Nichola heads Penningtons' highly rated immigration team and is widely regarded as one of the UK's leading experts on sponsorship matters, especially in relation to the higher and further education sector. Renowned for seeing the wider picture and presenting creative strategic solutions to issues clients face, Nichola and her team guide their education and corporate clients through the myriad of risks inherent in the sponsorship system. Frequently influencing senior Government members and officials behind the scenes, Nichola works with sponsors on strategies to enhance overall compliance whilst retaining the ability to attract global talent. Recently Nichola has worked with a number of university clients and those who operate in the private sector on branch and partnership arrangements. Her team prepares clients for policy changes which will affect their business models, performs compliance audits and delivers bespoke training sessions for in-house teams. Penningtons also advises clients who are subject to adverse decisions including sponsor licence suspension and revocation decisions and acted for English UK in its groundbreaking and widely reported judicial review challenge in 2010.
Nichola teaches immigration law to other practitioners and has appeared in numerous press interviews, including BBC and Sky News. She is recommended by both Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession, where she is noted as having 'great commercial sense and commitment to the subject matter' and The Legal 500, where she is described as being 'easy to work with'. Nichola has spoken about immigration policy at numerous events organised by the International Bar Association, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Association of MBAs, the Law Society, Universities UK, Westminster Legal and Higher Education Policy Forums and the Independent Schools Council.