Merhige Competition returns

After a five-year hiatus, the School of Law revived the Merhige Environmental Negotiation Competition in the spring. The return was driven by the recently formed Negotiation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Board.

The NADR Board, created from the merger of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Board and the Client Counseling and Negotiations Board, spent the past two years rebranding and expanding its presence at Richmond Law. The relaunch of the Merhige Competition was a key part of this effort.

“Law school teaches us so much about adversarial processes — litigation, trials, winners, and losers,” said Keshav Agiwal, L’25 (far left in the photo), who organized the competition with Spencer Hamilton, L’26 (far right in the photo). “But negotiation and alternative dispute resolution are just as essential and often overlooked. This competition gave participants a chance to experience what legal collaboration can look like when it’s done well.”

Held over three days during the spring semester, the competition welcomed 16 teams from 10 law schools across the country. The event kicked off with a Friday evening mixer designed to build camaraderie among the visiting teams. Saturday and Sunday featured multiple rounds of negotiations built around evolving case problems. Each team of two students was paired against another, with each side advocating for different clients in a simulated legal scenario.

Feedback from visiting participants was overwhelmingly positive.

“Every aspect of the competition ran smoothly and left me with a highly favorable view of [the university] in general,” said one competitor. Another shared, “Everyone was so hospitable, kind, organized, and accommodating. We never felt out of the loop or lost. … We enjoyed the mixer, love the merch, and just appreciate everyone’s good vibes.”

The Merhige Competition was last scheduled for 2020 but was canceled due to COVID-19. With its last run in 2019, this year marked a long-awaited return.

“It’s been nearly two years of planning,” Agiwal said. “Bringing this back was not just about hosting an event — it was about restoring a tradition and creating a meaningful opportunity for law students nationwide to explore the power of negotiation.”