Dr Russell Keenan

Dr Russell Keenan is a consultant paediatric haematologist and medico-legal expert witness who was named Medical Negligence Relating to Paediatric Haematology Expert Witness of the Year in the United Kingdom at the 2024 Corporate INTL Global Awards. The recognition reflects both his depth of clinical experience and his established standing in the expert witness community, where he is instructed in cases turning on the specialist care of children with blood disorders.

A consultant paediatric haematologist since 2002, Dr Keenan devoted his clinical career to the National Health Service, working within it for more than three decades, including many years as a consultant. For a substantial part of that time he served as a haemophilia centre director, leading regional clinical and laboratory services for patients with bleeding and blood-clotting disorders. That role placed him at the centre of the specialist care of children with complex haematological conditions, giving him first-hand authority across the field in which he now provides expert opinion, from the diagnosis and treatment of inherited bleeding disorders to the management of childhood blood disease.

Alongside his clinical work, Dr Keenan has built an extensive medico-legal practice spanning well over a decade. He prepares expert reports and gives oral evidence in court, and his instructions have included clinical negligence cases, child protection proceedings and matters touching on all aspects of paediatric haematology. He has provided evidence across the family, civil, criminal and coroner's jurisdictions, and is accredited through the Cardiff University Bond Solon programme, a widely recognised mark of training in the duties and skills of the expert witness. This combination of jurisdictions is unusual and speaks to the versatility that instructing solicitors value.

The role of the expert witness is to assist the court with independent, impartial opinion within their area of expertise, and it demands both clinical authority and the ability to communicate complex medicine clearly and even-handedly. Dr Keenan's long NHS service and courtroom experience allow him to translate difficult haematological questions into balanced opinion that helps judges and the parties who instruct him. Lawyers turn to him where a case turns on the diagnosis, management or outcome of a child's blood disorder and where an authoritative, independent view is required.

Dr Keenan has also worked to improve how expert witnesses are instructed, taking a leading role in an initiative designed to modernise the process and address inefficiencies in traditional instruction models. That contribution to the wider medico-legal system, together with his clinical distinction and record as an expert across multiple jurisdictions, underpins the 2024 award and marks him out as a leading figure in his highly specialised area of expert witness practice. For those litigating cases involving paediatric haematology, he offers a rare combination of long clinical service and seasoned experience of the courts.