Tenacious Octogenarian Litigator Basks In Donald Sterling Trial Spotlight

In the legal battle between Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his wife over who has a right to control the team, an unlikely co-star has emerged: the formidable attorney Bert Fields, who is defending Shelly Sterling.Fields “is in his element in the courtroom,” Texas civil litigator Steven Weisburd told Reuters. Previously a defendant for Hollywood heavy hitters like Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, the 86-year-old Fields carries a reputation for making witnesses squirm on the stand, and appeared to relish that role in the case, in which Donald Sterling – banned from the NBA for making racist comments – is asking the court to throw out the deal his estranged wife Shelly made to sell the Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. After taking Sterling to task on the stand, Fields asked reporters, “Is this a guy you’d employ to sell hamburgers?”