Donald Keating

Donald Norman Keating (24 June 19241 August 1995) was a construction lawyer and legal writer. John Uff, writing in The Independent, describes him as "one of the pioneers" in the construction law field.

Lord Dyson, Master of the Rolls, delivering the "Keating Lecture" in 2015, commented that he had served under Keating in many cases, and at times appeared against him. Dyson regretted not asking Keating what had led to his interest in construction law: he noted that both had "started at the bar doing a bit of this and a bit of that".

Keating on Construction Contracts His book Law and Practice of Building Contracts including Architects and Surveyors (1955) is an authoritative work on construction law. It is now known as Keating on Construction Contracts (in previous editions, Keating on Building Contracts).

Kim Franklin, writing in the Architects' Journal, notes, "Before the late Donald Keating QC produced his book on Building Contracts, and the law of tort really took off after Anns v Merton in the late 1970s, there was no such thing as construction law."

His advice that parties to construction contracts "should either use an unamended standard form of contract, or their own homemade contract conditions", but never a combination, has been quoted in case law, where it is noted that "attempt[ing] a mixture of both [is] usually a recipe for disaster".

Personal life Keating married his first wife, Betty Wells, in 1945. She died in 1975; they had two sons and one daughter. He married Kay Blundell-Jones in 1978: they had a son and one stepdaughter (deceased before Keating's death). He died on 1 August 1995.