• The origins of Rationabilis

    The literal meaning of “rationabilis” in latin is ‘thinking’ but the contextual meaning refers to ‘common sense’.

    The Firm’s name was inspired by Baron Hoffman’s common sense principles of contractual interpretation which he set out in Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd. v West Bromwich Building Society [1997] UKHL 28 which reference the context within which the contract operates.

    As a firm, we value the thinking lawyer and our experience tells us our clients do too. This is the lawyer who thinks independently, communicates clearly yet simply, acts with conviction, and who also fully understands the commercial context of the legal issue in question.

    Often we have been on the other side of lawyers who do not apply common sense to a commercial negotiation or to resolve a commercial issue. This causes costs to escalate for all parties and often unnecessarily so. Applying common sense will save you time and ultimately fees.

    These are attributes our managing partner first learnt when he marshalled The Honourable Mr Justice Penry-Davey in the Court of Appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice, and also when he studied the judgements of Baron Hope, Baron Hoffmann and Baroness Hale, who was the Chancellor of the University of Bristol, where our managing partner went to law school.

    She was in fact the Chancellor for the three years that he was at law school there, and this is where he started taking an interest in her reasoned judgements and how she analysed complex legal issues. Baroness Hale has often swam against the tide, thinking independently and she is not afraid to deliver controversial judgements even if it meant her standing alone as the sole dissenter. Whilst not a commercial case, her dissenting judgement in Radmacher v Granatino [2010] UKSC 42 pays testament to this.

    We strive to apply the lessons learnt from Baroness Hale, Baron Hoffmann and other legal scholars through our firm Rationabilis, for the benefit of our clients.

  • Our story

    David Gabriele is a senior commercial lawyer and the Managing Partner of Rationabilis.

    Prior to Rationabilis, David was a commercial lawyer in private practice at KPMG Law in Canary Wharf.

    KPMG Law is the full service law firm of ‘Big 4’ giant, KPMG LLP, which has over 3500 lawyers in 75 countries.

    David’s charge out rate to KPMG clients was so high that only very large businesses with deep pockets could ultimately afford to instruct him and his colleagues. There had to be a better way to offer these services at more reasonable rates . The backbone of our economy is SMEs after all.

    By embracing a new operating model with significantly lower overheads, that uses the latest technology to streamline workflows, and that does not have extravagant offices, the business could operate with substantially reduced costs.

    David and the team could then pass those savings onto clients, without compromising on the quality of service clients enjoyed.

    The current market environment lends itself to a leaner, more cost efficient firm. To quote PwC’s 2023 Law Firm Survey “firms will need to consider costs as part of a wider transformation of their future operating models…rising costs stand out in this year’s survey with both staff and support costs rising at a faster pace than fee income“.

  • Our Managing Partner’s background

    David is a practical, tri-lingual, commercial lawyer with over 15 years of operational, business and commercial legal experience.

    He has a passion for commercial contracts, and his expertise is in advising clients on their commercial and technology arrangements.

    Unusually for a Solicitor he holds two MSc in Management and International Management degrees from LSE & CEMS Global Alliance in Management Education.

    Also unusually for a Solicitor he has experience at all stages of the business lifecycle: grass roots startup, scale-up, niche City law firm and regulated global law firm. This places him in the unique position to provide genuinely commercial advice.

    David has spoken at numerous conferences in UK and Europe both on panel discussions, and as an expert running educational training sessions.

    David is supported by a team of highly experienced lawyers and business people who share his passion for delivering direct, no-nonsense, commercial advice.

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