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byline: Joan Tupponce

Consistency amid change

A lot has changed since December 2000 when Virginia Business began publishing the Legal Elite, an annual list of top lawyers picked by their peers.

The 9/11 terrorists’ attacks in 2001 led to U.S. involvement in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that continue to this day.

Social media have become a part of everyday life since the launch of Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006.

Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first African-American president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012.

Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman and reality television star, won the presidency last year in his first campaign for elective office.

While the past 17 years have seen a lot of change, 26 Virginia lawyers have been consistent in one important area. They have been on the Legal Elite list every year since it started (click here to see more). The longtime honorees were identified by a database recently compiled by Senior Editor Jessica Sabbath and Special Projects Editor Veronica Garabelli with the help of interns Greg Kremer, Emma Thom and Siona Peterous.

One of the lawyers among the longtime honorees is Andrea Stiles, whose family law practice has been affected by social change since the beginning of this century.

“There’s a whole new generation that is not getting married but having children anyway, and we now have legalized same-sex marriage,” she says. “Those are just two of the recent dynamic changes in family law.”

Meanwhile, this year’s class of the Legal Elite list includes the names of more than 1,000 lawyers, roughly a quarter of the more than 4,000 attorneys nominated. About 1,400 lawyers submitted ballots in voting that took place last summer.

The Legal Elite attorneys are divided into 18 specialties. One representative from each group is profiled on the following pages. Lawyers who have been profiled in the past are not considered.

The profiles reveal interesting details about the lawyers’ careers. While some trials are described as circuses, William B. Porter, a civil litigation attorney who is the managing partner of Blankingship & Keith in Fairfax, once represented an international circus in a breach of contract claim with a horse act from the Czech Republic.

The case required him to travel, following “the circus all over the country to investigate the issues and interview the witnesses.”

That’s the kind of persistence that longtime Legal Elite honorees would applaud.

Elite leaders Twenty-six lawyers have made the list every year since 2000 by Joan Tupponce

Alternative Dispute Resolution
Jack W. “JB” Burtch Jr., Burtch Law PLLC, Richmond
LIST

Appellate Law
Gary A. Bryant, Willcox & Savage PC, Norfolk
LIST

Bankruptcy/Creditors’ Rights
Paula Steinhilber Beran, Tavenner & Beran PLC, Richmond
LIST

Business Law
Eric Wechselblatt, Holland & Knight LLP, Tysons
LIST

Civil Litigation
William B. Porter, Blankingship & Keith PC, Fairfax
LIST

Construction Law
Kristan Boyd Burch, Kaufman & Canoles PC, Norfolk
LIST

Corporate Counsel
Ute Heidenreich, Towne 1031 Exchange LLC, Suffolk
LIST

Criminal Law
Larry B. Slipow, Slipow, Robusto & Kellam PC, Virginia Beach
LIST

Environmental Law
Jim Lang, Pender & Coward, Virginia Beach
LIST

Family Law/Domestic Relations
Harris Wayne Leiner, Barnes & Diehl PC, Richmond
LIST

Health Law
Emily Munro Scott, Hirschler Fleischer, Richmond
LIST

Intellectual Property
Zachary D. Cohen, ThompsonMcMullan PC, Richmond
LIST

Labor/Employment Law
Edward Lee “Eddie” Isler, IslerDare PC, Tysons Corner, Richmond
LIST

Legal Services/Pro Bono
David S. Mercer, MercerTrigiani, Alexandria
LIST

Legislative/Regulatory/Administrative
Jason J. Ham, Litten & Sipe LLP, Harrisonburg
LIST

Real Estate/Land Use
Jennifer Mullen, Roth Jackson Gibbons Condlin PLC, Richmond
LIST

Taxes/Estates/Trusts/Elder Law
Alexander I. Saunders, Woods Rogers PLC, Roanoke
LIST

Young Lawyers
Nupur Sidhu Bal, DeFazio Bal, Richmond
LIST

JMU expects venue to help it stand out from other schools

James Madison University’s basketball program will be playing on a different level in 2020 when it opens the Union Bank & Trust Center.

The 220,000-square-foot facility will seat 8,500 people for basketball games and close to 10,000 for commencement and other events. Groundbreaking is scheduled for next spring.

The facility now being used for JMU games and events is “outdated,” says Kevin Warner, JMU’s assistant athletics director for communications. “Other schools had amenities we didn’t have, and a lot of the operation logistics became difficult to manage.”

