Michael S. Fields is a private practitioner attorney specializing in plaintiff tort litigation since 1969. He has extensive jury trial, arbitration and mediation experience in the areas of general liability, professional malpractice, product liability, fall injuries, employee actions, vehicular collisions and insurance bad faith cases throughout California.
Mr. Fields was the 2003 president of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (formerly, Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association). He is a past chair of the Litigation Section Executive Committee for the Los Angeles County Bar Association and a past trustee of that association for five years. Mr. Fields served as president of the Trial Practice Inn of Court, and he was a Master Bencher of The American Inns of Court. He is a past president of the Consumer Attorneys Public Education Fund; a four year board member for the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Los Angeles; a former advisor to the State Bar of California Litigation Section; and a former ADR Committee chair, State Bar of California, Litigation Section.
Mr. Fields has actively contributed to legal publications. He was the chief contributing editor of California Practice Handbook: Tort Damages, Matthew Bender (1992), and the primary writer for the cover article “Recovering Punitive Damages,” Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine, September 1992. In 1994 Mr. Fields edited and contributed to Matthew Bender’s California Forms of Pleading and Practice volume entitled “Negligence” and Matthew Bender’s California Points and Authorities volume entitled “Negligence.” In 1995 he edited and contributed to the ADR contractual arbitration chapters of Matthew Bender’s California Forms of Pleading and Practice Vol. 4, which also has been marketed as a separate, soft-bound publication.
Mr. Fields has authored numerous articles for legal periodicals, including the Forum magazine article entitled “Contingent Fee Agreements, Attorney Liens and Advanced Costs” and the California Litigation Magazine article entitled “Federal Preemption and the Future of California Arbitration Agreements.” In 2000, he was an editorial advisor, California Motions In Limine, Esquire One Publishing Company, and an advisory board member, California Causes of Action, James Publishing. He has had many other articles published in legal journals.
For the past 15 years, Mr. Fields has written and updated a self-published handout entitled "Contractual Arbitrations," which was provided at his lectures. He is under contract with West Publishing Company to write a book to be entitled "California Arbitration, The New Litigation Forum for the 21st Century."
Mr. Fields’ other qualifications include: 1968 graduate of Southwestern University of Law (LL.B.); Adjunct Professor of Tort Law for five years at Western State University College of Law; arbitrator over 185 times; UCLA trained mediator; Harvard Negotiation Institute for negotiation training skills; court appointed arbitrator, mediator and settlement officer.
Mr. Fields has been a frequent lecturer on trial practice, substantive law, jury selection, discovery practice, evidence, punitive damages, ethics, courtroom bias, law office management, liens, contractual arbitrations and Kaiser arbitrations; organizer, lecturer or moderator of over 100 attorney and support staff educational programs; and negotiator of major sub-contracts for McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company, including $1 billion DC-10 engine contract in the late 1960s.
