Douglas Shaw: Formidable advocate and legal mind
1926-2013
DOUGLAS Shaw, who has died at the age of 87, was one of South Africa’s most formidable advocates and the last practising QC (queen’s counsel) in the country.
He took silk in 1959 at the age of 33 and practised until a month before his death of a brain tumour. His name appeared in the Law Reports more often than that of any other lawyer or judge in South Africa.
Shaw was regarded as the father of shipping law in the country. He drafted a number of acts of parliament that put South Africa at the forefront of international maritime law.
But his mastery of every other field of law, including tax law, municipal law, the law of contracts and insurance law, was unrivalled. He defended murderers as well, but was less interested in criminal law.
As chairman of the General Council of the Bar of South Africa, Shaw controversially supported an application of the Johannesburg Bar Council to have Bram Fischer, himself a QC who defended Nelson Mandela and other Rivonia trialists, struck off the roll for skipping bail after his arrest under the Suppression of Communism Act in 1964.
Fischer was granted bail so that he could attend to a case in London, after undertaking to stand trial on his return. Instead he went underground. When he was struck off the roll, he accused the bar council of doing the government’s dirty work for it.
In a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
He drafted a number of laws that put SA at the forefront of international maritime law
in 1997, Shaw said politics had nothing to do with it. He said he liked and respected Fischer and shared his anti-apartheid — though not his communist views, but argued that Fischer had used his status and standing as an advocate to obtain bail and then broken his word.
It would have reflected badly on the administration of justice if he had been allowed to remain on the roll, said Shaw. After 1994, Fischer was reinstated.
Shaw had a formidable intellect. He was almost as comfortable with Latin and Greek as English. He was not given to boasting, but he did once say that he had made the notoriously austere and intimidating appellate court judge Frans Rumpff laugh, something the former chief justice of South Africa never did if he could help it.
Rumpff disagreed with Shaw in court one day and tried to put him down by quoting part of a Latin maxim.
Shaw promptly quoted the rest of the maxim and showed why he was in fact right and Rumpff wrong. Rumpff saw the funny side.
Shaw’s wit was legendary. One day in court his bib was skew. The judge, wanting to communicate the fact that he did not recognise him because he was not properly dressed, growled: “I do not see counsel for the plaintiff.”
Shaw, a portly man in constant battle with his girth, responded: “My lord, you flatter me.”
He was equally famous for being extremely rude and abrupt. There was an informal club of people he had told in very explicit language to leave his chambers.
He was once asked to give an opinion on prospects for success in an appeal. He sent the folder back marked with an enormous fee. Inside was nothing. The attorney phoned Shaw and asked where the opinion was. Shaw told him it was on the cover. On the cover he had written the letters FUBR, which, he informed the bemused attorney, stood for “f***** up beyond repair”.
Shaw was born in Pietermaritzburg on April 18 1926. He went to Michaelhouse. After matriculating at 16, he lied about his age in order to fight in World War 2. He was posted to Italy.
After three weeks there he spoke Italian so fluently that he was made regimental liaison officer in charge of communicating with the local population. He picked up French and German with equal ease.
After the war, he read law at Cambridge University and came first in the bar exam of England.
Shaw is survived by his second wife, Rachel, two children from his first marriage, which ended in divorce, and three stepchildren. — Chris Barron