Outwardly, Mark Reading seems born to inhabit legal London. Always exquisitely tailored, he speaks with authority, humour and a total command of real estate. But inside, he is not immune to the dreaded “impostor syndrome” – confessing to having been, at times during his career, haunted by self-doubt.
“I’m an Essex lad born and bred. The first person in my family to go to university. I didn’t have any kind of business connections. At times I would ask myself, ‘What are you doing here? It’s a fluke. You shouldn’t be here,’” he says.
But whenever he has questioned his place at the table, Reading has always found the answers. He has built a strong reputation as a partner in the real estate dispute resolution group at Mishcon de Reya. His name will be highly familiar to readers of EG’s legal and professional section, to which he is a regular contributor, and his status as an emerging talent led to his inclusion in our Rising Stars of 2017 – recognition that still means a great deal to him, and from which he “took a lot of heart and confidence”.
Now, following a lengthy relationship with the Property Litigation Association, he has taken over for a one-year term as the organisation’s chair, tasked with representing the best interests of some 1,600 of his peers.
Meteoric rise
Reading is in for a busy 12 months. For one thing, he has his caseload to maintain, covering all areas of commercial and residential property law.
Asked for his greatest hits, he lists Minerva (Wandsworth) Ltd v Greenland Ram (London) Ltd, a “highly contested three-week trial in relation to overage payments” in 2017, the high-profile Vivienne Westwood litigation in 2016 and, just last year, obtaining relief from forfeiture on behalf of “Mayfair institution” Hush Brasseries. He had some “skin in the game” as a regular patron and, having helped keep Hush open, had his engagement drinks there earlier this year. That leads to another demand on his time – arranging a wedding, tentatively planned for autumn 2025. And, elsewhere in his personal life, his three sausage dogs, Celine, Daphne and Rupert, keep his hands full. On top of all that, he now adds the responsibilities of PLA chair, having completed his meteoric rise through the ranks.
Reading was encouraged to join Mishcon in 2012 by head of property litigation Daniel Levy, himself a former PLA chair.
“I came over from Nabarro, full of energy and wanting to get involved and prove myself,” Reading says. Together with like-minded peers he created a “junior limb” for members of 10 years or less qualification, and within a year was chair of the Junior PLA. After five years’ involvement, he stepped away shortly before he hit that 10 years since qualification mark, but after a year without involvement he was “dragged back in” by Osborne Clarke partner Gary Lawrenson to join the PLA’s website and marketing committee, going on to take it over when Lawrenson took his turn as PLA chair.
Reading carried out a “complete overhaul and rebrand” of the website, then spent the past 12 months as deputy chair of the association under Maples Teesdale partner Dellah Gilbert. He believes his history with the organisation is an asset: “I’m coming at it with a complete 360-degree overview as to how the association has worked over the past 10 years, where real progress has been made already and those bits where further effort and reflection are required.”
Force for reform
One area in which the PLA performs strongly is law reform, where it is an active participant when it comes to government and Law Commission consultations, representing the views of its members.
“The fundamental thing is to ensure that legislation works and that it is effective,” Reading says of the PLA’s focus on law reform. “As an association, we don’t want to act in a silo – we want to collaborate, because the legal side of things is just one piece of the puzzle. The societal implications of what that legislation might bring about are equally fundamental.”
A major project on which the PLA aims to make its voice heard is the consultation on reform of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. The Law Commission is expected to publish a consultation this month, to which the PLA will formally respond, informed by insights from its extensive member research carried out last year – but Reading’s personal view is that there should be bigger priorities for the government.
“My own perspective is that we are going through a period of real uncertainty in every sense,” he says. “Political uncertainty, economic uncertainty, social uncertainty. And this bit of legislation, like it or not, has been the cornerstone of how commercial property has worked for the past 70 years. I think, at this point in time, a huge overhaul of the commercial property sector, at the same time as there are massive proposals to overhaul the residential property sector, is just too much change at one time.
