Donald Dinnie

Director
Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa Inc

Johannesburg
South Africa
T:+27 11 685 8847
Johannesburg
South Africa
T:+27 11 685 8847
Donald Dinnie

Donald Dinnie

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Biography

Donald is a senior litigation lawyer practicing in insurance and reinsurance law.

He is highly regarded in the industry for his disputes and coverage work in insurance and reinsurance and medical malpractice and healthcare disputes.

He has over 32 years' experience in insurance and reinsurance litigation in South Africa, and regularly advises the major short-term insurers and reinsurers in South Africa.  He also advised Lloyds and Lloyd's syndicates and international reinsurers.

His insurance law specialisation includes regulatory work and complex disputes and coverage with respect to subrogated defences and recoveries and defence work for insurers and reinsurers regarding policy response, interpretation and wording.

Donald was previously the Managing Director, then CEO of Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa and before that head of the Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa's Disputes Group before leaving to join the Natmed Group as their CEO.

He is recognised as the 2024 Edition “Lawyer of the Year” in Insurance Law in Johannesburg, in the Best Lawyers in South Africa.    He is also again listed in Best Lawyers in South Africa 2024 for his expertise in insurance law and litigation.  He is consistently listed in, amongst others, Who's Who; Insurance and Reinsurance as a leading insurance and reinsurance practitioner; Legal 500 as a leading disputes practitioner; and Chambers Global.  He was recognised as Insurance Lawyer of the Year 2015 by Best Lawyers in South Africa. 

Donald is a knowledge resource to our insurance and medical law clients.  In providing ongoing support to the insurance and healthcare industries, he frequently publishes and lectures on all aspects of insurance, reinsurance and medical law. Donald is a regular blogger on insurance law issues in the Financial Institutions Legal Snapshot.

He devised and implemented the Big Read Book Series. He has championed many of the insurance practices' industry events.

In 2020 Donald was elected an Honorary Member of the Institute of Loss Adjusters of Southern Africa in recognition of services rendered to the Institute.

In 2021 Donald became a non-executive director of the Insurance Institute of South Africa.

Donald obtained his BA LLB and HDip Company Law from the University of the Witwatersrand, and CML from Unisa/UP.  He is a member of the Law Societies of the Northern Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, and Cape Province.

He has acted as a Commissioner of the Small Court for over 20 years.

Professional experience

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  • BA LLB and HDip Company Law from the University of the Witwatersrand
  • CML from Unisa/UP
  • Attorney, qualified in South Africa

  • Acted for insurers since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic and continue to do so in respect of extremely complex coverage issues arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and claims under various business interruption insurance and related reinsurance matters. That also involves assisting the clients in various high court litigation around the country regarding the business interruption claims.

  • Advisers Sasria and other insurers on coverage and claim issues arising from the July 2021 riots and looting.

  • Currently (and regularly) acting for insurers in a number of large fire recovery claims.

  • In Chambers Global 2018 Donald was listed as the sole eminent practitioner for dispute resolution, with the comment "Donald Dinnie maintains an impressive reputation in this sector for his depth of experience in a range of contentious disputes. He is particularly well regarded for his work in reinsurance and insurance."

  • In 2020 Donald was elected an Honorary Member of the Institute of Loss Adjusters of Southern Africa in recognition of services rendered to the Institute.He is listed in Best Lawyers 2023 for insurance and litigation (for the 15th year).

  • He is ranked Band 2 in Insurance by Chambers & Partners 2023.

Donald's articles and presentations on health law and medical law issues including medical malpractice defence number in the 100s. They can be viewed by searching inter alia Daily Maverick, Medical Brief, Med Brief, Cover, Risk Africa, Insurance Gateway and FA News, Norton Rose Fulbright Financial Institutions blog (https://www.financialinstitutionslegalsnapshot.com/category/insurance/)

In 2019, Donald was instrumental in pioneering the introduction of the industry's first Big Read Book series.  The Big Read Book series allows for an innovative basis for information sharing with the insurance industry and for training.

In 2020, the Comic Book edition of The Big Read Book series was developed to convey serious information in an innovative manner, resulting in a final product that is very out of the ordinary for a law firm.

The Big Read Book Series Volume 1:  A collection of South African insurance judgments of 2018

The Big Read Book Series Volume 4: A collection of South African insurance judgments of 2019

  • Donald is a knowledge resource to our insurance and medical law clients.  In providing ongoing support to the insurance and healthcare industries, he frequently publishes and lectures on all aspects of insurance, reinsurance and medical law.
  • English
  • Afrikaans

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