The school has been raising money for the new facility from major donors since 2015. “Now, we are going to open up the fundraising to a wider field for all levels to support the project,” Warner says.

The cost of the project was estimated at $88 million in 2015, but with the rising cost of construction JMU “anticipates the amount will be higher,” Warner says. He says Richmond-based Union Bank & Trust, a JMU athletics partner for more than 20 years, donated $2.25 million for naming rights for the facility for 10 years.

The venue will include courtside seating with a designated private hospitality area. A 1,500-space parking deck will be constructed adjacent to the facility.

The new center is expected to help the university stand out from other schools in the region. “I definitely think it’s a source of pride for everybody associated with JMU, but definitely for the athletes,” Warner says. “It legitimizes their experience and shines a positive light on the university.”

In addition to games and graduations, the venue also will host a wide variety of events such as concerts and trade shows. “We have had events that we have had to turn down over the years,” Warner says. “This will meet a lot of those needs.”

JMU hopes the center will become a destination for the Shenandoah Valley. “There is no venue like it in the area,” Warner says. “It can be a gathering place for the community to have concerts, trade shows, high school commencements, etc.”

Jefferson Lab project aids exploration of nucleus of an atom

A recently completed project at the Department of Energy’s Jefferson Lab in Newport News will help nuclear physicists look deeper into the nucleus of the atom.

The 12 GeV (gigaelectronvolts) upgrade of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) was completed Sept. 27. Construction on the $338 million project started in 2008.

“We originally had a capability of delivering 6 GeV, and this doubled the maximum energy of the electron beam,” says Allison Lung, chief planning officer and director of the 12 GeV upgrade project.

The lab also added a fourth experimental hall on the original campus and upgraded equipment in the three existing halls. “Our electron accelerator is shaped like a racetrack about seven-eights of a mile around,” says Lung. “We had three experimental halls at one end of the original campus, and we added the fourth hall at the opposite end of the racetrack to enable a new area of physics research.”

The one-of-a-kind CEBAF is the world’s most powerful microscope for studying the nucleus of the atom. “The upgrade will help us see inside the atom further and with better resolution. The new science enabled by the fourth experimental hall is designed to look at why quarks, the most fundamental building block of matter, are never found alone,” Lung says. “No facility in the world is able to study that question.”

When the original CEBAF was built in the 1980s, it was geared toward two-dimensional imaging of neutrons and protons. The upgrade allows for three-dimensional work. “We are additionally searching for signatures of new physics that go beyond what is taught in schools in order to open up new questions and take us into new areas of exploration,” Lung says.

The new capabilities will allow the CEBAF to realize “the next horizon for understanding the glue that is holding quarks together,” Lung says.

About 1,500 scientists from the U.S. and around the world come to the Jefferson Lab to perform experiments. “Research at Jefferson Lab is the basis for one-third of the [doctoral degrees] in nuclear physics in the U.S.,” Lung says.

Fundraising campaign aims to enhance Abingdon museum

The goal of the William King Museum of Art’s $5 million fundraising campaign is not only to enhance the facility but also to make the museum’s 20-acre Abingdon campus more accessible and inviting.

The “Masterwork in Progress” campaign has raised approximately $1.3 million. That includes an $86,500 grant from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, which will go toward a permanent exhibit of regional decorative arts opening Dec. 3.

This will be the museum’s first renovation in 25 years. Built in 1913 as a school building, William King is the only Virginia museum west of Roanoke accredited by the American Association of Museums.

To help with accessibility, the museum will create a new entrance on the east side of the building that “will go into the first floor where the elevators are located,” says Director Betsy K. White.

Plans are also in the works to extend the museum’s VanGogh Outreach program, which has served only second-graders. The program focuses on the study of cultures in areas such as China, Egypt and Ancient Rome. “Our students don’t have a lot of exposure to other cultures here,” White says.

The museum will expand the program to third-graders in the Virginia counties it already serves. “We are also going to add counties that border Virginia in Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky,” White says, adding the museum also will create a new program, called Heritage Express, for fourth-graders, focusing on their own cultural heritage.

The museum already has received a $500,000 federal grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission for its new Center for Studio Art & Education, which will be housed in the former Washington County office building adjacent to the museum. A $250,000 grant from the Educational Foundation of America, the town of Abingdon and private individual donors also is  targeted for the new center.

