Note that in many cases you can use the highlight reconstruction module in reconstruct in LCh mode; it gives much better results than the default clip highlights mode; on the other hand, reconstruct color is prone to artefacts.
The way I shoot now is to underexpose in order to protect the highlights, then let the exposure module undo my in-camera exposure correction. Of course, I’ll let the Sun, lamps and specular highlights be overexposed.
Maybe check out this thread for many approaches to fixing highlights:
