Stephen Merrill, the founder of Ghent Law Offices, is a well known trial Attorney with a strong background in the fundamentals.

After graduating from the University of Nebraska Law School in 1980, Stephen accepted a Navy officer's commission in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. During four years of Navy active-duty, Lieutenant Merrill tried over 300 court-martials, accompanied aircraft carriers on foreign cruises and was appointed to be a military magistrate and a Special Assistant United States Attorney for Navy civil cases. For the following six years after entering private practice, Stephen drilled as a weekend Reserve Intelligence Officer at CINCLANTFLT. His duties included the Indications and Warning Watch as well as highly classified studies of Soviet sea and air forces.

Attorney Merrill is also one of the few Hampton Roads attorneys affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union. He has often been interviewed by local news channels on civil liberties issues. He recently served as the statewide Member Chairman for the Virginia Reform Party. Presently he is the principal organizer in Hampton Roads for the Virginia Libertarian Party.

Since entering private practice in 1985, Mr. Merrill has worked extensively in representing small businesses and in personal injury/insurance litigation. He has been lead counsel in jury trials in almost every Virginia courthouse east of Richmond with excellent results for his clients. He succeeds in cases other lawyers turn down. Numerous local businesses rely on his guidance and integrity in forming their business structure and in making those businesses grow.

Mr. Merrill's areas of practice also include divorce/custody litigation, commercial/consumer bankruptcy, traffic court, and real estate transactions/litigation.

He has tried two serious criminal cases since leaving Navy active duty. One client was acquitted of two felonies by a Virginia Beach jury after twenty minutes of deliberation. For the other client, Mr. Merrill got two felony charges dismissed by the court at the close of the prosecution evidence.