The center will house artists and artisan's studios as well as a digital craft lab for developing art centered around the creative economy. “We want to help students make a living out of art,” White says. “We are trying to be a bigger asset for the region’s creative economy and make this a bigger attraction for the cultural tourist.”

Henrico data center company serves a diverse clientele

Henrico County-based GreyGate LLC serves a growing demand for customized data centers in the U.S. and overseas.

“We figure out exactly what the client has and what their needs are today,” says Stuart Carter, who founded the company in 2002 with Russ Johnson, who is now retired. “We give them scalable solutions that they can add on to when needed.”

In addition to designing and building data centers, GreyGate provides engineering services, service contracts, emergency service and maintenance. It partners with APC by Schneider Electric, which builds uninterruptable power supply systems, to keep clients’ critical operations running 24/7.

“We started working on jobs with them around the Beltway and Washington, D.C., area and the work has taken off from there,” Carter says.

GreyGate’s clients include the Library of Virginia, the College of William & Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, NASA Langley Research Center, Dominion Energy and WestRock. “We are doing a lot of work with the U.S. Department of Defense and all of the intelligence agencies as well as schools and colleges,” Carter says.

The company’s international clients are based in Europe, the Mideast and Asia. The diverse clientele helps GreyGate maintain a steady revenue when the economy fluctuates.

“We go through periods when the commercial marketplace slows down and the government picks up and vice versa,” Carter says. “We are careful where we spend our time.”

Customer service is a key priority, he adds. “We take a lot of pride in our customer service. We try to learn what the business is, what the priorities are and what the goals are when we work with a client. That helps us determine what level of protection they need in their data processing areas.”

When customers’ wants are bigger than their actual needs, GreyGate’s job is to “make them understand what the cost benefit is as well as the return on investment with the equipment,” Carter says.

The company is always adding and changing services as the business dictates. “We have to change as the computer world changes,” Carter says. “Things are changing so fast now it’s incredible.” 

Earth, wind and fire

This has been a year of catastrophes: hurricanes, high winds, floods and fires.  Loss figures that are still being compiled likely will have an influence on commercial insurance rates next year. But to what extent rates will change, no one knows at this point.

“You can’t talk about the year without talking about the three hurricanes as well as what the impact of the fire in Napa Valley will have on the insurance industry,” says John Stanchina, president and CEO of the Mid-Atlantic Region of Marsh & McLennan Agency.

He describes 2017 as a “tale of two halves” for the insurance industry. “In general, commercial insurance has remained soft across the board as it relates to most pricing,” he says.

The natural disasters that occurred during the latter half of the year may change that cycle. “We are watching to see what happens with reinsurance renewals so we can see what happens to property reinsurance rates,” says David Schaefer, president and CEO of AHT in Leesburg.

Reinsurance involves insurers transferring some of their risks to other companies.

Many in the industry expect reinsurers will need to recover their reserves. “Some of that will be paying out from what has happened in 2017. Reinsurance is a component of the premium we all pay, and that is likely to go up in 2018,” Schaefer says. “It’s still not clear if the reinsurers feel the need to apply a rate increase across the board or if they would apply it more selectively for the exposures that created the losses such as catastrophic wind.”

In October, Switzerland-based reinsurer Swiss Re Group estimated total insurance market losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Marie at about $95 billion. Catastrophe-risk modeling company RMS estimates an economic loss range of $3 billion to $6 billion for the fires in California and expects insured losses from the Mexico earthquake in September to total around $1.2 billion.

Capacity in the market (the ability to provide insurance) was good this year, but there is the potential for that to be “absorbed by the three hurricanes,” says Stanchina. “There is also a very large concern about what the impact of the Napa fires will be on the market. The effects will start to play out next year.”

By October, fires had destroyed more than 3,500 homes and businesses. That number doesn’t account for losses caused by business interruptions. “Wineries had to shut down, and hotels closed for an extended period of time,” Stanchina says.

This year’s commercial insurance market was a reflection of last year’s buyer’s market. “On the property/casualty side, which includes workers’ compensation, rates were flat to slightly down with the exception of commercial automobile insurance and some specialty coverages such as cyber liability,” says Curt Hodges, Richmond-based vice president of marketing for Lynchburg-based Scott Insurance.

Commercial automobile insurance is one of the insurance lines seeing consistent rate increases this year. “The entire industry is feeling the pain of distracted driving,” Hodges says. “The frequency of accidents is increasing due to technology and distracted driving. Repair costs are also escalating with the value of component parts of any given vehicle increasing. Automobile [insurance] is one line of coverage that will continue to see increases from most carriers, and in general, they are warranted.”

