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byline: Stephenie Overman

Arguing the case for diversity

Like many industries, law firms are taking a fresh look at hiring and retaining a new generation of employees who better reflect the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of today’s society at large.

This move toward diversity and inclusion has been more pronounced since The Coca-Cola Co. announced in January a new policy mandating that at least 30% of work it contracts from law firms must be performed by “diverse attorneys.” And of that amount, at least half of the billable hours must be earmarked for Black lawyers.

Many law firms have diversity plans and committees, “but Coca-Cola is saying they’re not seeing enough movement [from law firms]. So, they are setting down markers,” says A. Benjamin Spencer, dean of the William & Mary Law School.

Penalties for missing those targets will be severe, says Richard Ottinger, president of the Virginia Bar Association and a Norfolk-based partner at Vandeventer Black LLP. Under the new policy, he explains, firms not meeting Coca-Cola’s standards “could lose almost a third of their fees” and eventually even lose Coke as a client.

Spencer sees Coca-Cola’s announcement as a strong indication that “if law firms want to be competitive in the corporate world, they have to have diverse talent within their ranks.”

Richmond-based McGuireWoods LLP has been a “standout” in acquiring and developing a new generation of diverse legal talent, says Spencer. The firm has 1,000 lawyers in 21 offices worldwide.

Coca-Cola is “a highly valued client of the firm,” says McGuireWoods Managing Partner J. Tracy Walker IV, adding that the firm shares the beverage company’s goal “to drive real change in our industry.”

In the wake of the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the subsequent wave of Black Lives Matter protests, law firms must take stronger action to address issues of inclusion and racial justice, Walker says. That requires developing a culture that is attractive to lawyers of color, as well as to members of other underrepresented groups.

To achieve that, McGuireWoods tries “to be flexible and holistic in our hiring practices,” he adds. Overly rigid practices may limit the diversity of the law students who are hired, so the firm considers “a wide variety of factors in selecting who to make job offers to, and we start off the process with a diverse recruiting committee.”

As a result, McGuireWoods has achieved Mansfield Rule Certification, which means it has met goals for increasing diversity among new partners and in senior leadership and governance positions. It also requires that at least 30% of the candidates for such roles must be diverse — including Black, female or LGBTQ attorneys or people with disabilities. The certification was created by Diversity Lab, an incubator aimed at encouraging ideas to boost diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

Learning opportunities

The Richmond-based Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, a membership organization of more than 350 law firm leaders focused on creating diversity in the profession, sponsors a scholars’ program that provides diverse first-year law students with real-world experience. Participating students at McGuireWoods split their summers between working at the firm and working in the law departments of one of McGuireWoods’ clients to give them a broader experience of the profession, Walker says.

Williams Mullen’s director of talent management, Cinnamon A. Baker, says law firms should adopt a diversity and inclusion strategic plan. Photo by Shandell Taylor
Williams Mullen’s director of talent management, Cinnamon A. Baker, says law firms should adopt a diversity and inclusion strategic plan. Photo by Shandell Taylor

Richmond-based Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP also offers summer opportunities to diverse law school students. With about 860 lawyers, the firm also has achieved Mansfield Rule Certification and is a charter member of the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance, a coalition of 125 U.S. law firms.

The firm offers a summer associate mentorship program, pairing diverse students with two diverse attorneys. And like McGuireWoods, Hunton Andrews Kurth also provides a “hybrid experience” that teaches a diverse group of law students about law firm and in-house corporate practices, according to partner Rudene Mercer Haynes. Corporate partners in the program include McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp.

“It’s one part of our pipeline building. It’s the best of both worlds. [Students] have research projects, they see what it looks like from an internal client’s point of view,” Haynes says of the summer program. “They sit in on board meetings. It gives them an insider’s view.”

Hunton Andrews Kurth also holds an annual “Summer Associate Diversity & Inclusion HAK-athon,” an event that convenes small groups of summer associates to brainstorm ways to enhance the firm’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

As director of talent management at
Richmond-based law firm Williams Mullen, Cinnamon A. Baker oversees diversity and inclusion initiatives for the firm, which has approximately 240 attorneys. She says it’s important for firms to have a diversity and inclusion strategic plan that is communicated to candidates as well as the firm’s employees.

