Our CEO Craig Caldicott joined Graham Cornes on FiveAA’s Conversations with Cornesy where they discussed Craig’s career as a criminal defence lawyer.
From working in a hotel and repeating year 12 to setting up a firm in the kitchen of his mother’s Brighton home and having a 10-year stint in family law – the two discussed how Craig would eventually settle as a Criminal Defence lawyer at his own firm Craig Caldicott Lawyers on Wright Street.
Craig’s first divorce case was a telling experience for his years spent in family law.
“Someone came in and said, ‘I want to get a divorce,’” Craig told Graham. “I said, ‘Sure, not a problem!’… I literally had no idea.”
Craig quickly found that his clients in family law “wanted to keep on fighting”, even after a case had settled.
And although one of Craig’s first criminal law cases was a three-day case of stolen laundry, the simple notion that his client thanked him after the case and that contrast to the unforgiving nature of family law, was appealing.
Craig’s early criminal law days were a testament to the saying “we all start somewhere” – doing pro bono work attending cells in the early hours of the morning and helping interview criminals.
During this time he encountered all sorts of drug and alcohol related incidents, but it was a 6”4 wide-eyed male with a chilling god complex and charges for a number of murders that remains one of the only times Craig has feared a client.
Nearly 50 years on, Craig is a leading criminal defence lawyer in Adelaide and has famously acted for convicted NCA bomber Domenic Perre, James Miller of the Truro Murders and in the criminal case against alleged Ukranian war criminal, Ivan Polyukhovich.
Craig represented Polyukhovich who was residing in South Australia when he was charged for allegedly being a guard at the time that over 800 Jews were massacred in a German-occupied Seniki.
The case ultimately came down to the question of a suit or a tudor? as allegations erupted over what Polyukhovich was wearing at witness Fyodor Polyukovich’s wedding.
Being polite, professional and respectable has gone a long way when people convicted of the most heinous crimes or with fearsome representations step into Craig’s office.
To switch off, Craig goes home to his wonderful wife. Every night, with a glass of red in hand, he will read for as little as five minutes or as long as an hour.