This year total auto insurance losses exceeded total premiums collected. “Insurance companies are losing money on auto,” says Paul Fleming, senior vice president of Richmond-based Bankers Insurance. “Rates were up 7 to 15 percent this year, but we’re not expecting that steep of a rise next year. Probably from 3 to 5 or 3 to 7 percent.”

On the flip side, general liability insurance pricing was down this year as was the cost of workers’ compensation coverage. “Most accounts were seeing their overall premiums range from a 5 percent decrease to a 2 percent increase,” Fleming says. 

More and more companies are looking at cyber insurance this year, especially after Equifax announced a breach in September that could cost insurers an estimated $125 million. “Both at the corporate level and the personal level, people are thinking about their risk or exposure,” says Stanchina.

Schaefer believes cyber insurance will grow through the mid-2020s. “We’ll see significant premium growth as well as uptake,” he says. “Loss trends will continue to develop and premium has the potential to be volatile based on frequency and severity of incidents.”

Cyber events can originate from a subcontractor or anyone that has access to a company’s electronic data.

“This year, cyber liability insurance rates [on average] increased in the single digits to double digits in some cases, as the providers of this insurance continue to expand their understanding of cyber exposures and ultimate loss payouts,” says Hodges. “Educating the insurance buyer as to how a breach can occur and the client’s ultimate exposure is a challenge for all of our agents considering the vast array of threats present via today’s technology.”  

One of the larger expenses for companies is health insurance. With rates steadily climbing, many companies are looking for less expensive options, such as self-funded programs. In a traditional insurance plan, the insurance company takes the risk and covers all medical costs. In a self-funded plan, the employer takes the risk of paying claims. If claims go above a certain level, the costs are covered by an underwritten insurance plan.

“The self-funded model for large companies has been around for many years,” says Tony Herbert, vice president of managed care for Bon Secours Health System. “If a company’s costs are less than the predicted amount of medical expenses, it can retain that amount.”

Smaller companies have refrained from this type of model in the past because the cost is “too unpredictable,” Herbert says, noting the Bon Secours Value Network is a hybrid self-funded, “level-funded” model.

With level funding, the anticipated losses for the year are divided by 12 so the employer knows what it will pay each month. “We created an affordable, accessible network of hospital providers through Bon Secours and physicians independent of Bon Secours that are aligned with Bon Secours,” Herbert says. “We wanted to provide an alternative for smaller companies.”

The commercial insurance industry will be watching next year to see how the market fares in all areas, including health insurance. “I don’t think anyone is expecting anything dramatic either up or down in terms of rates yet,” Fleming says.

 

Insurance brokers

  Insurance broker Location Phone Website Agents in Va. Va. revenues ($000)1
1 BB&T Insurance Services Richmond (804) 359-0044 bbandt.com 129 $90,747,863
2 Rutherfoord, A Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Co. Roanoke (540) 982-3511 rutherfoord.com 281 61,103,000
3 Scott Insurance Lynchburg (434) 832-2100 scottins.com 180 55,000,000
4 USI Insurance Services Falls Church (703) 698-0788 usi.biz WND 39,762,000
5 Bankers Insurance LLC Glen Allen (804) 497-3634 bankersinsurance.net 50 33,000,000
6 Aon Risk Services of Virginia Richmond (804) 560-2230 aon.com 25 18,000,000
7 AHT Insurance Leesburg (703) 777-2341 ahtins.com 85 17,603,668
8 TB&R Insurance Richmond (804) 355-7984 tbrinsurance.com 12 6,200,000
9 Chas. Lunsford Sons & Associates Roanoke (540) 982-0200 chaslunsford.com 23 4,000,000

1 For 2016                   WND: Would not disclose                             Note: This list first ran in March 2017.                                      Source:  Individual firms.
 

A ‘happening place’

The recent economic buzz in Southern Virginia is being generated by an uptick in advanced manufacturing, the creation of megasite parks and a flurry of new local businesses.

Once rooted in tobacco and textile manufacturing, the region is now gaining recognition for a workforce trained in skills such as precision machining at facilities such as at facilities such as Danville Community College and the Gene Haas Center for Integrated Machining at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville.

“This is a happening place,” says Linwood Wright, a consultant to Danville’s office of economic development.

