Practice Experience

• Benjamine Reid represents a diverse domestic and foreign corporate clientele in commercial, environmental, and product liability litigation. A substantial portion of his practice is represented by class action litigation.
• Mr. Reid has extensive jury trial and appellate experience in both state and federal courts. He manages litigation for clients on a regional and national basis. Mr. Reid has handled litigation in more than twenty states.
• Mr. Reid was lead counsel for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in one of the longest jury trials in American jurisprudence. Engle v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et. al. was a smoking and health class action that was tried to a jury in Miami, Florida for over two years.
• Mr. Reid’s cases established the rule that economic loss is not recoverable by the use of tort theories in the Florida Supreme Court (Florida Power & Light Company v. Westinghouse Electric Corp.) and the applicability of contributory negligence to products liability claims in the Alabama Supreme Court (Campbell v. Eaton Corporation).
• Mr. Reid also represented the South Florida Water Management District for more than ten years in litigation and administrative actions dealing with the Everglades clean-up project.
• Mr. Reid is Chair of the Board of Directors of Carlton Fields.
    
  
  • Selected trial and appellate matters

Professional and Civic Activities

• Fellow, American Bar Foundation
• American Bar Association
  • Co-Managing Director
  • Council
  • Co-Chair Miami Annual Meeting
  • Advisory Committee on Nominations
  • Chair – Task Force on the Judiciary
  • Co-Chair – Civil Justice Institute
  • Task Force – Civil Trial Standards
  • Chair – Products Liability Committee
  • Co-Chair of the Legal Services Training Committee
• American Board of Trial Advocates
• Florida Justice Institute
  • Director
• Product Liability Advisory Council
  • Director
  • Co-Chair Action Group
• BNA Class Action Litigation Reporter
  • Board of Advisors
• BNA Product & Safety Liability Reporter
  • Board of Advisors
• Governor’s Council for Sustainable Florida
  • Executive Committee
  • Board of Directors
• Faculty Member
  • Trial Practice seminar for US attorneys and UK barristers at Wadham College in Oxford University
  • Clifford Symposium on Tort Law at DePaul College of Law
  • ABA National Institute on Class Actions
  • ABA National Institute on Automotive Products Liability
  • Mid-Year Meeting at ABA Products, Environmental and Mass Tort Committees

Current Organizations

• Orange Bowl Committee
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Board of Visitors
  • Director – Arts & Sciences Foundation
  • Director – General Alumni Association
  • Board of Advisors – Educational Foundation (Rams Club)
  • Carolina First $2 Billion Capital Campaign National Committee
  • National Development Council
  • Chancellor’s Club
• Episcopal Charities
  • Chair
  • Executive Committee
• Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida
  • Vice-Chancellor
  • Standing Committee
  • Executive Board
• Friends of WLRN Public Radio
  • Vice-Chair
  • Board of Directors
  • Founding Member – Circle of Friends
• Two Hundred Club of Greater Miami

Former Organizations

• Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce
  • Vice-Chair & Executive Committee Member
  • Education Committee Chair
• Leadership Miami
  • Chair & Executive Committee Member
• Dade Public Education Fund
  • Chair
• Florida International University Council of 100
  • Chair
  • Founding Member
• Dade Heritage Trust
  • Treasurer and Board Member
• Historical Association of Southern Florida
  • Board of Directors
• Trinity Episcopal School
  • Board of Directors
• St. Philip’s Episcopal Church
  • Senior Warden
  • Vestry Member
  • Chair - $1 Million Capital Campaign

Professional Recognition

• AV rated by Martindale Hubbell
• Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi
• Recognized as one of “The Most Effective Lawyers” in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties by Daily Business Review
• Listed in Chambers USA Guide to America's Leading Business Lawyers (General Commercial and Appellate Litigation)
• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Mass Tort Litigation, Medical Malpractice Law, Personal Injury Litigation, and Product Liability Litigation)
• Who's Who in America
• Who's Who in American Law
• Recognized by the Florida Supreme Court and 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for representation of a death row inmate.
• Listed in Florida Trend magazine's Florida Legal Elite
• Selected for inclusion in Florida Super Lawyers
• Presented the Pinnacle Award from the Church of the Incarnation in Miami’s Liberty City
• Listed as a Top Lawyer in South Florida Legal Guide (2009-2010)
• Recipient of the Thomas W. Watkins Humanitarian Award

BAR ADMISSIONS

• Florida
• Georgia

COURT ADMISSIONS

• Florida State Courts
• United States Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida

Education

• University of Georgia School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 1974)
  Senior Editor and Editorial Board, Georgia Law Review
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A., 1971)