James S. Reed has over 23 years of experience representing individuals and businesses in civil litigation matters. Mr. Reed has been listed as a top trial lawyer in Los Angeles by Pasadena Magazine. He has represented clients in state trial courts throughout Southern and Northern California as well as Illinois, New York, Nevada, Massachusetts, Maryland, Arizona, the California Courts of Appeal, United States District Courts in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Sacramento and New York, United States Bankruptcy Courts in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Nevada and Alaska. He has been listed as a top trial lawyer in Los Angeles by Pasadena Magazine. He is a member of the bar in both California and Illinois.
Mr. Reed is a 1992 graduate of UCLA School of Law and a 1986 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He graduated with academic honors from Notre Dame, where he obtained his bachelor in business administration degree with a major in accounting from the Mendoza College of Business, currently ranked as the number one undergraduate business program in the United States by many publications. Mr. Reed was also recognized by the University of Notre Dame as a Notre Dame Scholar, a prestigious award conferred upon only the top 1% of students admitted at Notre Dame.
After graduation from Notre Dame, Mr. Reed first worked as an accountant for top-end accounting firm Arthur Andersen in Chicago and New Jersey where he participated in the audits of banks, manufacturers, casinos, and investment companies such as First Chicago Bank and Trust, MM Mars Candies, Nuveen Investments, Dynamit Nobel of America and Adler Royal. Thereafter, he moved to California and joined Western Waste Industries, one of California’s largest waste management companies and a California Fortune 100 company where he worked as an assistant controller in the Los Angeles division – the largest division of the company and their corporate headquarters. He was subsequently promoted to controller of the Los Angeles Division at the age of 24.
Beginning while still a law student, Mr. Reed worked as an associate at a prominent Los Angeles personal injury law firm where he worked primarily on catastrophic personal injury and business litigation cases, obtaining numerous multi-million dollar settlements. In addition, Mr. Reed was co-counsel in the trial of Batfilm Productions v. Warner Bros., a landmark Hollywood “net profits” case involving the Batman motion pictures. This lengthy trial was a leading story in Los Angeles and in the motion picture industry.
Thereafter, Mr. Reed joined the national law firm of Biegel & Sandler where he joined Mr. White in working on numerous complex business and securities litigation matters, including class and mass actions. Mr. Reed headed up the firm’s participation in the Breast Implant litigation, a national billion dollar class action. In addition, Mr. Reed was responsible for representation of more than 200 individuals in the prosecution of a mass action business tort claim against Walter J. Hoyt & Sons cattle partnerships and obtained a $20 million dollar judgment in that matter.
In 1997, Mr. Reed and Mr. White left Beigel & Sandler to form White & Reed LLP where they have successfully practiced together for nearly 20 years representing individuals and businesses in all areas of civil trial litigation in state and federal courts, administrative forums and arbitration.
During that time, Mr. Reed and Mr. White have obtained more than $100,000,000 in settlements and verdicts for their clients in business litigation, wrongful death, personal injury and product liability cases, sexual assault and abuse cases, environmental and toxic tort matters, intellectual property cases, civil rights cases, and labor and employment cases, including wrongful termination and discrimination actions. Mr. Reed has prosecuted more than 20 actions that have resulted in multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements.