null java list to scala Buffer

Imagine I have a java list val javaList: java.util.List[String] = null If I wanted to use it as scala collection, let's say Buffer, I would simply add the following import (as described many times before) import scala.collection.JavaConversions._ The problem is that I have to check if the list is different from null. This will not work: javaList foreach println //throws java.lang.NullPointerExcept