At 81, Entertainment Lawyer Bert Fields Still Bills 3,000 Hours a Year
At 81 years of age, Hollywood lawyer Bert Fields still arrives at the office before 7 a.m. and manages to bill 3,000 hours a year. He has a roster of high-profile clients and is known for his street smarts along with his book smarts.
According to a CNN Justice profile, “Fields is lean and fit, and his Zen-like exterior masks his fierceness in court.”
The story quotes lawyer Pierce O’Donnell, who has opposed Fields in many cases. “There’s no finer lawyer that I’ve ever opposed than Bert Fields,” O’Donnell told the network. “And better yet, he’s a class act. I guess he’s the Energizer Bunny if he’s 81 and going strong.”
Fields got his start after law school in the judge advocate’s office of the Air Force, and discovered he liked trial work, CNN says. After two years, he returned to Los Angeles and started his own practice. In 1982, he merged with another entertainment law firm, Greenberg Glusker.
Fields is also a “bit of an Everyman,” the story says. He teaches entertainment law at Stanford and lectures at Harvard. He has written a book on Shakespeare and “two lusty novels” about a Hollywood lawyer under the pen name D. Kincaid. In his earlier years, he got a walk-on role on Dragnet after representing star Jack Webb.
Other clients have included Tom Cruise, the Beatles and Madonna.
According to the story, Fields represents both celebrities and the studios, making him something of “a utility player.”
“When I first started, lawyers did anything that came in the door,” Fields told CNN. “I’ve been doing both transactional law and litigation. And I think I’m the last one standing who does them both.”
