Our practice

Our firm | Our logo | Our sculpture

Our firm

Nicholes Family Law (NFL) opened its doors on 24 November 2005. Its Principal and founding partner is Sally Nicholes BA. LLB. (University of Melbourne).

With more than a decade’s experience in family law prior to establishing NFL, Sally Nicholes had already gained a sharp awareness of the need for corporate social responsibility and pro bono schemes. Sally was a Partner at a large corporate firm for over 5 years, Middletons. Sally has significant expertise in complex and large property disputes involving intricate structures including trusts and offshore assets as well as children’s matters.

This experience, coupled with exposure to the plight of children in family law disputes, inspired her to develop a mission statement for her own firm that would commit her team to not only producing high-quality legal, but also donating a significant amount of time and resources to supporting projects that promote the welfare of children.

To that end Sally herself is heavily involved in a number of foundations and organizations, raising money for children worldwide in the most impoverished situations, and working to defend and protect children's rights, through family law and by other means.

That approach, needless to say, is reflected in NFL’s approach to the family law jurisdiction, seeing as its primary goal the provision to litigants of a sense of peace and understanding whilst providing high quality legal work in complex family law disputes. As Sally asked of her colleagues at the official opening of NFL, “What mark do we want to leave with the people we work with every day? What are our values — what are the memories we will leave?”

Our logo

NFL’s logo, we believe, says it all: a parent and child with their arms interlinked. Nicholes Family Lawyers is about promoting the welfare of children, at the same time respecting that, as practitioners, we are working with families. The parent and child in the logo keep their arms extended and linked — recognising the right of children to have a relationship with their parent figures.

Our sculpture

Not many law firms can claim a work of art that represents their company philosophy. In 2005, during the World Congress on Children’s Rights and Family Law (Cape Town, South Africa), Sally spotted this graceful stone sculpture… Its theme — harmony and unity within the family — beautifully echoes both the design and the sentiment of NFL’s logo. It now stands proudly centre-stage in Sally Nicholes’ Queen Street office.