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Felicity Nagorcka

Crown Counsel

Felicity is an in-house barrister at Crown Law who provides support and assistance to the Solicitor-General. Her primary areas of expertise are constitutional law, administrative law and human rights. Felicity regularly appears as counsel for the State and the Attorney-General in superior courts, including the High Court of Australia, often as junior counsel to the Solicitor-General. She has many years’ experience advising government on significant and complex public law issues.

Felicity has written and presented numerous papers to academic bodies and government legal associations, and has published articles on constitutional law, administrative law and human rights.  She is  co-convenor of the Queensland Chapter of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law.

Before joining Crown Law in 2008, Felicity worked at a large private firm. She was an associate to the Hon Justice Hayne AC of the High Court of Australia in 2006, and holds an LLM (class 1) from the University of Cambridge.

Felicity’s recent appearances include:

  • Vanderstock v Victoria (2022, HCA) (validity of Victorian charge on the use of electric vehicles) (led by Gim Del Villar KC SG, with Sarah Spottiswood)
  • Citta Hobart Pty Ltd v Cawthorn (2022, HCA) (federal jurisdiction and State tribunals, led by Sandy Thompson KC SG)
  • Johnston v Carroll; Witthahn v Wakefield; Sutton v Carroll (2022, QSC) (validity of employer directions requiring COVID-19 vaccination) (led by Nitra Kidson KC)
  • TRKJ v Director of Public Prosecutions (Qld); Kay v Director of Public Prosecutions (2021, QSC) (interpretation of legislation concerning protected counselling communications and human rights, leading Kent Blore)
  • Mineralogy Pty Ltd v Western Australia; Palmer v Western Australia (2021, HCA) (validity of Western Australian legislation annulling certain arbitral awards) (led by Erin Longbottom KC)
  • Palmer v Western Australia (HCA, 2020) (validity of Western Australia’s COVID-19 border restrictions, led by Sandy Thompson KC SG, with Kent Blore)
  • Holzinger v Attorney-General (QCA, 2020) and Ogawa v Attorney-General (Cth) (FCAFC, 2020) (reviewability of the pardoning power and decisions under s 672A of the Criminal Code (Qld), led by Sandy Thompson KC SG in each matter)
  • Owen-D’Arcy v Queensland Corrective Services (QSC, 2020) (judicial review of a maximum-security order, raising grounds under the Human Rights Act 2019) (leading Kent Blore)
  • Australian Institute for Progress v ECQ (QSC, 2020) (interpretation of prohibited donor provisions and the Human Rights Act 2019) (led by Sandy Thompson KC SG)
  • Vella v Commissioner of Police (NSW) (HCA, 2019) (validity of NSW control order regime, led by Sandy Thompson KC SG)
  • Spence v Queensland (HCA, 2019) (validity of Queensland’s prohibited donor laws, led by Peter Dunning KC SG, Stephen Keim SC and Gim Del Villar); Awabdy v ECQ (QCA, 2019) (Queensland’s donation disclosure laws, led by Elizabeth Wilson QC and Gim Del Villar)
  • Kemppi v Adani (FCAFC, 2019 and FCA, 2018) (validity of the certification and registration of an indigenous land use agreement, led by Gim Del Villar).