Luisa Nicholson
Luisa studied law in Birmingham before joining West Midlands Police Force.
She decided to become a solicitor and left the police service in order to complete her legal training in Exeter and qualified with a firm in Barnstaple in 2003.
She moved to south Devon after qualification and in 2012 set up her own practice specialising in private client matters (wills, probate, estate administration) and older clients’ issues.
Luisa was appointed HM Assistant Coroner for Exeter and Greater Devon in 2013. She has a particular interest in emergency planning and disaster victim identification.
Nick Brown
Nick is a practising barrister who specialises in inquests, human rights, clinical negligence, legal negligence, and personal injury work. 
Since joining Doughty Street Chambers in London in 2003, much of Nick’s work has involved representing bereaved families at inquests arising out of deaths in custody and deaths involving police action as well as clinical negligence deaths and deaths following industrial accidents. From time to time, Nick also acts for other interested persons.
Between 2014 and 2016, Nick was part of the legal team representing 77 of the 96 Families at the new Hillsborough Inquests. Nick also represented the family of Fusilier Gordon Gentle at the inquest into his death in Iraq and the family of Ronald Maddison, the serviceman who died during a non-therapeutic human experiment involving the use of sarin nerve gas in 1953, at the Porton Down inquest in 2004.
Nick has been coming down to the west country since he was five years old and his parents now live in West Dorset close to the border with Devon. Nick is married and has two grown-up children.
He has been a junior rugby coach for many years.
Nicholas Lane
Living in Exeter, Nicholas is a coronial and judicial office-holder with significant experience in the areas of medical, mental health, inquest, regulatory, criminal, prison and public law.
He has detailed knowledge of the medical and forensic sciences, including the practice of medicine and allied healthcare professions, and the work of the emergency and rescue services also an in-depth understanding of police procedure, the criminal justice system and the workings of prisons, psychiatric hospitals and other institutions of state detention.
Nicholas was appointed as an Assistant Coroner in 2019 in Worcestershire, in 2021 in Avon and in 2023 in the County of Devon, Plymouth and Torbay. He has carried out numerous inquests of all lengths and complexity.
In 2021 Nicholas was appointed Judge of the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health Tribunal).
Prior to judicial appointment, Nicholas practised as a barrister in London and the south-east. He was called to the Bar in 2007 by Lincoln’s Inn and he specialised in all aspects of criminal, medical, mental health and inquest law.
Louise Wiltshire
Louise qualified as a solicitor in 2009 and is an experienced healthcare regulatory, inquests and investigations lawyer.
She was appointed as an Assistant Coroner in 2017 in Plymouth and joined the Exeter Coroner’s service in April 2024 following the merger of the Exeter and Plymouth jurisdictions.
Louise continues to practice for an large international law firm, which specialises in the healthcare sector.
More information to follow about our other assistant coroners: