Meet our work experience student, Lucy Griffin

Lucy is a year 10 student at Shelford Anglican Girls School in Caulfield and joined our team for a week while on work experience.  Lucy is interested in studying law after completing her VCE and plans to come back and help us during her school holidays later this year.

We're here!

Sally Nicholes is well-established on the Melbourne family law scene, having practised in the field for more than eleven years, four of those as a partner at Middletons Lawyers. However, in November 2005, she officially opened her own boutique practice, Nicholes Family Lawyers.

As with all dynamic new businesses, sometimes it takes a little while to find time to draw breath, and launch the business. So it was only on February 3, 2006, that Sally finally got to ‘cut the ribbon’ and introduce NFL’s team to the world. See the photos here.

Attended by over 200 guests from the industry and officially launched by John Udorovic QC, it was a huge success, as the photos on this page show.

For two members of the team in particular – Sally Nicholes and Nadine Udorovic – it was an especially emotional occasion. Quite apart from the excitement and sheer hard work of establishing the practice, the appearance of Nadine’s father, John Udorovic QC, was especially valued.  John has been an inspiration and great mentor to Sally, as well as (of course) to Nadine.

For NFL’s Marketing Consultant, Lyndley Sandford Reeks, the opening was a triumph on another level — the bright pink décor and pink-themed opening ceremony speaks for itself! Those unafraid of being accused of sexist tendencies might have suggested it was all a bit ‘girly’ — but then, with a staff comprising almost all females, why not? And no-one could ever claim it might be too stuffy and serious for NFL’s clients. Cheerful? Yes. Intimidating? Never!

And how many other company launches could report that the only reason Her Honour, Chief Justice Diana Bryant couldn’t attend was that she had a prior appointment with the Prime Minister? The only way to go one-up on that would be for the Hon. Chief Justice to cancel her appointment with the PM– and that might be asking a bit much.

No matter – it was a distinguished, if somewhat irreverent gathering. Particularly welcome guests were former Chief Justice The Hon Justice Nicholson (founder of Child Rights Inc) and his wife Lauris, and a small army of old friends and well-wishers from Middleton’s, who have shown Sally such enormous support in establishing her new practice.

Sally’s primary aim was to move a well-established practice to her own brand – one that would complement her vision, whilst retaining the benefits of its history. In so doing, she recognized that she was leaving behind a very strong and positive working relationship with Middletons. Again, therefore, an emotional occasion, with mixed feelings all-round.

Above all, however, it was an occasion for old friends and colleagues to get together and relax – before the real business begins in earnest!

Expertise in International Relocation and Child Abduction Cases.

In March this year an old and famous child abduction/custody case reared its head in the newspapers once again — that of Jacqueline Pascarl (formerly Gillespie), and her reunion with the daughter who was taken from Australia to Malaysia by her estranged husband and Malaysian Prince, 14 years ago.

The case had special relevance to Sally Nicholes, as she had worked on the Gillespie case in the early days, and it was this experience, among others, that fired her passion and enormous interest in areas of the law relating to the welfare of children.

During this time, Sally developed a protocol that is still being used in cases to assist in the communication between parties — for the benefit of the children. This work, in turn, led to her passion for cases that involve international treaties dealing with the rights of children; it also led her to promote and lobby countries to sign the Hague Convention, and to understand the elements of this convention.

Sally continued for many years to be on the panel to act on behalf of the state authority in Hague Convention matters, being invited in 2000 to visit Washington and speak with the former member of the Full Court of the Family Court; the Hon. Justice Eric Baker about the enforceability of undertakings referable to Hague Convention countries.