The courtroom froze. Richard Sterling, a partner at the city’s most expensive law firm, smirked as he looked at the young man in the oversized gray hoodie standing at the defense table. Everyone, the bailiff, the clerk, and especially Judge Halloway, thought this was a joke.

They thought he was a lost defendant from arraignment court, a thug who had wandered into a high-stakes corporate lawsuit.

They were wrong. They didn’t know that the man in the hoodie was holding a trap that would ruin them all. By the time he opened his mouth, it was already too late.

The air inside courtroom 4B of the Superior Court of Fulton County was stale, smelling faintly of floor wax and old paper. It was the smell of bureaucracy, or as Richard Sterling liked to call it, the smell of money. Richard adjusted the cuffs of his bespoke Italian suit.

He glanced at his reflection in the screen of his iPad. At 55, he was the picture of legal dominance, silver hair perfectly coiffed, a jawline that had only softened slightly with age, and a reputation that terrified opposing counsel. He was the lead litigator for Sterling, Lockwood, and Pierce, the firm that handled problems for billionaires.

Today’s problem was simple. It was an eviction case technically, but on a massive scale. His client, the Apex Horizon Development Group, needed to clear out a block of low-income housing in the historic West End to build a luxury condominium complex.

They had crushed every homeowner in the area. Everyone had sold. Everyone had folded except for one, Mrs. Lucille Banks, an 80-year-old widow who refused to sign the deed to her dilapidated Victorian house.

Are we ready, Mr. Sterling? The young associate next to him whispered. Her name was Sarah, fresh out of Yale, and she looked nervous. Relax, Sarah, Richard said, his voice a smooth baritone. This is a formality. The woman doesn’t even have a lawyer.

She’s claiming to represent herself pro se. It’s like watching a toddler try to box with Mike Tyson. Judge Halloway will grant the summary judgment by lunch and we’ll be eating steak at Chops by one.

Judge Frederick Halloway was a man who hated wasted time almost as much as he hated poverty.