Rupert Reed

Professional Liability CV

Rupert acts in professional liability cases for both claimants and defendant insurers. These cases extend across the range of his practice, with particular emphasis on solicitors, accountants, tax advisers, IFAs, company directors and property and pension professionals. He believes strongly that success in these cases comes from defining the issues in carefully drafted initial pleadings.  

Recent/notable cases include:

• With John Wardell QC, acting for Alex Langsam in the trial over four weeks before Roth J of his action in suing his former solicitors for £3 million for failing adequately to advise him in respect of the value of an earlier claim against his former accountants and for advising him to settle the latter claim for an inadequate amount: Langsam v. Beachcroft LLP [2011] EWHC 1451 (Ch).
  
  
• Acting for the insurer of a firm of solicitors defending professional negligence claims arising out of the solicitors' alleged failure to ensure that shares purportedly charged as security for a substantial loan transaction were first transferred to the relevant chargor, raising issues as to the effect of the charge, and the contributory negligence of the Claimant and subsequent failure to mitigate its loss (Clack v. Wrigleys Solicitors LLP [2011]).
  
  
• Acting for a Northern firm of surveyors in pursuing a professional negligence claim against a firm of solicitors in respect of its failure to transfer various properties from the Claimants' SIPPs into an Exempt Property Unit Trust (EPUT) and to issue or transfer the relevant units to new SIPP trustees in time for the Claimants to acquire further property to be held in the EPUT before A-day in 2006 (Lamont Commercial Ltd v. Hall Smith Whittingham [2011]).
  
  
• Acting for various City professionals and professional football players in suing certain IFAs for negligent advice in recommending investment in substantial sums in film finance schemes based in the Channel Islands said to be of low risk when they were in fact aggressive high-risk, tax avoidance schemes challenged by the HM Revenue & Customs (Comer & Ors v. Zurich Advice Network Ltd & Anor [2009]; Babb v. Grew Financial Services Ltd [2009]).
  
  
• Acting for insurers defending vendor's solicitors from claims for damages of £11 million arising out of an admitted error in drafting the contract of sale so that the vendor was required to give possession free of an electricity sub-station (Regional Investments (Guildford) Ltd v. Lawrence Stephens [2009]).
  
  
• With Michael Tennet QC, successfully defending claims of negligence made against a leading firm of solicitors in respect of claims that it had negligently failed, in carrying out a review of statutory requirements for scheme trustees, to advise them that fluctuating emoluments had been included within ‘pensionable salary' (Kentucky Fried Chicken (GB) Ltd & Ors v. Mercer Ltd & Ors [2009]).
  
  
• Successfully acting for insurers of a firm of solicitors in the North East in defending claims by a Newcastle property developer that it had negligently failed to convey certain properties so as to expose him to an increased liability to inheritance tax in circumstances where his alleged instructions may have been a fraud on the IR (Stainton & Ors v. Housemans [2009]).
  
  
• Acting for the beneficial owner of a property in London N16 in suing the solicitors who purported to act for his mother in a fraudulent disposition of the property and then for him and the defendant in further transactions made without his consent (Kopfstein v. (1) Ziffer (2) Bernstein (3) Bank of Scotland plc (4) Bude Nathan Iwanier [2009]).
  
  
• Successfully resisting strike-out on limitation and obtaining substantial damages for private clients suing their former accountants, PKF, for negligent failure to advise on a CGT issue arising in the renovation of a historic industrial property (Cooper & Anor v. Pannell Kerr Forster [2008]).
  
  
• Led by Alan Steinfeld QC, successfully defending a Magic Circle firm of solicitors against claims that its Paris office had acted negligently in failing to lodge proof of debts in time as part of the international liquidation of a global telecommunications company (Teleglobe (in administration) v. Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer [2007]).