Durham Family Law, Adoption, and ART Attorney
Meredith Nicholson

Meredith Nicholson, a founding member of NicholsonPham, received her J.D. from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law in December 1999 and was admitted to the North Carolina State Bar in March 2000. Her practice focuses on family law, adoption, and complex parentage matters involving assisted reproductive technology, including surrogacy and IVF. She represents both traditional and nontraditional families in matters involving divorce, custody, adoption, and through the evolving legal landscape of protecting parental rights when IVF and surrogacy are used to start and expand families.

Meredith has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America for Family Law since 2021 and has been named to North Carolina Super Lawyers since 2024. In 2025, she received the Citizen Lawyer Award from the North Carolina Bar Association in recognition of her professional leadership, public service, and advocacy within marginalized communities, and she was named to the Family Law Power LIst by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly.

Before co-founding NicholsonPham, Meredith served at Legal Aid, representing low-income clients in family law and disability matters, before accepting a position as project manager for a death penalty research study led by UNC School of Law Dean John Boger. She later worked as a criminal defense lawyer representing clients in Wake, Durham, Chatham, and Orange counties through misdemeanor and felony charges.

Meredith is a Fellow of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, a distinction held by a select group of attorneys with advanced experience in adoption and ART law. She is a member of the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys and served as past president of the Durham-Orange chapter. She currently serves as one of two Durham County representatives elected to the North Carolina State Bar Council. Meredith is also a past president of the Latino Affairs Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association and has frequently contributed to outreach efforts focused on Hispanic and LGBTQ+ legal issues through community programs, radio, and television.

She co-authored Critical Terms in Legal Proceedings, a Spanish-English legal dictionary published by the North Carolina Bar Association, and has lectured at North Carolina Central University School of Law on domestic violence defense. Meredith was also invited to Mexico to assist in training lawyers and judges during that country’s transition to oral advocacy in criminal proceedings.

Meredith speaks Spanish and French.