Andrew W. McKenna

About Andrew W. McKenna

When a doctor, psychologist or physiotherapist is sued for malpractice, faces a college complaint or gets caught up in a hospital privileges dispute, Andrew W. McKenna is the kind of lawyer who steps in. Andrew is a partner in Gowling WLG's Professional Liability Department in Ottawa and has spent more than twenty years acting for regulated health professionals. Andrew co-leads the Canadian Medical Protective Association's Ottawa Provincial Counsel Team, and that CMPA work covers physicians in both Ontario and Nunavut.

Called to the Ontario bar in 2002 and to Nunavut's a year later, Andrew became a partner at Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP in 2008. The workload divides down the middle: half civil litigation, half regulatory compliance. Andrew also looks after solicitors' negligence files and errors and omissions matters for the firm's Ottawa office.

Physicians aren't the only clients. Insurers and their broker bring Andrew in as exclusive or preferred counsel for social workers, optometrists, dental hygienists, speech pathologists and other health professions. On top of that, Andrew oversees national pro bono hotlines that serve members of 16 regulated health professional associations and take more than 1,500 professional liability calls a year.

Andrew sits on the Counsel Roundtable of the Ontario Health Professions Discipline Tribunal and earlier served on the Practice Advisory Group of the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal. Teaching is a steady thread as well: Andrew once taught trial advocacy at the University of Ottawa's law faculty, speaks often at medical-legal education programs, and helps with Gowling WLG's continuing legal education work and its student program.