diff --git a/ethereum/api/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/api/query/LogsQuery.java b/ethereum/api/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/api/query/LogsQuery.java
index 4e1ad844cd..526f0c9c9a 100644
--- a/ethereum/api/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/api/query/LogsQuery.java
+++ b/ethereum/api/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/api/query/LogsQuery.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import org.hyperledger.besu.ethereum.core.Log;
 import org.hyperledger.besu.ethereum.core.LogTopic;
 import org.hyperledger.besu.ethereum.core.LogsBloomFilter;
 
+import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Objects;
@@ -50,8 +51,17 @@ public class LogsQuery {
           final List<Address> addresses,
       @JsonDeserialize(using = TopicsDeserializer.class) @JsonProperty("topics")
           final List<List<LogTopic>> topics) {
-    this.addresses = addresses != null ? addresses : emptyList();
-    this.topics = topics != null ? topics : emptyList();
+    // Ordinarily this defensive copy wouldn't be surprising, style wise it should be an immutable
+    // collection. However, the semantics of the Ethereum JSON-RPC APIs ascribe meaning to a null
+    // value in lists for logs queries. We need to proactively put the values into a collection
+    // that won't throw a null pointer exception when checking to see if the list contains null.
+    // List.of(...) is one of the lists that reacts poorly to null member checks and is something
+    // that we should expect to see passed in. So we must copy into a null-tolerant list.
+    this.addresses = addresses != null ? new ArrayList<>(addresses) : emptyList();
+    this.topics =
+        topics != null
+            ? topics.stream().map(ArrayList::new).collect(Collectors.toList())
+            : emptyList();
     this.addressBlooms =
         this.addresses.stream()
             .map(address -> LogsBloomFilter.builder().insertBytes(address).build())
diff --git a/ethereum/api/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/api/query/LogsQueryTest.java b/ethereum/api/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/api/query/LogsQueryTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..48e8bfc58d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ethereum/api/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/ethereum/api/query/LogsQueryTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright ConsenSys AG.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on
+ * an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ *
+ */
+
+package org.hyperledger.besu.ethereum.api.query;
+
+import static java.util.Collections.singletonList;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+
+import org.hyperledger.besu.ethereum.core.Address;
+import org.hyperledger.besu.ethereum.core.Log;
+import org.hyperledger.besu.ethereum.core.LogTopic;
+
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.apache.tuweni.bytes.Bytes;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class LogsQueryTest {
+
+  private static final Address FIRST_ADDRESS =
+      Address.fromHexString("8320fe7702b96808f7bbc0d4a888ed1468216cfd");
+  private static final LogTopic FIRST_ADDRESS_TOPIC =
+      LogTopic.fromHexString("0000000000000000000000008320fe7702b96808f7bbc0d4a888ed1468216cfd");
+  private static final LogTopic SECOND_ADDRESS_TOPIC =
+      LogTopic.fromHexString("0000000000000000000000009320fe7702b96808f7bbc0d4a888ed1468216cfd");
+  private static final LogTopic ERC20_TRANSFER_EVENT =
+      LogTopic.fromHexString("ddf252ad1be2c89b69c2b068fc378daa952ba7f163c4a11628f55a4df523b3ef");
+
+  @Test
+  public void testMatches() {
+    final LogsQuery query =
+        new LogsQuery(
+            singletonList(FIRST_ADDRESS),
+            List.of(
+                singletonList(ERC20_TRANSFER_EVENT),
+                List.of(FIRST_ADDRESS_TOPIC, SECOND_ADDRESS_TOPIC)));
+
+    assertThat(query.matches(new Log(FIRST_ADDRESS, Bytes.EMPTY, List.of()))).isFalse();
+    assertThat(query.matches(new Log(FIRST_ADDRESS, Bytes.EMPTY, List.of(ERC20_TRANSFER_EVENT))))
+        .isFalse();
+    assertThat(
+            query.matches(
+                new Log(
+                    FIRST_ADDRESS,
+                    Bytes.EMPTY,
+                    List.of(ERC20_TRANSFER_EVENT, FIRST_ADDRESS_TOPIC))))
+        .isTrue();
+    assertThat(
+            query.matches(
+                new Log(
+                    FIRST_ADDRESS,
+                    Bytes.EMPTY,
+                    List.of(ERC20_TRANSFER_EVENT, SECOND_ADDRESS_TOPIC))))
+        .isTrue();
+    assertThat(
+            query.matches(
+                new Log(
+                    FIRST_ADDRESS,
+                    Bytes.EMPTY,
+                    List.of(ERC20_TRANSFER_EVENT, SECOND_ADDRESS_TOPIC, FIRST_ADDRESS_TOPIC))))
+        .isTrue();
+  }
+}