This year Danville saw several of last year’s major economic announcements move forward. Range Rover manufacturer Overfinch invested $8 million to establish a manufacturing operation in the 330-acre Cyber Park. The new facility, which is expected to employ 41 workers, already is beginning to add the final touches to vehicles that will be sold to customers throughout the United States. 

The city also saw the development of the Kyocera SGS Tech Hub, a subsidiary of Ohio-based Kyocera SGS Precision Tools. The company is investing $9.5 million to establish its technology and strategic manufacturing hub in Danville, which is expected to create 35 jobs. Its 30,000-square-foot facility in Cyber Park is under construction and planned for completion next May.

United Kingdom-based Unison Ltd, a global tube-bending machine company, plans to invest $5.2 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing operation in the Cane Creek Centre Industrial Park, jointly owned by Danville and Pittsylvania County. The state competed against North Carolina and the United Kingdom for the project, which is expected to create 35 jobs.

The area’s emphasis on technical training is a draw for international companies, especially firms from the United Kingdom. Danville has had several visits from other British companies involved in advanced manufacturing.

“We are trying to bring manufacturing back,” Wright says. “That is the strategic reason we wanted to have a workforce that managed and was comfortable with 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operations.”

The 3,500-acre Berry Hill industrial park in Pittsylvania, which broke ground this March, is being graded, and prospects are being lined up. “We have a sizeable, large advanced-manufacturing business coming in, but it has not been announced,” Wright says. “We have an option on a site by the Southern Co. for a gas-fired electric generation facility.”

The city’s River District, formerly known as the downtown and warehouse district, also is attracting businesses. “There is a lot going on there,” Wright says. “Twenty-seven million dollars of public funds generated about $130 million of private investment. We have several hundred market-rate apartments leased before they are finished with 95-plus percent occupancy rates. Three to four new restaurants, craft breweries and a boutique distillery have been announced.”

Mega-site training center
Martinsville-Henry County is also focusing on workforce training. This year it broke ground on the Commonwealth Centre for Advanced Training at the Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre, a mega-site industrial park in southern Henry County. The facility will include a high bay area where a company moving to the park can bring in its own equipment for training. Once training is completed, the company would remove the equipment to make way for the next business.

“We typically compete with states such as Tennessee, Georgia and North and South Carolina,” says Mark Heath, president and CEO of the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. “We haven’t run up against anything like this training facility in those states. This will provide seamless training and pre-employment screening testing to allow people to move from the training facility to the manufacturing facility.”

In June Martinsville-Henry County received one of eight state Business Ready Sites Program development grants for Commonwealth Crossing. The $500,000 grant will help with the cost of an onsite water tank.

Designed as a job and tax-base generator, the industrial park already has caught the attention of domestic and international companies, officials say. The park was built for projects involving investment of $250 million or more, creating 400 or more jobs.

“The center is designed so it can be expanded,” Heath says. “It should be completed by May 2019.”

Martinsville-Henry County has landed five economic development deals this year as well as being the site of several local company expansions. The projects represent $20.7 million in total new investment with the promise of 127 new jobs.

Area expansions included Bassett Furniture and Eastman Chemical Co. Bassett is investing $1.5 million in equipment and plans to add 22 employees during the next few years. Eastman Chemical, a global advanced materials and specialty additives company, is investing $11.7 million to expand its manufacturing operation.

Canadian sliding glass door manufacturer Novatech opened its first U.S. plant in Henry County in January, which created nearly 50 jobs.

“The last three years have been pretty consistent and steady for us, and that is what we hope to continue,” Heath says. “People are upbeat about manufacturing in general. The future of manufacturing here looks good. It’s getting stronger and improving. It’s been a while since bullish attitude about manufacturing. We are grateful it’s come our way.”

Filling empty spaces
Meanwhile, South Boston is seeing an increase in new local businesses, thanks to a $60,000 community business launch grant through Virginia Main Street, a program administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. The program offers services and assistance to communities that want to revitalize a historic district. The town added more than $10,000 to the project.

“It’s about business recruitment. We are trying to fill empty [locations] downtown,” says Tom Raab, South Boston’s town manager.

South Boston handed out six grants totaling $52,000 for one business expansion and five new businesses. One of those businesses, KJ’s Cake Creations, “took a derelict building and fixed it up,” Raab says. “She is doing really good.”

