Nicola Watts has been practising family law for over 25 years in Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. She studied law at the University of Tasmania and was admitted to practise in the Supreme Court of Tasmania and High Court of Australia in 1993. Four years later, Ms Watts relocated to Melbourne, where she was admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria. She worked in family law there for 16 years before moving to Perth in 2013, joining O’Sullivan Davies in 2018 and becoming a Principal in 2020.
Ms Watts practises in all facets of family law, with a particular interest in children’s matters. She was one of the first in Australia to be trained as an Independent Children’s Lawyer, appointed by Legal Aid in Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia between 1995-2018. Ms Watts is also a qualified mediator, collaborative lawyer and arbitrator.
Ms Watts is Western Australia’s sole Executive Member of the Family Law Section, Law Council of Australia, having been elected in 2016 and appointed Treasurer in 2021. She was the chair of the organising committee for the Section’s 20th National Conference in Perth in 2024.
She is also Western Australia’s only female Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers. She also serves on Legal Aid’s Review Committee and as the Section’s representative on the Family Law Practitioners Association of WA.
