Eu uso a API de critérios JPA para buscar registros do banco de dados. Eu tenho entidadeRegistro com campodata hora que pode ser nulo. Eu codificaria:

public List<Record> find(RecordFilter recordFilter, int page, int pageSize) {
    CriteriaBuilder criteriaBuilder = entityManager.getCriteriaBuilder();
    CriteriaQuery<Record> criteriaQuery = criteriaBuilder.createQuery(Record.class);
    Root<Record> recordRoot = criteriaQuery.from(Record.class);

    /*
     * JOINS. Left Joins are used for optional fields, or fields inside of the optional fields.
     */
    Join<Record, Agency> recordAgencyJoin = recordRoot.join(RecordTable.FIELD_AGENCY);
    //Some other joins

    //This is where I had the problem. 
    applyOrderBy(criteriaQuery, criteriaBuilder, recordRoot);

    /*
     * Specify which columns to select and their order.
     * criteriaQuery.multiselect(....);
     */              
    applyMultiSelect(recordRoot, recordAgencyJoin, /*other joins*/ criteriaQuery);

    /*
     * criteriaQuery.where(somePredicate);
     */
    applyFilter(recordFilter, criteriaQuery, criteriaBuilder,
            recordRoot, recordAgencyJoin /*, other joins*/);
    TypedQuery<Record> query = entityManager.<Record>createQuery(criteriaQuery);
    RepositoryUtils.applyPagination(query, page, pageSize);
    return query.getResultList();
}


private void applyOrderBy(CriteriaBuilder criteriaBuilder, Root<Record> recordRoot, CriteriaQuery<Record> criteriaQuery) {
    //Other fields to be added to the final sort.

    Order dateTimeDescOrder = criteriaBuilder.desc(recordRoot.get(RecordTable.FIELD_DATE_TIME));
    criteriaQuery.orderBy(dateTimeDescOrder /*, other orders by*/);
}

Acontece que os registros com NULL dateTimeField são mostrados primeiro. Eu uso o banco de dados Postrgres. Vou responder a essa pergunta porque encontrei uma solução. Aqui está um post semelhante.API de consulta de critérios JPA e ordem por último nulo