A Pittsburgh law firm’s requested attorney fees of $2.45 million was slashed to just over $250,000, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled this week when reducing their rates and hours logged.

The prevailing attorneys from Bordas and Bordas were awarded significantly less attorney fees than requested after a jury awarded their client, Patricia Holmes, $20 million in punitive damages in a hostile work environment case against her former employer American HomePatient. The court subsequently reduced the award to $1 million. Still, Holmes requested $491,852.50 in attorney fees and sought to enhance the award by a factor of five for a total of $2.45 million. The defendants claimed the amount requested was unreasonable, arguing that numerous hours on the lodestar were excessive or inappropriate.