M. Reas Bowman

• Resolving through consent foreclosure a lender’s defaulted loan secured by five multiunit residential properties. Then, after taking possession of the distressed real estate that were subject to the city of Chicago’s Troubled Buildings Initiative, Reas guided his client through multiple lawsuits brought by the city of Chicago’s Corporation Counsel to resolve serious building code violations while preventing the City’s attempts to appoint receivers or demolish the lender’s acquired real estate.*
• Defending a Fortune 500 financial institution before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals against alleged violations of a pooling and servicing agreement.*
• Counseling a commercial lender holding a junior mortgage in purchasing the senior lender’s mortgage loan, and then foreclosing on that senior mortgage to fully compensate the lender for the amounts due on both loans plus the lender’s out-of-pocket costs.*

Reas also regularly represents property developers and real estate owners in connection with claims involving commercial leases, construction agreements, and purchase-sale contracts. Representative examples of Reas’s recent matters include:

• Represented the owner of a 264,000 square foot industrial property adjacent to North America's largest inland port, in a breach of lease lawsuit seeking possession of the property and damages against both the tenant and lease guarantors. After moving for summary judgment on our claim and defendants' affirmative defenses, we obtained an eviction order and $2,600,000 settlement secured by a lien on real estate owned by a lease guarantor. That settlement was then paid in full by the lease guarantor's sale of the liened real estate.

• After obtaining possession of commercial landlord’s real estate held by a tenant, Reas obtained judgment for the landlord’s back rent, late fees, and attorney fees, while defeating the commercial tenant’s counterclaims for property damage, personal injury, constructive eviction, and rent abatement.
• Holding a potential buyer liable for breaching a $43,000,000 purchase-sale agreement, while defeating that buyer’s counterclaim and obtaining a judgment in the property owner’s favor for the buyer’s earnest money down payment plus the owner’s out-of-pocket litigation expenses.*
• Recovering a property developer’s damages from a general contractor’s and its subcontractors’ defectively constructed roofs on three multiunit residential buildings, through litigation and then mediation.*

Reas represents clients in all phases of litigation, handling trials, appeals, arbitrations, and mediations. Reas litigates cases throughout Illinois, and his appellate experience includes successfully briefing and arguing more than two dozen appeals in state and federal appellate courts.

*Matter completed prior to joining Benesch.