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Advocate Diane Margaret Davis SC

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  • Advocate Diane Margaret Davis SC
Adv D M Davis SC_6720

Capacity: Advocate
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White
Date of Birth: April 1965
Qualifications: BA (1985) LLB (1987)(UCT)(Magna CumLaude)

 

Key Judgments:

Candidate Bio | Updated March 2026:

Advocate Diane Davis is an Advocate at the Cape Bar.

Born in 1965 in Umtata, Eastern Cape, Diane Margaret Davis matriculated with an A aggregate before attending the University of Cape Town. She obtained her BA in 1985 and an LLB (Magna Cum Laude) in 1987. Following her graduation, she served as a research assistant to Professor Reinhard Zimmerman at the University of Regensburg in Germany, assisting with the seminal work The Law of Obligations. She furthered her studies at the University of Toronto, focusing on administrative law and alternative approaches to legal scholarship.

Davis began her practical legal career in 1989 as a candidate attorney at Mallinick, Ress, Richman and Closenberg Inc. She was admitted as an attorney in 1991 and subsequently as an advocate in 1994, joining the Cape Bar. Over nearly three decades of practice, she specialised in administrative, constitutional, and insolvency law. In 2018, she received her letters patent formally conferring her with Senior Counsel (Silk) status. Notably, she was a key figure in reforming the silk application process, advocating for diversity in the senior ranks and the recognition of a broader range of legal competencies.

As an acting judge in the Western Cape High Court, Davis has demonstrated a profound commitment to constitutional values and human dignity. In the landmark criminal appeal of Kruse v S, she highlighted the “grave danger” of excluding hearing-impaired accused persons from meaningful participation in their trials. At the beginning of his trial in the magistrates’ court, the accused had indicated that he was deaf and that he could not understand the sign language interpreter effectively. The magistrate directed that communication with the accused take place in writing, which Davis found was not in the best interests of justice. She ruled that judicial officers have a duty to ensure effective communication through expert assessment and qualified interpreters, characterising a trial without such measures as “bordering on the farcical”.

Davis held that the appeal “highlights the need for judicial sensitivity and vigilance in criminal proceedings involving an accused with impaired hearing and speech, as well as the duty of judicial officers to treat all persons who come before court with due respect for their dignity.”

Her commitment to access to justice is further evidenced by her extensive pro bono work, representing financially distressed litigants in human rights cases involving the right to adequate housing and prison oversight.

Adv Davis has also presided over a wide range of complex commercial and civil matters when acting at the Western Cape High Court. In Alderbaran (Pty) Ltd v Bouwer, she addressed the “potential for abuse” of business rescue remedies, setting aside a resolution that had been adopted primarily as a tactic to delay the enforcement of a judgment debt.

In TC v SC, Davis explored the High Court’s inherent jurisdiction as the upper guardian of minors. She clarified that while a court cannot impose a facilitator on non-consenting parents to make primary care decisions, it can appoint a parenting coordinator to supervise the implementation of an existing court-ordered parenting plan to minimise chronic conflict.

In Retmil Financial Services v Sanlam, she refined the law regarding cession in securitatem debiti (cession in security), ruling that a cessionary must act as a bonus paterfamilias (reasonable person) and cannot compromise an insurance claim in total disregard of the cedent’s rights.

Beyond her judgments, Davis has been an active participant in advocacy training at the Cape Bar since 2007, lecturing on insolvency and serving as an examiner for pupils. Her colleagues describe her as a “capable, responsible, hardworking” practitioner with the utmost integrity. Her judicial temperament is noted as rational and authoritative, qualities that have established her as a well-respected figure within the legal profession.

Davis has experience in arbitration and has been a member of the General Commercial Panel of Arbitrators at the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa from 2006 to the present and a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (United Kingdom) from 2008 to 2017. She was also an accredited mediator at the Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement (2010 – 2011) and a member of the Law Society of England and Wales from 2009 onwards.

April 2026 JSC Interview:

After deliberations, the Judicial Service Commission has recommended Adv Diane Davis SC for appointment to the Western Cape High Court.

 

October 2019 Interview:

October 2019 Interview Synopsis:

The issue of racism at the Cape Bar and Bench is a perennial issue, and Judge President Hlophe opened the batting in the JSC interview of Adv Davis with a question around racism in the profession and at the Cape Bar. Davis was firmly in the affirmative, and referred to the ongoing issue of skewed briefing patterns creating pockets of experience at the bar, with women and black women not being as extensively briefed.

Mr Sigogo, the BLA representative asked Davis about an investigation she ran into allegations that the superintendent at a school’s boarding house had made racially offensive comments towards black learners and had emotionally and sexually abused them. He found it odd that she had cleared the superintendent of the charges, and yet found that changes should be made.

Davis has indeed cleared the superintendent of sexual assault or harassment‚ emotional abuse‚ theft‚ hate speech‚ racial discrimination or unlawful breaches of confidentiality or privacy. She explained to the commission that the superintendant “just didn’t have a clue about sensitivity” and she was a person “who had no ill will but she had no sensitivity”.

However she did find that the learners had legitimate complaints about inconsistent treatment based on race and the lack of a uniform set of rules and disciplinary code.

Fifty-four year-old Davis holds a BA (1985) and LLB (Magna cum laude, 1987) from the University of Cape Town. She worked as an attorney before joining the Bar in 1994 and took silk in March 2018.

October 2019 Interview:

October 2019 Interview Synopsis:

The issue of racism at the Cape Bar and Bench is a perennial issue, and Judge President Hlophe opened the batting in the JSC interview of Adv Davis with a question around racism in the profession and at the Cape Bar. Davis was firmly in the affirmative, and referred to the ongoing issue of skewed briefing patterns creating pockets of experience at the bar, with women and black women not being as extensively briefed.

Mr Sigogo, the BLA representative asked Davis about an investigation she ran into allegations that the superintendent at a school’s boarding house had made racially offensive comments towards black learners and had emotionally and sexually abused them. He found it odd that she had cleared the superintendent of the charges, and yet found that changes should be made.

Davis has indeed cleared the superintendent of sexual assault or harassment‚ emotional abuse‚ theft‚ hate speech‚ racial discrimination or unlawful breaches of confidentiality or privacy. She explained to the commission that the superintendant “just didn’t have a clue about sensitivity” and she was a person “who had no ill will but she had no sensitivity”.

However she did find that the learners had legitimate complaints about inconsistent treatment based on race and the lack of a uniform set of rules and disciplinary code.

Fifty-four year-old Davis holds a BA (1985) and LLB (Magna cum laude, 1987) from the University of Cape Town. She worked as an attorney before joining the Bar in 1994 and took silk in March 2018.