To expand the talent pool of next-generation candidates to include racial and ethnic minorities as well as LGBTQ people and people with disabilities, Williams Mullen has an annual diversity fellowship program for two first-year law students, Baker says. The firm also has affinity networks designed to provide a space for lawyers from diverse backgrounds to provide mutual support to each other in managing their careers. And Williams Mullen is involved with groups such as the Hill Tucker Bar Association, one of the state’s oldest historically African American bar associations, and the Metropolitan Richmond Women’s Bar Association.

Baker and Ottinger both have found a small silver lining to recruiting during the COVID-19 pandemic: The need to conduct interviews virtually has enabled them to reach beyond their traditional campus networks and connect with a wider range of students.

Beyond recruitment

Hiring, however, is just the first step in building diversity and inclusion, Walker emphasizes. “Retention and promotion are equally, if not more, important.”

McGuireWoods works to ensure that lawyers from all backgrounds “have a meaningful opportunity not only to work on our clients’ most important matters, but to lead our client/matter teams,”
he says.

McGuireWoods Managing Partner J. Tracy Walker IV says his firm shares client Coca-Cola’s goal “to drive real change” by addressing diversity and equity issues in recruiting and retention. Photo by Shandell Taylor
McGuireWoods Managing Partner J. Tracy Walker IV says his firm shares client Coca-Cola’s goal “to drive real change” by addressing diversity and equity issues in recruiting and retention. Photo by Shandell Taylor

Having good role models has been key to retention, according to Walker. New associates want to be able “to see the person ahead of [them] who is having success, whether it’s women, lawyers of color or LGBTQ lawyers.” McGuireWoods’ chairman, Jonathan Harmon, is Black and has spoken out publicly against racism and discrimination, notably in a June 2020 column published by The Wall Street Journal.

Norfolk-based Vandeventer Black, which has about 60 attorneys, has lost some minority associates to opportunities at bigger firms in larger cities such as Atlanta, Ottinger says. That has enabled the firm to concentrate more on retention and promotions. “We’ve changed our focus. We’re not just trying to find them. We want to give minority associates a roadmap so that they will be able to see a path, a future.”

Vandeventer Black has established a diversity committee that “spends a lot of time and effort creating a welcoming environment for all minorities, all genders. … It takes a lot of work but it’s paying off. It’s almost a snowball effect,” he adds.

To better understand how to retain members of underrepresented groups at Hunton Andrews Kurth, Haynes says she took an introspective look at how she has managed to succeed as an African American woman — a “unicorn” in the legal profession.

Haynes believes the answer has been “the sponsors I’ve had in my life, the senior white men and women who took the time to help me have learning experiences. I received that tutelage organically.” Now she’s trying to re-create the experience on a broader scale with a program pairing experienced mentors with minority attorneys.

“So many people leave the practice. They feel isolated. Pressures make the experience uncomfortable and inauthentic,” she says. What they need is “a partner/sponsor to meet with, to talk with about what’s on their plate — someone to be giving them feedback, looking after them.

“It’s time-intensive. It’s a real investment,” she says, but it’s an investment that pays dividends in building a new, diverse generation of lawyers. 

Although “there is a burden on women in the law like there never has been before” because of the pandemic, Baker says she has not seen a trend of women dropping out of the workforce.

Priming the Pump

Virginia law schools are doing their part to create a pipeline of diverse legal talent for the future.

George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School is planning a partnership program with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to expand its applicant pool.

“Our faculty will help teach some undergraduate courses. Students will spend the summer with us at the law school. We will provide funding,” says Kenneth Randall, who became dean of the Arlington-based law school in December.

Tuition and debt concerns often are barriers for law students from diverse backgrounds and students who are the first ones in their families to attend law school. 

George Mason has been studying tuition forgiveness for young lawyers but hasn’t taken any steps yet, Randall says.

“We address that on the front end” by keeping tuition low and giving out scholarships, he says. “We don’t make loans to students, but we more than cut [tuition] in half with scholarship money we give out.” That way, “students graduate with lower debt.”

Washington and Lee School of Law offers several scholarships that are specifically designated for members of underrepresented minority groups.

