Rupert Reed

Practice Overview

Rupert has a wide-ranging commercial practice as advisor and advocate with particular emphasis in company and commercial law and in property law.

Much of his property litigation work concerns commercial agreements arising in the business of property investment funds or relating to the transfer, development and management of commercial property.

He also undertakes professional liability work, both claimant and defendant, across the range of professional expertise covered by his practice, with a particular focus on lawyers, IFAs, accountants, company directors, and pension and property professionals.

He is fluent in French and part of his work requires a familiarity with French documents and Civil Legal systems.  He also speaks Arabic and is registered, and has appeared, as an advocate in the Courts of the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC), and regularly advises clients in the DIFC.

He is frequently led by Queen's Counsel from within and out of Wilberforce Chambers in particular in company and commercial cases.

Professional Reputation

Rupert is recommended as one of the ‘Leaders in their Field' both in Real Estate Litigation and in Chancery Commercial in Chambers & Partners UK Bar 2012.

He is listed as a Leading Junior in Property and Real Estate Litigation in both Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners UK Bar and as being a 'Legal Expert' in the property field by Legal Week.  Comments include:

• he ‘enters the rankings this year on the strength of a broad and thriving chancery practice, which focuses on the construction and enforcement of contracts' (Chambers & Partners UK Bar, 2012).

• ‘Admirers say he has a "good style about him in court"' (Chambers & Partners UK Bar, 2012).

• ‘very user-friendly and gives sensible, practical advice' (Chambers & Partners UK Bar, 2012).

• one who ‘impresses solicitors, who say he is"quite a star in terms of the quality of his work and his responsiveness"[and] ...assists big-name silks' in major cases (Chambers UK Bar, 2011).
  
  
• "definitely one to watch" (Legal 500, 2009).

• '...a first-class junior who gives "sound practical advice"' (Legal 500, 2008).

Comments from clients include the following:

‘Mike Tennet QC and Rupert Reed delivered a highly successful outcome for Prudential in the cae heard before the High Court in February 2011...  Throughout the process, the thing I would emphasise most was their single-minded focus on what it would take to win the case, and their rigour in concentrating on every single aspect necessary for the complete presentation of the best case.'  Andrew Jones, formerly Director of Reward and Employee Relations, the Prudential. 

‘I would like to express my deepest thanks, gratitude and appreciation to you, for the professional and successful handling of my case.  I have rarely encountered the level of professionalism, thoroughness and high technical abilities that I did in this case with you.' Bisher al-Barazi, formerly Managing Director of DIFC Investments LLC.

Qualifications & Appointments

BA Hons (First Class with Distinction) History and Modern Languages, Oxford.

MA Hons (Double First) Law, Cambridge.

LLM Harvard.

Scholar of Lincoln College, Oxford, and Downing College, Cambridge.

Kennedy Scholar at the Harvard Law School.

Hardwicke, Mansfield and Cassel Scholar of Lincoln's Inn.

1995-1996: Taught Contract, Company and EU Law at LSE and UCL

1996: Called to the Bar

1999: Called to the Bar of the Cayman Islands

2000-2005: Attorney General's C Panel of Treasury Counsel

2009: Registered as Advocate before the DIFC Courts

Memberships

• Chancery Bar Association (ChBA)
• Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR)
• Financial Services Lawyers Association (FSLA)

Publications

Derivative Claims, (2000) 21 Company Lawyer 156-160, cited in Konamaneni v. Rolls-Royce [2002] 1 All ER 979; [2002] BCLC 336, by the Court of Session in In the Petition of Wishart [2009] CSOH 20 and in leading texts.

The Meaning of ‘the Working Classes' (with Sam Millar, then of Jones Day) (2003) 114 Property Law Journal 14-17

Company directors: collective or functional responsibility, (2006) 27 Company Lawyer 170-178