LLM (Harvard Law School); BA Law (Exeter College, Oxford)
LLM (Harvard Law School); BA Law (Exeter College, Oxford)
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“An extraordinarily incisive legal mind who appears effortlessly to identify the nub of an issue and wrestle with its relevance and consequence. He is deeply courteous, and appears unflappable even when dealing with several high-profile cases at the same time. He is well organised and musters in-depth preparation to make every moment of a client-facing meeting matter.” – Chambers UK, 2021
“Nik has incredible technical knowledge of the law coupled with an ability to explain it in a clear and concise manner.” – Legal 500, 2021
“Really sharp and insightful, with both legal depth and clear strategic thinking, and he’s really good on his feet.” – Chambers UK, 2020
“He drafts beautifully and has a really good tactical sense of what works.” – Chambers UK, 2019
Nikolaus has a busy practice spanning public & regulatory, civil and international law. He acts regularly in high-profile litigation, both in commercial and human rights matters. He has particular expertise in complex public law cases, competition law, data protection, and in claims involving issues of national security, armed conflict and international relations.
Nikolaus is a member of the Attorney General’s Public International Law C Panel of Counsel to the Crown and a former judicial assistant to Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury. Before coming to the bar, Nikolaus worked for the United Nations in Afghanistan and Sudan. He was selected as one of “The Hot 100” in The Lawyer in 2017 and has been instructed in several of The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases of recent years.
Consistently ranked as a leading junior in the legal directories, Nikolaus has a wide-ranging public and regulatory practice. He appears for and advises claimants and defendants, including individuals, companies, central government, regulators, local authorities, and public interest groups.
He has particular expertise in major commercial public law and regulatory disputes, often with a competition angle, as well as in claims involving human rights and international law issues.
Recent and ongoing work includes:
Nikolaus’s acts in a range of major competition cases, including antitrust investigations, merger approvals, challenges to regulatory decisions, and damages actions. He has significant expertise in cross-jurisdictional claims and benefits from his technical public law knowledge and his extensive litigation experience in the appellate Courts. Nikolaus also has particular experience in the field of merger control, being instructed in many key mergers in recent years, such as Comcast/Sky; Sainsbury’s/Asda; Stars/Sky Betting and Gaming; Rentokil Initial/Cannon Hygiene; and HID Global/De La Rue.
He is a contributing author of Bellamy & Child “European Union Law of Competition” (8th Edition).
Nikolaus acts for regulators, private companies, and classes of claimants.
Recent and ongoing work includes:
Ranked as a leading junior, Nikolaus represents and advises individuals, companies, public interest groups, and government bodies in a wide range of high-profile human rights cases, including public and private law claims in the domestic courts as well as cases before international courts and bodies.
He has particular expertise in matters involving issues of national security, armed conflict and international relations and regularly deals with complex and sensitive claims against the police, military and security and intelligence services.
Recent and ongoing work includes:
Nikolaus is instructed in a wide range of data protection and information law cases. He regularly advises and represents the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as well as companies, individuals, government bodies and not-for-profit organisations in relation to complex data protection issues.
Recent and ongoing work includes:
Nikolaus is a member of the UK Attorney General’s Public International Law C Panel of Counsel. He works on a wide range of international matters, both in an advisory / consultancy capacity and in litigation before domestic and international courts (see civil liberties & human rights section).
Nikolaus benefits from extensive field experience, including in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Iraq, Mali, Ethiopia, Libya, the Great Lakes Region and the Caucasus.
Recent and ongoing international work includes:
Languages
Fluent German
Conversational French
Background
Before joining the Bar, Nikolaus worked for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and for Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission. He specialized in the issue of civilian casualties, dealing with a range of incidents including the killing of civilians in airstrikes by international forces, targeted assassinations of non-combatants by insurgents and the shooting of unarmed protesters by Afghan Government forces.
Nikolaus also worked as Special Assistant to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan and has undertaken a range of consultancy and academic assignments in countries including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Iraq, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and Russia.
After completing pupillage, Nikolaus was Judicial Assistant to Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury.
He holds a BA in law from Oxford University and an LLM from Harvard Law School and completed the BVC with the highest mark in his year. He was awarded the Harvard Henigson Human Rights Fellowship as well as numerous prizes and awards for his research on legal structures in Somalia and on conflict mapping in Central Africa and Central Asia. Nikolaus is a qualified mediator under Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Rules.
