Irene Nikoloudakis is a PhD Candidate at the Adelaide Law School. Her PhD focuses on laws that criminalise wage theft. 

Irene has written one of the most comprehensive scholarly articles on the criminalisation of wage theft in Australia. More broadly, her previous academic publications have centred on exploring and improving the rights of vulnerable workers, particularly temporary migrant workers and those engaged in unpaid work. Irene has published in some of Australia's most prestigious law journals, including the UNSW Law Journal, Federal Law Review and Griffith Law Review, and in 2021 she contributed a chapter in an edited book published by the International Labour Organization (an agency of the United Nations). She has co-authored research reports on vulnerable work for the International Labour Organization, the Consulate-General of South Korea and one of Australia’s largest trade unions. Her work was recently cited in the Oxford Handbook of the Law of Work. 

Irene also practises as a senior government solicitor engaging in law reform work for state government. She has also practised in the areas of public and employment law both in the private and public sectors. She has appeared unled in the Supreme Court of South Australia, as junior counsel (led by the Solicitor-General for SA) in the Court of Appeal and Full Court of the Supreme Court and as an instructing solicitor in the High Court of Australia on employment and industrial law matters.

Irene concurrently completed degrees in Law (with First Class Honours), Commerce and Psychological Science from the University of Adelaide, and received numerous academic awards, including for being the most meritorious student in the Law of Work.