Colin was educated at Clifton College in Bristol and trained at his father’s firm, Nickinson & Co, subsequently becoming a partner.
After stints as a partner at Jeffrey Green Russell and subsequently at Finers, he founded Jaque Simmons with Anthony Simmons which subsequently merged with another firm to form Lyndales. He joined David Wineman as a dispute resolution partner in 2005 which itself merged with DFM Beckman in 2008.
Colin is listed as a Recommended Lawyers for mid-market commercial litigation and also for property litigation in the 2022 Legal 500 rankings.
Throughout his legal career, Colin has worked as a litigator conducting mainly commercial disputes. Currently, he specialises in dispute resolution arising out of contract and tort, particularly professional negligence, but he is frequently consulted on complicated liquor licensing Applications and Appeals. He has taken a significant number of cases to the Court of Appeal and to the House of Lords.
His particular interests are
- property disputes arising in relation to the sale of and charges on land
- specific performance
- boundary disputes
- variation of trusts and administration of estates, wills
- company matters
- dissolution of partnerships
- construction
- licensing
- rectification and rescission of deeds.
He is the joint author of two books – one on “Chancery Procedure” published by Oyez and the other “Chancery Procedure and Orders” published by Longman. He has also written many legal magazine articles. Jointly with a barrister, Nicolas Bard, he authored a paper on behalf of London Solicitors Litigation Association (LSLA) on “The Modernization and Amelioration of Court Procedure” which was considered and adopted by Lord Woolf in his review of court procedure. He was also instrumental on behalf of the LSLA in the setting up of the Communications Rooms at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Colin is recognised by the Legal 500 2020 and 2021 editions as being a Recommended Lawyer within ‘Commercial Litigation’.
Colin is based in our Wigmore Street office.