Norton Rose Fulbright scoops award for innovative insurance comic book

Donald Dinnie, Director at Norton Rose Fulbright SA

At a virtual awards ceremony on Friday November 13, 2020, Norton Rose Fulbright in South Africa was recognized by the Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) for leaping out of the proverbial box with an innovative ‘first-in-industry’ comic book, developed to inform clients about avoidance and cancellation of non-life insurance policies.

Launched in 2019, The Big Read Book series was developed when our insurance practice noted a sparsity of judgements in an industry that generates millions of insurance transactions every year and hundreds and thousands of claims.

Donald Dinnie, a Director at Norton Rose Fulbright SA who is known in the industry for his unconventional approach, is the brainchild behind the series. Donald comments: “The series includes the following volumes that make up the set - Volume 1 of the series contained a collection of South African insurance judgments from 2018. Volume 2 contains information on the avoidance and cancellation of Non-Life Insurance Policies and is a pre-curser to the comic book edition (Volume 5). Volume 3 is a guide to indemnity and reinstatement value conditions, with volume 4 housing a collection of South African insurance judgements from 2019.”

The comic book was developed to convey serious information in an approachable way, resulting in a final product that is somewhat out of the ordinary for a law firm. “We hired the services of a well-known comic artist, Dennis Havenga, who created the front-page illustrations for COVER magazine for a number of years. Some of my colleagues thought this approach was too far off track in the beginning, but it has prompted easier discussion with our clients; it contains caricatures of our insurance directors, and a light-hearted platform from which to introduce the team. The books, a product of the expertise and knowledge of the 50-strong NRFSA insurance team, provide an easy ready resource for training, which has drawn an overwhelmingly positive response from clients.

This project took many months to finalize and produce, so we’re delighted to have won this award in the category of: Industry Specific Risk Initiative. Thank you to the IRMSA for acknowledging us and recognizing us,” concludes Dinnie.