Other new businesses include health-food store and vegan café Manna “The Natural Experience,” clothing boutique Southern Frills, Sweet Cee’s gift store and Joe and a Bow, a coffee shop and children’s boutique.

“The owner moved from Houston three years ago, and she had a small children’s store there. We did a survey on what types of business people wanted, and number one was a coffee shop. So she did both in the same store,” Raab says. “She has already expanded to the town of Halifax.”

South Boston is seeing spinoffs of the new businesses already. The husband of Joe and a Bow’s owner, for instance, is opening SoBo Burger downtown.

The town also has received an Industrial Revitalization Fund grant of $475,000 to renovate the John Randolph Hotel downtown. “It has been derelict for about 20 years,” Raab says. “In September, we received a Tobacco Commission grant for $600,000 toward the remodeling of the hotel.”
Built in 1929, the hotel will include a restaurant and 27 guest rooms as well as a rooftop bar. “We are in the process of talking to developers,” Raab says. “We estimate $8 million to redo the hotel. We can use historic tax credits.”

Imperial Lofts will be going into the former Tultex/Imperial building near downtown. The town will partner with the developer on the 135,000-square-foot project. In October, Town Council approved all the documents needed to borrow $5.6 million for the project and was waiting to sign the actual bond documents. The project will create 40 to 50 market-rate apartments as well as commercial space and storage.

“The hotel renovation and the new lofts will be a big shot in the arm,” Raab says. “We are growing. Things are looking positive. These new businesses are all younger, enthusiastic people. It’s exciting to bring new enthusiasm to the area, which we needed.”  
 

Elite leaders

Attorneys Andrea R. Stiles, Andrew M. Sacks, Hunter W. Sims Jr., James V. Meath and John A. C. Keith have more in common than just their profession. They are among the 26 lawyers who have been on the Virginia Business Legal Elite list every year since its inception in 2000 in collaboration with the Virginia Bar Association.

Ballots for the Legal Elite are emailed each June to nearly 14,000 lawyers throughout the commonwealth. Voters choose lawyers they believe should be recognized as among the best practitioners in a variety of legal specialties. Since 2000, the number of Legal Elite categories has grown from 10 to 18.

Being a veteran of the list is “something I’m proud of,” says Stiles, a partner with the family law firm Batzli Stiles Butler in Richmond.

She chose to focus on family law out of desire to “bring more of a healing process to it,” says Stiles, a child of divorced parents.

“There are new legal challenges for family law attorneys today. What has been the norm is changing,” she says.

Practicing law is a tradition for Sacks. His grandfather, Herman, started Sacks & Sacks PC in Norfolk in 1911 and practiced law continuously for 72 years, until he was 97. Sacks’ father, Stanley, has practiced for 69 years. He is now 95 and still hard at work.

“I’ve been at the firm for 37 years,” says Andrew Sacks, who primarily focuses on criminal defense because it is a “calling and a passion.”

His advice to new attorneys is two-fold. First, always be prepared. “There is no substitute for preparation,” he says. “In a trial, you don’t take shortcuts.”

Secondly, either fully commit to your client or to the system the client represents. Even in the most challenging cases, “the client’s rights still need to be protected,” he says.

Sims, who practices civil litigation and white-collar criminal defense at Kaufman & Canoles in Norfolk, has seen dramatic changes in trial law during his career.

“When I first started as a lawyer, most cases were tried, particularly in federal court,” he says. “Now, with alternate dispute resolution, a lot of civil cases are settled that would be otherwise tried. There is nowhere near the same number of cases being tried as there used to be, and I don’t think that is a good thing. Young lawyers, particularly in the trial area, have less opportunity to get into the court. I think that is a shame.”

Meath says “it’s an honor” to be recognized by his peers each year on Legal Elite. In addition to his practice, Meath teaches the economics of law at the University of Richmond School of Law. He is a labor and employment lawyer at Williams Mullen in Richmond who this year is being recognized on the Legal Elite list for his work in alternative dispute resolution.

“I have been able to research where the profession has gone, and the changes are profound,” he says. “The Great Recession in 2008 changed the profession forever in many ways.”

Some of those changes are directly related to the internet, which has made available worldwide information that was only available to the legal profession years ago.

Another difference is clients today are demanding “more for less,” Meath says. “They won’t accept rate increases without a value curve. Lawyers have to prove their value to clients in a different way.”

He urges young lawyers to reinvent themselves every three to four years to keep current. “Things are moving so fast, and you have to be more conscious of that to provide more value to clients,” he says.

