With $1.6 billion and a potential criminal conviction on the line in a 2016 bench trial for her client Fed Ex Corp., Cris Arguedas of Arguedas, Cassman, Headley & Goldman started out with a simple message.

“May it please the Court,” Arguedas said to Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in a rare corporate criminal case to make it to trial, no less a bench trial. “FedEx is innocent of these charges. FedEx did not break any laws. They did not conspire with anyone to break any laws. They had the intent to do their job as a parcel carrier and a shipper of packages.”