 After finishing his secondary education, Nicolau trained as a lawyer, receiving a degree from the local University, a PhD in Paris, before being admitted to the Bucharest Bar.His first contacts with the Romanian socialist movement, still in disarray during that period, came through his membership in the Bucharest's Study Circle of the Socialist Students between 1908 and 1909.Soon after he began writing for "România Muncitoare", the main socialist press venue.