Nicole Summers is a nationally recognized expert on eviction courts and access to justice. She has conducted numerous empirical projects on eviction courts, based on which she has developed theories of civil settlement and the operations of state civil courts. In 2021-22, she was an American Bar Foundation Access to Justice Faculty Scholar, and she is currently an Affiliated Scholar at the American Bar Foundation. In addition to the ABF, her research has been funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her scholarship has appeared in numerous leading journals including the Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review (twice), Northwestern Law Review, and Law and Social Inquiry. Her article Civil Probation was the winner of the 2023 AALS Scholarly Papers Competition for best work by a faculty member in their first five years of law teaching. In 2025, Summers’ article Settlements of Adhesion in Eviction Court was selected for the Harvard/Yale/Stanford Junior Faculty Forum.

Before joining the Georgetown Law faculty, Professor Summers worked for many years in civil legal services. She did so as a Clinical Instructor at Harvard Law School, as a staff attorney at The Bronx Defenders, and as a fellow at the Northeast Justice Center of Massachusetts. She also was previously a Legal Fellow at the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Professor Summers received a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Brown University; a masters of arts in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University; and a law degree from Harvard Law School. Prior to attending graduate school, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Nicaragua.