Justice Nicola Pain is a Judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales, a position she has held since 2002. Her Honour has delivered more than 1,400 published judgments across the Court’s civil and criminal jurisdictions, including planning and development, environmental protection, water resources, Aboriginal land rights, land valuation and real property law.

Prior to her judicial appointment, Justice Pain held senior executive and leadership roles in environmental regulation and public interest law, including as Manager of Air Quality and Manager of Prosecutions with the NSW Environment Protection Authority, Assistant Secretary of the Commonwealth Environment Protection Agency, and Director of the Environmental Defenders Office. She began her legal career in private practice following admission as a solicitor. 

Justice Pain is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and serves on numerous national and international bodies, including as Chair of the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law Advisory Board at the University of Sydney and as a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law (IUCN). She is Chair of the Land and Environment Court Education Committee and is actively involved in judicial education and capacity-building programs across the Asia-Pacific region.

Her Honour holds academic appointments as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney Law School and the University of New South Wales, and has been a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and University College London. Justice Pain is a leading scholar and speaker on environmental and climate change law, with an extensive publication record in Australian and international journals.

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