Prosecuting and Defending Fee-Shifting Claims: Supporting and Attacking the Fee Petition

Renée M. Dudek, Partner | Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Renée M. Dudek is a partner in the Philadelphia and Wilmington offices of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, where her practice combines commercial litigation with direct appeals in federal and state courts. She has served as first- and secondchair trial counsel, argues pivotal motions, and writes briefs that decide cases.

• Education & Credentials

Renée earned her J.D. summa cum laude from Rutgers School of Law, where she served on the Rutgers University Law Review (2017), and holds a B.A. from Hampshire College (2010). She is admitted to the bars of Delaware and Pennsylvania and to practice before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third and Seventh Circuits and the U.S. District Courts for the District of Delaware and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She clerked for Hon. L. Felipe Restrepo of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (2022) and Hon. Eduardo C. Robreno of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (2017–2018).

• Recognition & Leadership

Her honors include Faegre Drinker’s Pro Bono Award (2023), the firm’s Pro Bono Honor Roll every year from 2020 through 2025, the Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award, and the Don F. D’Agui Award for Excellence in Torts.

• Professional Involvement

Renée maintains an active pro bono practice focused on federal civil rights litigation, including firstchairing a federal pro bono jury trial and co-authoring an amicus brief in a high-profile federal appeal supporting the result that ultimately prevailed. She contributes to the firm’s TCPA Blog and authored “A Counterproductive Constraint: How the Volcker Rule Undermines Its Purpose by Discouraging Hedging” for the Rutgers University Law Review Commentaries (May 2017).

• Experience

A former federal law clerk, Renée gives strategy- and appeals-minded advice at every stage of a dispute, from discovery through dispositive motions, post-trial motions, and issue preservation for appeal. She leads litigation over contract breaches and business torts — including fraudulent-inducement, fiduciary, and partnership disputes — defends class and collective actions involving privacy and consumer protection, and regularly handles M&A-related litigation over purchase agreements, indemnification, and representations and warranties. Her appellate work includes defending on appeal the complete dismissal of claims against one of the world’s largest financial institutions and co-authoring amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court, and her Delaware bar membership brings deep familiarity with Delaware courts, including the Court of Chancery.

William M. (Mike) Hensley, Counsel | FBT Gibbons LLP

William M. (Mike) Hensley is counsel at FBT Gibbons LLP in Santa Ana, California. A trial lawyer with close to 40 years of experience resolving disputes through trials, arbitrations, mediations, and appeals, he has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court as well as Southern California state and federal courts, and has appeared pro hac vice in federal and state courts across the country.

• Education & Credentials

Mike earned his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law in 1979 and his B.A. in Speech Communication from the University of Southern California in 1976. He has been licensed to practice in California since 1979.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mike has been featured on the cover of Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine, the publication of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and his work has been featured in the California Litigation Journal and Orange County Lawyer Magazine.

• Professional Involvement

Mike regularly lectures at bar association and continuing-education seminars on real estate, mechanics lien, and attorney fees issues. He is the principal author of the California Attorney’s Fees blog (calattorneysfees.com), a resource for practitioners, jurists, and the public on the law governing attorney fee and cost awards in California state and federal forums, and his articles have appeared in the LA Daily Journal and CEB Daily News.

• Experience

Mike’s practice spans corporate disputes involving real estate, securities, corporate governance, trade secrets, employment, unfair competition, and California financing laws, with significant experience defending class actions. His results include a judgment and attorney-fee award for a commercial developer; a roughly 75% reduction of the damages and attorney’s fees entered against an accountingfirm and public-company client; and a month-long trial win for a developer sued by an out-of-state lender, allowing recovery of 85% of its attorney fees. He also maintains an active real estate and appellate practice, with numerous successful representations before Los Angeles and Orange County intermediate appellate courts.

SESSION 1 – Limiting Fee Exposure Before Judgment in Fee-Shifting Cases | 1:00pm – 2:00pm ET

This session examines the pre-judgment tools available to defense counsel seeking to cap or eliminate attorney’s fee exposure under federal fee-shifting statutes. Attorneys will work through Rule 68 offers of judgment, voluntary cessation and mootness strategy, the prevailing-party doctrine following Lackey v. Stinnie, and settlement structuring with fee waivers. Attendees will leave with a sequenced playbook for deploying each tool at the right stage of litigation to minimize the fee petition a plaintiff can ultimately file.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm ET

SESSION 2 – Litigating Attorney Fee Petitions: Fee Entitlement, Lodestar and Enhancements, Common Challenges for Both Sides in Fee Motion, Appellate Strategy After the Fee Ruling | 2:10pm – 3:10pm ET

This session examines the litigation of attorney’s fee petitions under both state and federal fee-shifting statutes or other theories before and after the fee ruling. Attendees will explore the legal framework governing fee orders, including fee/prevailing party entitlement; the lodestar/enhancement methodology; time deadlines for fee proceedings; the anatomy of a fee motion and evidentiary support for the motion; common billing disputes for both sides in a fee motion; anatomy of a fee petition opposition; issues which lead to reductions in a fee request; proposed orders and objections in fee proceedings; and appellate preservation/review issues. Through a practical examination of the issues courts routinely confront, participants will gain insight into how fee petitions are presented, evaluated, challenged, and ultimately decided.