“My view is that the residential sector is in greater need of reform than the commercial sector. I feel the 1954 Act works tolerably well, and with a few minor procedural practical changes it can be tweaked to continue to by-and-large serve those who utilise it for the next five to 10 years. Perhaps at that point, once the residential reform programme has made some progress and possibly concluded, a further significant review can be undertaken of the commercial legislation.”
With residential law among his areas of expertise, Reading watched the recent King’s Speech with plenty of interest, but also a little frustration. “Lots of headlines but little in the way of substance, I think, is the general takeaway from a property litigator’s perspective,” he says. The abolition of so-called “no fault” evictions under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 has been “used as a political hot potato” for some time, but Reading notes that it now seems to have been “pushed off into the long grass yet again by reference to it being put on hold until the courts service has been updated to be able to deal with the increase in activity that will inevitably ensue”.
While the King’s Speech again promised that it will become cheaper and easier for leaseholders to purchase their freehold, Reading notes a failure to address the key question of how marriage value, a key component of the current premium calculation, will be dealt with.
“There are fundamental societal implications of getting rid of marriage value,” he says. “All of our pension funds are tied up in this type of product. To get rid of that, or significantly reduce it, in one fell swoop is going to have very significant unintended consequences. So, similar to the abolition of section 21, you have to question the short-term soundbite decision-making versus the long-term repercussions of these proposed legislative reforms. It feels as if the approach taken to legislative reform is a very superficial one, without proper thought as to what impact may be had on the property industry down the line, the lives of individual people and their pension pots.”
Prioritising diversity
Another area of priority for Reading is to build on the work done by Gilbert on putting equality, diversity and inclusion at the forefront of the PLA. He is proud that, coinciding with him taking over as chair, the organisation has launched its first EDI committee.
Reading acknowledges the difficulties that a specialist association like the PLA has when it is reliant on recruitment at law firms to dictate the range of membership it has going forwards, but he adds: “I still think, notwithstanding that, that the mix ethnically of the PLA falls short of that which is representative of our member firms. I think that’s going to be one of the key tasks of the new chair of the EDI committee, to really drill down into whether that is just something that is completely circumstantial, or whether there is something more.
“Whether it’s to do with the subject matter we work in, the fact that property ownership is not something that is tangible to everyone, maybe that is determinative of whether people are prepared to explore this as a career option. Or whether there is something in the way the leaders within this field are conducting themselves that is having an effect on the throughflow of potential new recruits. I think it will be a period of real self-reflection and having honest conversations internally at all levels to try and identify whether there are any fundamental issues that need to be addressed more directly.”
With Gilbert having “set the wheels in motion”, Reading is intent on gaining momentum, and he is delighted that he will be succeeded by his vice-chair, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner partner Rebecca Campbell. “I know that our values are very closely aligned, and given that mine are in line with Dellah’s, it means we have a three-year run to implement the plan,” he says.
In addition, while he played no part in the appointment, Reading welcomes his Mishcon colleague Chhavie Kapoor as the first chair of the EDI committee, and looks forward to working together on this important issue.
“In a similar vein to me being hopefully some kind of poster boy for the younger generations,” Reading says, “I would hope that Chhavie will a similar effect for members across the EDI spectrum, who will be able to look to her and see something in her that they see in themselves. Visibility of leaders in the field is very important.”
Having proven beyond doubt that, not only does he belong, but that he can rise to the top, Reading hopes his achievements can inspire others to follow in his wake, whether their personal experiences reflect his or not.
“I’m probably going to offend all the previous chairs of the association now, but, from a demographic perspective, I’m younger,” Reading says. “I’m the first person in my family to go to university and I’m an openly gay man. Just the proposition that, within a reasonably old-school field, someone who doesn’t tick the conventional boxes has been able to get to the place that I’ve got to – through the support and help of others, but I have got there – hopefully the platform that I have will help to empower other people.”
To send feedback, e-mail jess.harrold@eg.co.uk or tweet @jessharrold or @EGPropertyNews
