Nicola Shaw

Nicola practises exclusively in the field of Dispute Resolution.  Following a career at the Bar specialising in financial remedies, she was appointed as a full time District Judge in 2016.  She was lead Judge for her region in the Financial Remedies Court from its inception in 2018 until taking early retirement in 2022.  In addition to taking instructions for Non Court Dispute Resolution, she  sits regularly in the Financial Remedies Court in London, as well as in the local courts on the North East Circuit. She is an editor on the board of the Financial Remedies Journal. 

Nicola is instructed as a private FDR Judge. Known for her innovative thinking which sets her apart from other practitioners, she considers the practical consequences of the guidance she gives.  She is described as a first rate lawyer who is always well prepared, accessible and pragmatic, with good interpersonal skills.  

Both in her capacity as District Judge and in private practice, Nicola has facilitated and adjudicated in cases which have multi-million pound assets and complex financial structures, across the spectrum to those where the financial assets are small, but which require careful handling to achieve fairness for the parties. 

In the early years of Family Law Arbitration, Nicola had the accolade of conducting the most arbitrations nationally and was invited to present a national launch involving the President of the Family Division and the then head of the FR court.  She is described as a first class lawyer who is approachable and pragmatic with good interpersonal skills. 

A break in arbitration during salaried sitting in determination of cases across the spectrum of a busy FR case load. By way of a few examples, which party should retain the secure tenancy in a family where there were no other assets;  valuation of company with disagreement between experts as to share valuation; jurisdictional issues as to which country is appropriate for divorce and ancillary issues; cases with asset base in multiple jurisdictions and many involving public sector pensions. 

Arbitrations 

• Small business over multiple sites started with inherited asset from husband but run entirely by wife.   

• NHS pensions case involving actuarial expertise as to career average and final salary scheme.  Issue as to party’s earning capacity without pension and with pension sharing order in the context of a dependent marriage which did not span the entire NHS career of the holding spouse. 

• Farming case where farm inherited, parties not married, the party without legal ownership wishing to set up and run business on farm land after long relationship. 

• Significant inheritance partly used during marriage and arguments as to mingling. 

Private FDR

• Farming case involving purchased farm and associated business running in tandem on farmland and other sites.  Issue of whether business could be separated from the farming business and viability if that were possible.  

• Private medical business with issue of NHS pensions and SIPP, and interplay between NHS and private work.  Severely disabled minor and adult children and how their care to be provided and funded. 

• Parties about to retire, one spouse with significant expectation of benefits under discretionary family trust, the other with career police pension.  How this should be dealt with in the separation. 

• Husband and third party running large property portfolio under limited company.  Whether this company or quasi-partnership.  Liquidity. How the third party interest should be protected, and whether there was some manipulation of the distribution of the dividends suggesting unequal partnership.  

E: clerks@broadwayhouse.co.uk

T: 0113 246 2600 or 01274 722 560