Nicole focuses on administrative practice before all state agencies and legislative and lobbying practice before the Virginia General Assembly, the Governor’s Office, and the Office of the Attorney General. She regularly partners with clients on drafting legislation, creating and implementing legislative strategies, testifying before legislative committees, lobbying legislators and other government officials, and developing creative solutions to help solve problems within state and local government. Nicole joined Reed Smith's Virginia Government Relations Team after several years working for the Virginia legislature. She enjoys helping clients have positive and productive interactions with state government.
Nicole often assists clients with legislative drafting and statutory interpretation in all 50 states and analyzes how state laws may impact client business. Nicole frequently drafts legislative language for firm clients that is offered or presented during legislative sessions throughout the country. She understands how quickly state legislatures move, gathers a quick understanding of a client’s business and how it may be impacted, and uses her years of legislative drafting and statutory interpretation experience to provide legislative solutions. Nicole also answers questions regarding all model and uniform laws and variations from those laws within each state, and frequently analyzes the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. She also represents clients seeking licensure or certification from various executive branch agencies and has assisted firm clients in interactions with the Virginia Departments of Education, Small Business and Supplier Diversity, Taxation, Environmental Quality, Motor Vehicles, Transportation, Mines, Minerals, and Energy, Professional and Occupational Regulation, and the State Corporation Commission.
Prior to joining Reed Smith, Nicole was an attorney with the Virginia Division of Legislative Service where for five years she drafted legislation for all members of the General Assembly and served as Counsel to the Senate Finance Committee and the House and Senate Committees on Transportation of the General Assembly and their respective chairpersons. During that time she drafted hundreds of pieces of legislation including drafting and managing the revision and recodification of a Title of the Code of Virginia. Prior to her work for the Virginia legislature, Nicole worked for the Florida Senate and the Virginia Office of the Attorney General.
Nicole participates in Reed Smith’s Women’s Initiative Network and is the Richmond office’s ReturnRS Liaison, supporting and assisting attorneys preparing for, taking, and returning from parental leave. She also enjoys pro bono projects including ongoing representation of a sovereign tribal nation in its interactions with Virginia government.
Nicole has volunteered with the Junior League of Richmond for the past 10 years and previously served on the Board as the Vice President of Fund Development, overseeing all volunteer fundraising efforts. She is a member of St. Bridget Catholic Church where she served as a lector and is a member of the adult sacrament preparation team, welcoming new parishioners to the Church. She lives in Richmond with her husband and two children.
