Nikole Setzler Mergo

Ms. Mergo is a member licensed and representing clients in both South Carolina and North Carolina, practicing in complex commercial litigation with a concentration on employment litigation defense and advice and counseling, antitrust, unfair business practices and professional malpractice defense.  She also has experience in class action practice, multi-district litigation, and the coordination of the defense of nationwide litigation filed in South Carolina.

Ms. Mergo's selected case experience includes serving as one of the national lead counsel coordinating the defense of pharmaceutical pricing litigation filed in South Carolina and the associated defense of two major national pharmaceutical manufacturers; for three major hospitals in South Carolina defending unfair pricing claims under both an antiquated state statute and the common law (see Supreme Court opinion here); for several household goods manufacturing companies defending allegations of a conspiracy under the Sherman Act regarding alleged inflated fuel surcharge prices; and for a South Carolina hospital successfully defending a race discrimination claim to a defense verdict in federal court.  Ms. Mergo began her career assisting the lead counsel for Monsanto Company in coordinating two major antitrust lawsuits filed in South Carolina and Delaware Courts by E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company, taking the lead in coordinating the Delaware defense with counsel from that State.  Ms. Mergo also provides daily advice and counseling, as well as litigation defense, to numerous South Carolina hospitals, physician practices, long term care facilities, national manufacturing companies, a global advanced solid imaging company, and locally owned businesses on all aspects of employment law, including representation before the District Courts of South and North Carolina, the EEOC and SHAC, and the South Carolina Employment Security Commission.  

Ms. Mergo received her B.A. in English with distinction from the University of Virginia in 1996.  In 1999, she received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was a Semi-Finalist in the Lile Moot Court Competition and Senior Editorial Board Member of the Virginia Journal of International Law.

• IADC Trial Academy - 2003 Graduate
• Current Member, University of Virginia Jefferson Scholars Regional Selection Committee

• Nexsen Pruet Elects Four New Members
  Nexsen Pruet announced that Melissa L. Azallion, Brian C. Bonner, Nikole Setzler Mergo, and Suzanne Guitar Odom have been elected Members (partners) of the firm.

• Employment Law Update - April 2008
  This edition analyzes an important court ruling relating to the drafting, interpretation, and enforcement of invention assignment clauses in employment agreements.

• Leave or Left - FMLA and Unemployment Benefits