenges in corporate law

By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News

Attorney Nolan Yaldo’s corporate work has included an eye-popping $200 million refinancing for a large equipment company in Michigan, several domestic and international tax projects related to purchase and sale of ongoing businesses and internal restructurings along with work on an unclaimed property audit for a publicly traded company. 

“I enjoy the variety in my work,” said Yaldo, a shareholder with Howard & Howard in Royal Oak, where he worked as a summer associate during law school. “My practice consists of M & A work, general corporate work, bank finance, and tax law—all of that goes hand-in-hand.”

Every transaction to buy or sell a company “almost inevitably has tax planning involved at the corporate and shareholder level,” he said.  

With a love of the American Revolution and Civil War, Yaldo originally planned to be a history major.

However, since he excelled at math and believed accounting and corporate finance majors would help him become a business attorney, Yaldo studied accounting and finance at Wayne State University, receiving his B.S.B.A. summa cum laude. 

He took and passed the Michigan CPA exam during

Yaldo worked in his father’s grocery store on the east side of Detroit beginning his freshman year in high school, throughout undergraduate years and even during law school. 

“It was awesome to spend time with my dad, even though it was at work,” he said.

In two years at a CPA firm with a wide range of clients, Yaldo enjoyed learning new things every day.  

“Every client’s circumstances challenged me to use a wide array of my skill set,” Yaldo said. “I also enjoyed preparing tax returns and understanding and bridging the gap between tax accounting and financial accounting.”

He headed to the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 2008, where he was introduced to many people whom he considers to be family today.

“I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer because of the ability to help individuals and businesses solve a wide variety of legal issues,” he said. “Because of my undergrad background, I was drawn to business law. I also knew the study of law would help me in other areas of my life, to take the most complex problems and break them down into component parts and analyze the situation, while still keeping my eye on the larger picture.

Yaldo said he enjoyed the courses “that stepped away from the traditional law school teaching ways and provided me with first-hand experience of what I would be doing as a corporate lawyer.”

“I also loved being downtown and close to my family and family business,” he said.  

Yaldo served as managing editor of the school’s Law Review. 

“It was an honor to contribute, first-hand, to the legal scholarship and help advance the knowledge base of my fellow legal colleagues,” he said.

Yaldo participated in several moot court contests, most notably, the Niagara International Moot Court Competition in Washington, D.C., where his team argued several international law issues.  

“Moot court was an awesome experience because of my love to argue and articulate a position on behalf of a client,” he said.

Prior to graduating magna cum laude, Yaldo was inducted into the Order of Barristers National Society for excellence in oral advocacy and brief writing, for which he received many honors and awards.

He is now studying for his LL.M in Taxation in a Master of Law Program through New York University. 

“This helps me tremendously in my corporate practice,” he said. 

A native of Oak Park, Yaldo now makes his home in West Bloomfield. 

He values living and working in the greater Detroit area, for the proximity of the Detroit Institute of Arts, theaters, educational institutions and variety of restaurants.

Yaldo has been very active with the Chaldean Catholic Church, as a parish council member and as a Bible study leader. 

In his leisure time, Yaldo enjoys Marvel Comics movies, the stock market and college football. 

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