About

Don was admitted as a lawyer in WA in February 2016. He is principal (sole practitioner) of Smart Legal WA and also consultant to other WA law firms. He has over 49 years experience in law and the legal profession (individually and not collectively) and teams with other experienced lawyers in Perth to offer a wide range of professional legal services.

Don is admitted as a Lawyer in the Supreme Court Western Australia and also admitted to practice in the High Court Australia and Australian Federal Courts. He is still on the roll of Advocates in South Africa (non-practising).

Don started his legal career in 1973, initially as a prosecutor in the District and Regional Courts and also as a magistrate. He was in-house corporate counsel for the AA of South Africa (managing director AA Legal Services), Managing Director and in-house counsel for Lawcall (a national legal call centre service provider company) and became an advocate of the High Court of South Africa in 2000.

Don specialised in Motor Law in South Africa and was author of Guide to Motor Law published by Lexis Nexis. He was also a member of the Motor Sport Council of South Africa and was representative on the Legal Commission of the FIA / AIT and was appointed to chair international research into no fault liability systems for the Legal Commission.

Don established a national call centre legal advice and assistance company in South Africa in the mid 1990’s Lawcall that provided legal services to over 3 million users and facilitated access to lawyers nationally, also providing funding for access to lawyers for underprivileged and indigenous persons in remote areas in conjunction with the then provincial Law Societies, The Black Lawyers Association and National Association of Democratic Lawyers. This call centre company Lawcall, owned by Don, was later acquired by an international personal assistance and insurance company, Europe Assistance based in France. Clients included 2 of the 3 major South African banks (Standard and FNB) and two of the largest life insurers (Sanlam and Old Mutual).

He was also founder of another legal call centre company, Motor Law SA (still in business), and a founding member and co-owner of a security electronic response company that now employs over 1300 staff.

In 2004 Don was consulted by First National Bank (FNB) Insurance on the setting up of a legal cost insurance for FNB. Don wrote the initial product / policy wording for FNB Insurance, did the viability study, and advised FNB on the call center operations and claims management. The legal cost insurance product was aptly named “Law-on-Call” (after Don’s company Lawcall), and became a highly successful product within the FNB group and is still.

He was also a part time lecturer in Commercial / Company Law at the Wits Technicon in South Africa.

He was one of 3 nominees for 2 years and was later the recipient of a national award for the protection of consumer rights awarded by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

Don started his working career as a police officer in 1969, and in 1972 after resigning he remained active in the Reserve Police until 1980 as sergeant and responsible for the Northern Free State reserve police in Sasolburg. His training and experience in forensic and investigative techniques provided him with a valuable foundation as lawyer.

Don has a keen interest in Construction and Building Law and he has assisted a wide range of builders as well as small to large developers in South Africa and Australia.

Languages: English and Afrikaans