In the past, tuition aid at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg was “not focused on people from particular groups,” but A. Benjamin Spencer has changed that since he became the school’s dean (and the first African American dean of any school at the university) in July 2020. Now, Spencer says, the law school offers “financial aid designated for students applying from historically Black colleges and universities, first-generation students and students with a demonstrated commitment to racial and social justice.”

William & Mary and the University of Virginia School of Law provide assistance to law students who take low-paying public service legal jobs after graduation.

Through the University of Virginia School of Law Loan Forgiveness Program, qualified applicants may be eligible to receive benefits equal to 100% of loan repayment obligations for their law school loans.

The goal of this type of aid, Spencer says, “is to incentivize people to go into low-paying positions to help people as a lawyer. It’s to serve the underserved.”

A bright spot

The coronavirus pandemic divided Loudoun County into two worlds in 2020 — tech and touch, says Buddy Rizer, the county’s executive director for economic development.

While the pandemic devastated in-person “touch” businesses such as restaurants, shops and service providers, Northern Virginia’s tech-related companies continued to forge new deals. The number of major announcements in Northern Virginia last year represents “votes of confidence in our future,” says Julie Coons, president and CEO of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

Much of Northern Virginia prospered despite the pandemic because “the federal government continues to need partners,” Coons says.

Loudoun’s economic development department concentrated on “trying to continue with the growth in tech industry and to support touch as much as we could,” says Rizer.

“Data centers probably had their biggest year. We’ve had 26 fast-track applicants since March,” he says. “Microsoft, Google, [Amazon Web Services] — all have increased their footprint.” Equinix Inc. also opened a data center in Ashburn, the second addition to its campus last year, and European multinational aerospace corporation Airbus SE added more than 500 jobs.

Fairfax County

Reston saw a lot of activity in 2020, with expansion announcements by several key corporate tenants.

Microsoft Corp. was the big deal in Fairfax County last year, having announced in May that it would invest $64 million to establish a software development and regional R&D hub in Reston Town Center, creating 1,500 jobs by this summer. The move comes nearly two decades after the software giant established its first facility in Virginia in 2002, the Innovation & Technology Conference Center at Reston Town Center. In early January, Microsoft announced it would lease space in Arlington, where its U.S.-regulated industries team, including Microsoft Federal, will be located by mid-2022.

Also, Volkswagen Group of America Inc. announced in October 2020 it was signing a 20-year lease agreement at Reston Town Center. Volkswagen will be the anchor tenant in a 1.1-million-square-foot development under construction, and it plans to occupy 196,000 square feet of the space.

Keeping Volkswagen in Fairfax County, where it has had its North American headquarters for more than a decade, was critical, says Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. “We’re really glad they made this decision. It was on pause for a long time.”

Macedon Technologies, an IT services company, announced that it would invest $1.65 million to expand its corporate headquarters in Reston, creating 147 jobs, and Carahsoft Technology Corp. announced plans to add 200 jobs.

In December 2020, Peraton Inc., a Herndon-based affiliate of Veritas Capital, signed an agreement to acquire Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Falls Church-based federal IT and mission support services business for $3.4 billion in cash. And in January, Peraton announced its $7.1 billion cash acquisition of Chantilly-based tech contractor Perspecta Inc.

“Technology is still having a very strong expansion. That’s probably the most important thing to note. Tech companies for us are like data centers for Loudoun,” Hoskins says.

Aerotek, a provider of recruiting and staffing services that specializes in IT positions, announced plans last June to add 1,500 new jobs in Fairfax County.

Arlington County

Telly Tucker arrived as director of Arlington Economic Development in late January 2020, excited about the prospect of expanding upon Amazon.com Inc.’s HQ2 plans in National Landing.

But within a matter of weeks, he and his office “had quite a shock for our system,” courtesy of the coronavirus.

“It’s challenging in a pandemic to make larger deals, but despite the pandemic we were able to pivot to do things virtually,” Tucker says. “While we didn’t have the volume, there were plenty of bright spots, even in the midst of COVID.”

He counts “10 substantial deals” in 2020, adding more than 205,000 square feet of occupied business space and more than 650 jobs. Energix Renewable Energies Ltd., one of Israel’s largest renewable energy companies, announced plans in August to invest $1.1 million to establish its U.S. subsidiary headquarters in Arlington.

