Reed earned a solid reputation as an attorney specializing in medical malpractice, personal injury and civil litigation cases.
One of his former law partners, Joseph Mulligan Jr., told The Boston Globe, "Mr. Reed took the greatest satisfaction out of solving legal problems for people.
The novel centered on a down-on-his-luck lawyer who tries a malpractice case against two prominent doctors whose negligence caused a pregnant woman to go into a coma.
Reed's protégé was Jan Schlichtmann, a trial lawyer who became famous for his lawsuit against W.R. Grace and Company and Beatrice Foods over leukemia deaths caused by contaminated drinking water in Woburn, Massachusetts.
Schlichtmann's case was the basis for A Civil Action, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award and was made into a film starring John Travolta.