Nicholas Wall was born in Clapham on 14 March 1945, the son of Frederick, a director of Stanley Gibbons, and Mimi (née Woods).

He won a London County Council scholarship to Dulwich College, an independent day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich in South London, followed by an Exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read English and then Law[1] and was president of the Union.

He was appointed to the Family Division of the High Court on 20 April 1993,[2] receiving the customary knighthood.

Wall was nominated to be President of the Family Division by the appointments panel, but the Lord Chancellor, Jack Straw, asked them to reconsider.

The panel once again put Wall forward, and he was subsequently appointed to the position on 13 April 2010.