Nickolas was born in Chicago to Greek immigrant parents who came to seek refuge from the devastation caused by World War II, and the subsequent civil war which ensued in their home country. His parents met while living on the North side of Chicago, not far from the current 20th Judicial subcircuit where Nickolas is running for office.
Shortly after getting married, his parents moved into a two-flat on Roscoe St. in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood of Chicago. Nickolas attended Falconer Elementary School up until the 7th grade when his family moved to the suburbs to be closer to the business they had purchased, a restaurant and tavern serving the employees from O’Hare Airport and the surrounding warehouses which operated 22 hours out of the day.
Like any Greek-American, Nickolas began helping out at the family business at a very young age and worked there until it was eventually sold in 2001. He attended college at Loyola University Chicago, and when he graduated (the first in his family do so) he took a job at Montgomery Ward’s corporate headquarters as an analyst with the hopes of saving up enough money to attend law school. After three years in the corporate world he returned to Loyola to study law. While in law school, he clerked at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office where he got his first exposure to the courtroom and he was hooked. After graduating from law school in 1995 he took a job with the State’s Attorney’s Office where he tried hundreds of cases representing the victims of crimes in Cook County. It involved a lot of hard work and preparation, but it was the honor of a lifetime to serve the public. Nickolas served an assistant state’s attorney for eight years before moving on to the next chapter in his legal career.
In 2004, Nickolas took a position at midsized law firm in downtown Chicago where he became exposed to the civil area of law. While there he practiced in several divisions of the Circuit Court of Cook County as well as Federal Court. While the new experience he was getting was valuable and interesting, Nickolas missed being in court everyday like he was when he was a state’s attorney. In 2007, Nickolas left the firm to help take care of his father who had been treating for cancer. Later that year after his father’s passing, he started his own practice where he has been working for the past sixteen years.
Working as private attorney Nickolas had the opportunity to work on the other side of the criminal justice system, defending the rights of the accused in criminal cases and civil rights cases. All the while working towards the same goal he had as a state’s attorney – justice. He also represented clients on a variety of matters in every division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and other jurisdictions throughout Illinois (including some downstate where Abraham Lincoln had practiced), the Illinois Court of Appeals, Federal District Court & Court of Appeals, and recently in the Supreme Court of the United States. To date he has tried well over 500 cases before judges, and over twenty before juries.
Since graduating law school twenty-eight years ago, Nickolas has continuously volunteered in law related education and competitions sponsored by local high schools and colleges helping to give students a peek of what a career in law may look like. He has also been committed to providing pro bono law services to those who are less fortunate and limited means. Nickolas has provided free legal services to the indigent, wards of the state, and refugees immigrants who could not afford representation. In a recent immigration asylum case, he drafted and argued the appeal in federal court, as well as assembled a team of attorneys to present a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States, all with no cost to his client.
Nickolas recognizes what a great privilege and responsibility it has been to serve as an attorney in Cook County and is now ready for the challenge to serve Cook County as a Circuit Court Judge if given the opportunity by the voters. This page paid for by Neighbors for Nickolas Pappas.