Administrative & Public Law: “He was extremely knowledgeable and calm in a very busy and pressurised matter.” “He produces beautifully drafted pleadings and has good strategic judgement in litigation. Nothing seems to fluster him.” – Chambers UK, 2023
Civil Liberties & Human Rights: “His courtroom advocacy is so good: it is mesmerising.” “A strong advocate whether for the claimant or the defendant.” – Chambers UK, 2023
Data Protection: “He’s very skilled, produces beautifully drafted pleadings and has good strategic litigation judgement. He can turn his hand to the most difficult issues in public law and data protection.” “He is very hard-working and responsive; he goes above and beyond for the client.” – Chambers UK, 2023
Competition Law: “Nik is a smart and hard-working junior who writes well and is good to deal with.” – Chambers UK and Chambers Global, 2023
Group Litigation: “Both his drafting and advocacy are excellent.” – Chambers UK, 2023
Leading Junior in Administrative Law and Human Rights: “Nikolaus is a highly intellectual strategic thinker who approaches issues in a pragmatic way.” – Legal 500, 2023
Leading Junior in Group Litigation: “He is extremely smart; knowledgeable; very pragmatic; hard working and very easy to work with.” – Legal 500, 2023
Leading Junior in Competition: “Steeped in competition law, Nikolaus always provides clear and considered advice. He is equally able of seeing the commercial realities and risks for his clients.” – Legal 500, 2023
Administrative & Public Law: “He is an incredibly smart barrister with a tactical understanding of how the other side works.” “He is easy to work with and very clear in his advice.” – Chambers UK, 2022
Civil Liberties & Human Rights: “He is very good on his feet and his strategy is very good.” “Nikolaus is very hard-working and incredibly clever.” – Chambers UK, 2022
Data Protection: “He produces first-rate advocacy and is a barrister I turn to for the complex data breach cases.” – Chambers UK, 2022
Competition Law: “He’s a smart barrister who writes well, and is one of the few lawyers who understands merger control.” – Chambers UK and Chambers Global, 2022
Leading Junior in Administrative & Public Law: “Nikolaus is an excellent strategic thinker who always has the clients’ overall objectives and goals in mind when advising on case strategy.” – Legal 500, 2022
Leading Junior in Civil Liberties & Human Rights – Legal 500, 2022
Leading Junior in Competition: “A strong technician, pragmatically minded and very user friendly.” – Legal 500, 2022
Administrative & Public Law: “An extraordinarily incisive legal mind who appears effortlessly to identify the nub of an issue and wrestle with its relevance and consequence. He is deeply courteous, and appears unflappable even when dealing with several high-profile cases at the same time. He is well organised and musters in-depth preparation to make every moment of a client-facing meeting matter.” – Chambers UK, 2021
Civil Liberties and Human Rights: “Academic, thorough in his legal arguments and very good at drafting.” – Chambers UK, 2021
Leading Junior in Administrative & Public Law: “Nik has incredible technical knowledge of the law coupled with an ability to explain it in a clear and concise manner.” – Legal 500, 2021
Leading Junior in Civil Liberties & Human Rights: “Has a sharp legal mind, clear strategic thinking and is outcome focused. He is one a few counsel that understand the dynamics of developing technology and rights.” – Legal 500, 2021
Leading Junior in Competition: “Highly responsive, great manner with clients and very knowledgeable.” – Legal 500, 2021
Administrative & Public Law: “We found him very impressive, incredibly hard-working and dedicated to our case. He brought a fresh perspective as he has a diverse practice.” “Really sharp and insightful, with both legal depth and clear strategic thinking, and he’s really good on his feet. He was put on the spot and it was like water off a duck’s back.” “He was helpful, calm and patient, and he listened well. He answers quite meticulously, can break things down into a simple response and he’s able to translate all the jargon.” – Chambers UK, 2020
Civil Liberties and Human Rights: “Incredibly hard-working and dedicated. He punches above his level of call.” “He’s sharp, insightful and really good on his feet.” – Chambers UK, 2020
Leading Junior in Administrative & Public Law: “He uses his deep practical knowledge of national security to good effect.” – Legal 500, 2020
Administrative & Public Law: “He has a phenomenal ability to understand the wide array of issues which arise. He’s good with clients and he has a great ability to inspire confidence.” “He’s really hard-working and gets to the point. He goes out of his way to help instructing solicitors, which is appreciated.” – Chambers UK, 2019
Civil Liberties and Human Rights: “He has a phenomenal ability to understand the wide array of issues which arise.” “He drafts beautifully and has a really good tactical sense of what works.” – Chambers UK, 2019
Administrative & Public Law: “Very intelligent, extremely friendly and easy to work with.” “He is able to spot novel and difficult new points of law.” – Chambers UK, 2018
Civil Liberties and Human Rights: “He has a detailed technical knowledge of the law and an ability to advise in a clear and workable manner.” – Chambers UK, 2018
Administrative & Public Law: “Brilliant, writes beautifully, is hard-working and totally unflappable. He is really good with clients.” “A wonderfully creative litigator.” “Technically one of the most gifted barristers that I have come across, he’s absolutely meticulous.” – Chambers UK, 2017
Administrative & Public Law: “He has a technical background which means he can add a whole different dimension to cases. He has years of experience in his fields of practice and is hugely connected.” “He works incredibly hard and is very well informed on all the technical public law questions.” – Chambers UK, 2016
Administrative & Public Law: “He is incredibly competent and very accommodating. He seeks to push the boundaries of the law, yet always offers pragmatic and realistic advice.” – Chambers UK, 2015