1. CURRICULUM VITAE
*LADY NICOLA RENE JANE MACKENZIE
MATHESON-DURRANT
General Professional and educational background:
• 1986 to present day: Assisting LIP’s as McKenzie Friend & para legal.
• Pioneered the ‘professional McKenzie Friend’ brand and career.
• Created, designed and ran the UK’s first training course and franchise
package for career Professional McKenzie Friends.
• Training, mentoring and developing lay legal advisers.
• Intellectual Property: Designing and developing brands, registering trade
marks at IPO.
2009 to present:
Employee of the **Family Law Clinic Ltd (and Founder/Director) (Fully Insured)
www.familylawclinic.co.uk - Professional McKenzie Friends - an affordable
alternative to Solicitors for litigants in person. Also offers Pro Bono services.
Court work: Advocates that the President’s Guidance on McKenzie Friends is
not fit for purpose and that LIP’s and their McKenzie Friends should automatically
have equal rights of audience and conduct of litigation to ensure level playing
field and to assist in achieving the ‘overriding objective’.
**Legal Advice Clinic Ltd (Founder/Director) (Fully Insured)
www.legaladviceclinic.co.uk - Professional McKenzie Friends - an affordable
alternative to Solicitors for litigants in person. Also offers Pro Bono services.
2005/6-2009:
Founding Partner, T/A ‘Divorce Zone’, professional McKenzie Friends - first
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2. Business established as the UK’s affordable professional ‘lay’ legal advice and
service, as the alternative to Solicitors for litigants in person.
1986 – 2005/6:
• Assisting litigants in person as a McKenzie Friend/LIP Assistant in variety
of family and civil matters;
• Working in Health & Fitness/Hospitality industry (Qualification: ITEC
Physiology, Anatomy, Massage – Awarded Pass with Merit);
• Breeder of Siamese cats and Fancy Mice
1981/82-1986:
• Hewlett Packard Ltd, Quality Assurance department. Admin and Training
role.
• Courses: Presentations, Training the Trainer. Quality Assurance. Risk
Management Diploma, British Safety Council, 1984 - First female
candidate to be awarded the AIRMIC diploma.
1959-1982:
• Full time 3 yr BA (Hons) Law Degree @ South Bank Polytechnic – 2/2
• A’ Levels: @ Orpington FE College, Kent. Eng Lang: B, Eng Lit: B, Govt
& Politics: D
• PA to Company Director, Allied Engineering Ents, Abu Dhabi, UAE
• Private Secretarial Certificate (Bi-lingual): Eastbourne FE College, Sussex
• O’Levels: @ Farringtons, Chislehurst, Kent (Junior & Senior boarder).
• School Awards: Academic awards: Merit. Junior Sportswoman of the
Year; Senior Sportswoman of the Year.
• Born in Tanzania, East Africa. Early Primary school education in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania, and Abadan, South Iran.
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3. Languages
Primary: English. Basic spoken & understanding of French, Kiswahili, Arabic,
Farsi, German, Italian and Spanish.
Personal
Former Memberships :UKIP party member and sponsor, marketing and
promoting UKIP.
South Bank University Alumni
Family - GREAT-GRANDFATHER: Albert van der Sandt Centlivres (13 January
1887–19 September 1966) was Chief Justice of South Africa from 1950 to 1957.
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(*Title & land in West Highlands of Scotland acquired during FY 2013/2014. Name changed by Deed Poll).
(**’The Company’, never the McKenzie Friend, issues invoices to clients.)
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Jan 2016
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