LawFuel Power List 2025
No.24
Nicholson’s September 2025 KC appointment recognized her role as Chief Parliamentary Counsel and CEO of the Parliamentary Counsel Office—where, as the document notes, “drafting is where power hides.” Every piece of legislation passes through her office. That’s not hyperbole—it’s structural reality.
From the Emissions Trading Scheme to health reforms to criminal law amendments, Nicholson’s team translates policy into statute, shaping how laws operate even when politicians determine what they say. A Victoria University graduate with a Master of Laws from LSE (Commonwealth Scholar), she served as Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel (2016-2021) before her appointment as Chief.
Following earlier Chiefs George Tanner and Walter Iles (also KCs), her silk recognizes that legislative drafting isn’t clerical—it’s constitutional. At No. 24, her power is invisible but ubiquitous.
