Nicole originally hails from Alaska and Utah. Like many of Vermont Law School’s graduates, she came to the Green Mountain State to explore environmental law. During her time at VLS, she served as an academic mentor, a teaching assistant, and a managing editor for the Vermont Law Review. She also completed externships with the Vermont Supreme Court, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and the Montpelier firm then known as Tarrant Gillies Merriman & Richardson (presently Tarrant Gillies & Shems). She graduated in 2012 with a JD and Masters of Environmental Law and Policy (with a Certificate in Energy Law).

After graduation, Nicole was admitted to practice in Vermont and in the United States District Court for the District of Vermont. She joined the Burlington firm of Bauer Gravel Farnham, where she practiced administrative and environmental law, land use, municipal, and environmental permit appeals, collections, and landlord-tenant law.

In 2017, Nicole joined the VLS faculty, with the JD Externship Program. Each semester she works with students to find their placements across the country, and teaches them during their externship semester. In 2022, Nicole joined the Vermont Law School Entrepreneurial Legal Laboratory (VLSell), which she now directs. Through VLSell, and its partner the Vermont Small Business Development Center, she works with students and small business clients to provide legal education, public presentations, and referrals to the private bar for direct services.

Nicole is a member of the Vermont Bar Association. She runs the Superior Court, Environmental Division’s, monthly pro se clinic, providing advice to land use, zoning, and environmental permit litigants representing themselves in court. She regularly collaborates with other pro bono providers throughout the state to coordinate free legal services. She is also an advisor with the VBA’s Incubator Program, which supports attorneys in their first year of solo practice.

In her spare time, Nicole enjoys romping through the Vermont countryside with her family, baking fermented breads, making art with her kids, playing with Legos, boasting about her mother-of-twins superpower, and gardening.