Nikki is a dual qualified human rights lawyer with a focus on issues at the nexus of sport, human rights, and immigration. She is a two-time Olympic swimmer, World Cup Champion, international medalist and two-time Olympic journalist. She is currently the Founder at the Right Collective, Head of Human Rights at Integrity Guidance, and Senior Lawyer at Game Legal in Sydney, Australia.
Nikki has prior roles as Human Rights Advisor with Sport Integrity Australia and Associate at the Australian Human Rights Institute. She completed a Fulbright Global Research Scholarship at Sport Resolutions in the UK and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada where she built upon PhD level research on athlete human rights in the sports dispute system. She was Co-Chair of the inaugural Board at the Centre for Sport and Human Rights in Geneva and was on the Editorial Board of LawInSport for 10 years.
Nikki is one of the first lawyers to write, speak and argue for human rights in sport over 20 years ago and has experience arguing for athlete rights and whistleblower protection, and fighting against gender and race discrimination, sex abuse, state sponsored doping, rights violations at mega-sporting events and corruption in sporting organisations. Nikki leads the Rights in Sport Working Group in Australia, supporting a dozen National Sporting Organisations with their human rights approaches. She does extensive pro bono work including a recent Court of Arbitration for Sport case representing a child abuse survivor and whistleblower in Mali basketball. In 2021, Nikki brought together the team that evacuated over 80 Afghan female athletes and their families from Kabul to Australia.
She has a BA in International Relations from Brown University, a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, the International Olympic Committee’s Safeguarding Officer Certificate and is qualified to practice law in the US and Australia.