Annabel Cresswell and Sumudu Thode also share what they’re looking forward to in 2025
Criminal Bar Association Vice Presidents Annabel Cresswell and Sumudu Thode have talked in detail about their That’s Just Criminal podcast in recent weeks. In the final part of this interview, they get personal and tell NZ Lawyer why they chose to get into criminal law.
Can both of you kind of tell me a little about what you do outside of the Criminal Bar?
Thode: I'm the principal of Thode Utting Barristers & Solicitors. We are based in Albany and Auckland, and also an office in Whangarei. We started in 2012, about 12 years ago.
Cresswell: I have a chambers with a group of barristers (Pohutukawa Chambers). Myself and two colleagues set that up last year. I do a lot of work in Auckland and Rotorua.
What do you both do as VPs of the Criminal Bar?
Cresswell: We mainly support the president to make decisions on what issues we support. We deal with the media, and we look at issues that arise for the members of the Criminal Bar Association, such as problems we're having in court, with access to prisoners, that sort of thing.
We help the president hold a committee meeting once a week where people are given different jobs to do to help make people's lives at the bar a little bit easier.
Thode: And we also look at any legislative or policy changes that are coming up; basically anything that involves criminal lawyers whether they're defense lawyers or prosecutors, anything that impacts our clients as well in court. We have the opportunity to help in any way that we can.
Why did you decide to get into criminal law?
Cresswell: I always had this feeling like the worst thing in the world was to be accused of something you didn't do. And I also grew up in an area where there was a lot of poverty and problems in the 80s, and I wanted to be a voice for the underprivileged people that couldn't advocate for themselves.
Thode: Going through law school, I felt like criminal law was where I could make the most difference in somebody else's life.
Was there a particular matter or a case that you were involved in that was particularly memorable to you?
Cresswell: Every single case is different and ingrains itself on you in different ways. So I guess the first few cases that you ever do in front of a jury will always be the ones that stick with you the most because it really hits home. It's such a formal environment, you've such a big job on your shoulders, you realise the impact of the job that you have to do, especially running these trials.
Thode: Yeah, I agree with Annabel – I think different cases stick with you for different reasons. It could be the outcome, whether that's good or bad. It could be just the client or the relationships you have, the evidence, a point of law, something funny, something good, something bad.
Aside from the podcast, what are both of you looking forward to in 2025?
Thode: I'm just looking forward to a bit of a break. Both Annabel and I have really busy jury trial calendars; I've got jury trials until the end of next year, I think, going into 2026 booked in already. So life kind of revolves around those trials.
Cresswell: Holidays to relieve the stress. It's work hard, play hard – and you just look forward to the play hard.
Annabel, what are your plans for the holidays?
Cresswell: For the holidays, I'll be relaxing, and then I'm taking my kids on a Disney cruise at the end of the year. Quite looking forward to that.
We had a family trip planned to New Caledonia earlier in the year, and it got cancelled because of the crisis over there. So as soon as we're allowed to go back to New Caledonia, I'm going to rebook those tickets and go chill there on a beach, practice my French.
Are any myths about criminal law that you want to debunk?
Thode: Two come to mind that are not so much myths, but questions will get asked. The first one is, how do you defend guilty people? I mean, honestly, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that…
The other one, which is a bit close to home, is people think that we don't get impacted by the cases that we deal with. And that's not true. Criminal lawyers are still humans, and we do get impacted by the cases. For me, cases involving kids, especially if they're kids around my kids’ ages – those are hard to deal with. But the public only really seed what's reported in the media, and just the fact that we're defending somebody who's alleged to have done these horrible things…there just seems to be a perception that we don't take things to heart, which is not true.