Debra Nance is an associate with an interest in the legal issues facing businesses, estates and families. As a business practitioner, Ms. Nance offers legal assistance in the formation, planning and employment needs of small businesses, as well as employment litigation for businesses of any size. In estate planning, she has created wills, trusts and other estate plans that are uniquely designed for the smaller estates of middle income professionals, with a special emphasis on “incentive” trust plans.
In the area of probate law, she is experienced in administering decedents’ estates, as well as guardianships and conservatorships for adults and children. As a litigator, she has been involved in will and trust disputes in the probate court, custody, support and paternity issues in the family division of the circuit court, and she actively follows domestic tort actions in the civil division of the circuit court.
Ms. Nance also facilitates direct placement, interstate, stepparent and other family/relative adoptions. In the practice of assisted reproductive technology law she has successfully obtained declarations of parentage for those who have become parents through various cutting-edge fertilization techniques using a surrogate.
Before obtaining her J.D. from Wayne State University Law School, Ms. Nance held a number of management positions in human resource administration for a major metropolitan retailer and a global automotive company.
Education:
B.A., University of Detroit, 1978
J.D., Wayne State University, 1999
Bar and Court Admissions:
State Bar of Michigan, 2000
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, 2000
Memberships:
State Bar of Michigan
Oakland County Bar Association
Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association
Wolverine Bar Association
Association of Trial Lawyers of America
Articles:
“Assisted Reproductive Technology Law – Obtaining legal parentage when your child is born to a surrogate,” Commentator, Summer 2008
“The Causal Nexus Between the Laws of Inheritance and Wrongful Death,” co-authored with Alan May, Michigan Probate & Estate Planning Journal, Vol. 24, Spring, 2005, No. 2
“Child Custody in Michigan: An Overview,” Commentator, Fall 2004
“The Adoption Expense Tax Credit: New and Improved,” Commentator, Spring 2004
“The Adoption Option: A Michigan Overview,” Commentator, Winter 2003
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