Nick qualified as a solicitor in 1989 and has spent his career at Browne Jacobson solicitors in Nottingham.  A partner since 1994 he heads the Insurance and Public Risk Department which defends claims on behalf of insurers, indemnifiers and insureds.  In that role he has responsibility for a team of over 200 people.

Nick sits on the firm's Strategy Board, and is client relationship partner for some of the firms key clients.  He specialises in defending personal injury compensation claims against local authorities and has a particular expertise in large scale group action child abuse claims.  He is also an experienced clinical negligence litigator and has also been instructed in respect of several public inquiries on behalf of local authority and NHS clients.

Nick has been on Council for over 15 years, and his main current role within NWT is to act as a trustee for the Sherwood Forest Trust.  For many years prior to that he was heavily involved in the City Group and NUWS.

In addition to NWT and SFT, Nick is also a trustee of a small grant making Trust (The Stoneyholme Trust) and also Browne Jacobson’s own charitable grant making Trust.

Outside work Nick’s interests include cricket (Yorkshire and England), football (Liverpool), history, nature conservation and birdwatching.  He lives with his partner and young daughter in Nottingham.  His ambition is to retire and become a full time birdwatcher!

I am a lawyer by trade, and was first introduced to the Trust by Tom Huggon when we were both at the same law firm. I have always held a deep interest in wildlife issues having grown up on the edge of Arnold, Nottingham when there were still fields and woods and the Day Brook to explore.

This interest was further stoked by Dr Jack Reilly who was the father of my best childhood friend. He would allow us to join him on field trips into the Peak District or across to North Wales.

I became a member of the Trent Valley Birdwatchers travelling all over the country with my trusty Carl Zeiss binoculars and Collins Book of British Birds.

Although my practical wildlife activity waned in my later teenage years, my interest remained. I became more involved with urban wildlife issues when creating my homes in Sawley and West Bridgford.

As soon as I realised Tom’s link to the Trust this re-sparked my enthusiasm to get involved and initially I served on the Membership and Management Committee.

I was then invited to be a Trustee in – um – not sure. Probably 2000 or so. The M&M Committee became the Resources & General Purposes Committee and I went on to Chair that for several years.

After a short stint as Chair of the Conservation Strategy Committee I became more closely involved with EMEC, and am currently the Non-Executive Chairman but spent 6 months (one day a week) working with the team and was lucky to be able to attend on several species surveys such as Great Crested Newts, Brown Long Eared Bats and Adders.

Although I now live in Derby I retain my passion for Nottinghamshire wildlife and urban conservation.

I grew up on a small dairy farm in Northamptonshire and moved to Nottingham as an undergraduate.

I have had a 25-year career in marketing working in a diverse range of organisations including Anchor Trust, Capital Shopping Centres plc, British Waterways and the Museums Libraries and Archives Council. Since 2008 have provided marketing support and consultancy via my company number8marketing Ltd. Alongside this I am a designer working in traditional stained glass and contemporary fused glass, selling my work via my website, in galleries and at contemporary craft events.

For the past 6 years I have been a Waterway Partnership member (strategic volunteer) for The Canal and River Trust where I initiated projects including community attitudes benchmarking and increasing participation in running along waterway paths.

My hobbies include enjoying the arts, running and walking my two whippets. My usual outdoors haunts are the Grantham Canal towpath, Rushcliffe Country Park and the Clifton River Trent path.

I am married with an 11 year old daughter.

Eighteen months after having supposedly retired from full- time local government employment in 1992 I found that my threshold of delight in matters DIY had been reached and I took up the opportunity to work as a consultant for another sixteen years until I reached another threshold, in that case the dubious pleasure of spending three or four nights a week in hotels, and real retirement beckoned.

The first part of that journey had taken me from being a new graduate in urban and regional planning in Birmingham and then a not so new post-graduate in transportation planning in Liverpool via a variety of other city, county and regional authorities and two Parliamentary secondments to a six years period as Director responsible for planning, transport and economic development in Sheffield. Consultancy work again took me on a round tour of England dispensing advice on performance improvement and change management and providing an interim management service.

During this time I had touched down in Nottingham for a few years where I met my wife Manjit. Fortunately, as the daughter of a diplomat she had also had to embrace a somewhat nomadic lifestyle. This has worked out well for us as our only daughter is also married to a diplomat and since grandchildren have arrived we have significantly increased, and spent, our haul of air miles helped by our shared desire to travel as much as possible in retirement. I am also an avid reader with a particular interest in politics, history and all things Indian.

Since we met in Nottingham, and had many friends here, when work no longer tied us to anywhere else we decide to return, which we did in 2001. As we both also enjoy walking and we live in Bramcote, Attenborough has become a regular location for us to enjoy and Manjit has also introduced its joys and benefits to the many elderly ladies who attended her healthy living group. My affinity for cycling takes me further afield, although not as far as it used to, but Attenborough also features on the quieter days.

So, after more than forty years working in public service, which I not only enjoyed immensely, but also regarded as a privilege, the opportunity to become involved again through the Wildlife Trust was something I am glad to do. It is also an opportunity to expand my understanding of something that I have only been peripherally involved in previously; which is another way of saying I bring a fair amount of specialist ignorance to the role, although I think I am a quick learner!