Nicole M. (Lacoste) Folks is a real estate attorney with her practice focusing on acquisitions, leasing, zoning, land use, and administrative approvals. With her practice, she continues her passion for all issues relating to economic development, sustainable use and re-development of land and green building practices.
In addition to practicing law, Ms. Folks has designed award winning community participation programs, drafted testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives and the Maryland General Assembly on affordable housing, community livability, and land use legislation, and facilitated community meetings in environmentally impacted neighborhoods. Prior to becoming a solo practitioner, Ms. Folks was an attorney in the land use and environmental practice groups for two law firms in Maryland (Tydings & Rosenberg LLP, 2001-2003, and Ballard Spahr LLP, 2003-2009), a law clerk for the Environmental Law Institute, an Environmental Protection Specialist for the federal Superfund Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and a Peace Corps volunteer in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa, assigned to a rural village as a public health educator. Ms. Folks also served as the 2000 American Planning Association (APA) Congressional Fellow for Urban Planning and Community Livability in the congressional office of Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).
Ms. Folks is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association and serves as an officer on the Section Council for the MSBA Real Property, Planning, and Zoning Section (2003-present). She also is a past chair of the APA Planning and Law Division and served on the Board of Directors for Baltimore Montessori Inc., a public charter school in Baltimore City, and the Neighborhood Design Center. Ms. Folks is an honors graduate of Immaculata University (B.A. 1991), and a graduate of University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation (M.C.P. 2000), and University of Maryland School of Law (J.D. 1999).