The reliance on email and text communication in a law firm today makes it easier for lawyers to “get isolated and a little lonely,” says Keith, who practices commercial litigation with Blankingship & Keith in Fairfax. “We used to sit in each other’s offices and talk about cases, but we don’t do that as much any more.”

He thinks it’s difficult for lawyers to have a general practice today because of an increasing need for specialization. “I miss the variety,” he says.

That’s why he feels it’s important for young lawyers to “find yourself a good mentor,” he says. Seeing a seasoned lawyer in action can be very beneficial. “Learning from older lawyers is a great way to learn,” he says.

He also encourages young lawyers to find a legal specialty they really enjoy. “If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, the days get pretty long,” he says.

Below is a list of all 26 lawyers who have made the Legal Elite list for 18 consecutive years.

Suffolk-based peanut company teams up with Operation Smile

Virginia Beach-based Operation Smile has provided hundreds of thousands of free surgeries in developing countries to children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates or other facial deformities. This year the nonprofit organization is celebrating its 35th anniversary.

Operation Smile’s surgeries can change these young patients’ lives, not only changing their appearance but also greatly improving their ability to eat. But there is a catch. To undergo surgery, patients typically cannot be malnourished.

Operation Smile explains that malnourished patients are at risk for lengthier hospital stays, more infections, more post-operative complications and even death. Therefore, patients who suffer from malnutrition are often delayed for cleft surgery until they can gain enough weight.

George Birdsong, owner of Suffolk-based Birdsong Peanuts, learned of the problem and came up with a solution. He knew of a product called Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) that has shown promise in reducing malnutrition.

“The World Health Organization calls it a miracle food because it was so successful in saving lives in Africa,” Birdsong says.

The product contains peanut butter, powdered milk, vegetable oil, vitamins and minerals. It is produced by MANA Nutrition, a nonprofit company based in Georgia. Children who have difficulty eating because of cleft lips or palates can suck the formula out of foil RUTF packets.

As of early October, Birdsong had donated 540 cases of RUTF to Operation Smile. Each case contains 150 packets. “We have provided peanuts for the packets, but we do not make the packet or the formula,” he says. “We only deal in raw peanuts.”

RUTF shipments have been made to 10 countries. “We will add five more countries in the next six months,” says Melissa DiBona, Operation Smile’s director of legacy projects. “We will send the packets where the needs are greatest and the impacts are highest. Eventually we want to show that kids can get surgery because of the intervention.”

Birdsong will continue to donate peanuts for the RUTF packets for the “foreseeable future,” he says. “My intention is to do this on a continuing basis with Operation Smile. I hope to find out that it’s helpful to them.”

Regent University to open college of health-care sciences

Regent University expects its 10,000-student enrollment to swell when the university opens its College of Healthcare Sciences and School of Nursing next year.

“Health care is exploding around the nation,” says the university’s founder, CEO and chancellor, M.G. “Pat” Robertson. “Demand for quality health-care graduates is three times that of other fields.”

The country is seeing growing demand for health-care services at a time it is experiencing a shortage of professionals in the field.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in health-care occupations is projected to grow 19 percent through 2024, adding about 2.3 million jobs. By 2030, the number of new nursing jobs nationally is expected to grow by more than 1 million, with more than 32,000 of those jobs being created in Virginia.

Regent’s current health-care programs will be included in the new college, which is expected to open in fall 2018. The college initially will offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing, master’s degrees in health-care informatics and health-care administration, and a doctorate in nursing practice. The college is scheduled to phase in five new programs in 2019 and continue to roll out programs in future years. “The demand is overwhelming. Health care is so important because the population is getting older,” Robertson says.

The university is searching for a dean to head the college. David L. Bernd, former CEO of Sentara Healthcare in Virginia and North Carolina, is chairing an advisory board that will work with university leadership on the process.

The college at first will be located in Regent’s existing buildings, but plans call for “future facilities to support clinical education and training,” says Robertson. “The university has also secured partnerships with local health-care facilities for the use of clinical spaces for hands-on training for students. The Regent leadership team, supported by our advisory board, seeks to ensure that the new college and its programs are the best in class.”

Regent is one of the nation’s fastest-growing universities, currently posting 18 percent growth in enrollment compared with the same time period last year. That percentage is expected to grow by the end of the year.

“Regent is a dynamic school these days,” Robertson says. “We want to be on the cutting edge of education.”