When a judge knows how hard you've worked, let the bench decide attorney fees. Christina Ponig Maccio recently showed the effectiveness of that strategy when she won for clients, embroiled in a complex breach of contract dispute, nearly $2 million in damages and an additional $1.47 million in attorney fees.

Those attorney fees, awarded in a Dec. 17 final judgment, confirmed for Ponig Maccio, a partner in DLA Piper's Houston office, that she made the right choice to try the attorney fees before 190th District Court Judge Patricia Kerrigan in Houston.

“At the end of the day, that's where we came down, to try the attorney fees before the judge,” recalled Ponig Maccio. “We had an excellent jury, but they did not have the benefit of knowing what we had done for two and a half years.”