Tributes have started trickling in for renowned lawyer Dinker Amritlal Raval who died on Saturday and has been described as a “great inspirer” to the legal profession and also “a great human being” in general.
Raval was, until his death in South Africa, a Senior Counsel (SC) at the Malawi Bar, senior partner at a private law firm Wilson & Morgan and also a trustee of Dossani Trust.
Malawi Law Society (MLS) secretary Khumbo Soko yesterday said Raval belonged to the class of the very best in the legal profession.
“Many who worked and were mentored by him will attest to his professional rectitude and his unassuming character,” said Soko, adding that Raval’s death was a great loss to the legal fraternity.
Raval, as a trustee of a charitable organisation Dossani Trust, has also been immensely remembered for his selfless cause towards charity.
Nation Publications Limited (NPL) chief executive officer Mbumba Banda said through Raval, Dossani Trust has been an anchor of NPL’s annual Mother’s Fun Run since 2006, accounting for the highest contribution of all organisations overall to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.
Banda, who described Raval as ‘first and foremost a great human being’, said she received news of his death with ‘deep sadness’.
She said: “A man so humble and easy to approach and to work with. A man with a heart for the people. The NPL family mourns him as a person and also as a trustee of Dossani Trust. We shall always remember him fondly. We have learnt a lot from him.”
Raval’s colleague at Wilson & Morgan, Arthur Msowoya, said he will remember him as “a stellar giant of the legal profession through whose hands many successful lawyers have passed and a very successful family man”.
Raval was born in Blantyre on December 5 1935. He qualified as a barrister in 1960 in England and joined Wilson & Morgan in 1961 and he never changed jobs. He became a partner in the firm in 1988 and was conferred the honour of SC in 2004.
He is survived by two sons—Dhaval and Manan—currently resident in the United States of America.
His body is expected to be flown into Blantyre on Wednesday, but the programme for the funeral service and cremation will be communicated in due course.