Construction of Amazon’s $2.5 billion, 2.1-million-square-foot headquarters campus is “still on schedule,” says Tucker, with developer JBG Smith managing the construction of the first phase. Renovations of a 14-story office building under lease by the e-tailer were completed in December, ready for move-in two quarters early and under its $80 million budget. Tucker notes that Amazon’s HQ2 employment grew to 1,500 employees this year.

Retention also played an important role last year in Arlington’s economy. Raytheon Technologies Corp. renewed its 116,000-square-foot office lease in Rosslyn, and the Public Broadcasting Service chose to stay in Arlington.

Prince William County

Holladay Property Services Midwest Inc. announced plans in February 2020 to buy 4.4 acres in Innovation Park in Manassas to develop into 30,000 square feet of wet lab and office space as a hub for early-stage life sciences and biotech companies.

A “wet lab” is a laboratory fully equipped for hands-on scientific research and experimentation.

The Northern Virginia BioScience Center, the first wet lab of its kind for the region, will provide space for companies graduating from the park’s Science Accelerator, according to Prince William County Executive Director Christina Winn. Innovation Park is next to George Mason University’s STEM campus.

Nearly a dozen companies are in the accelerator, many working on COVID-related projects. “The challenge has been that when they are ready to move on, we haven’t had a space for them. There’s nowhere in Northern Virginia,” Winn says. Now, “we’re creating a life science ecosystem.”

Bioscience has been a bright spot during the pandemic, in addition to data and distribution centers, Winn says. “Luckily, Prince William County is diverse in terms of its economic base. In 2020 the county closed [deals on] 11 projects — 191 jobs, $1.7 million in investment, 2 million square feet.”

In July, International Gourmet Foods Inc., a wholesale distributor of gourmet specialty products, announced that it would invest $15.6 million to establish a new 130,000-square-foot headquarters in the county, which will bring 169 new jobs. Also, Amazon announced it will build two distribution facilities in Prince William.

Alexandria

North Old Town Alexandria will be getting a substantial makeover, with Hilco Redevelopment Partners’ purchase of the Potomac River Generating Station (PRGS), an approximately 20-acre industrial site directly on the Potomac River. 

The sale of the decommissioned 71-year-old power plant, announced in November, “is top of everyone’s mind now,” says Stephanie Landrum, president and CEO of the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership. “This opportunity with views of downtown D.C. is about as unique as it gets. As a community we have been focused on recovering this asset.”

A development company with a history of transforming obsolete facilities, “Hilco gives us a partner who has experience in these projects,” Landrum says. The sale amount was not disclosed.

Melissa Schrock, Hilco’s senior vice president of mixed-use development, says the former industrial site will be “re-envisioned” for “new uses such as housing, commercial office, dining and retail, and public open space along the Potomac River.”

Another milestone for the city last year was Inova Health Systems’ announcement in late December of a $1 billion medical campus on the 51-acre site of the former Landmark Mall. It will anchor a 4-million-square-foot mixed-use development that includes residential, commercial, retail and entertainment. 

Inova HealthPlex will be part of a redeveloped Alexandria neighborhood across from Potomac Yard, near Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus and Amazon’s HQ2. Inova signed a deal with Carras Partners and Stonebridge Associates, which will oversee the development, expected to begin construction this year. The project includes two multifamily residential buildings with 577 units and 55,000 square feet of retail space.

One surprising bright spot in 2020, Winn says, is that coworking spaces, shut down at the beginning of the pandemic, later saw an uptick in Alexandria. “There was interest from corporations and individuals to have a space to work rather than downtown. It’s an unexpected positive.”

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A shot in the arm

Virginia’s Best Places to Work were hit by the consequences of COVID-19 just like every other business this year. But characteristics that won them the “best places” title — including flexibility, great benefits and distinctive cultures — are sustaining them through the lengthy pandemic.

Since 2011, Virginia Business and Pennsylvania-based Best Companies Group have collaborated to identify the commonwealth’s best workplaces. One hundred companies were chosen for the 2021 Best Places to Work list in three categories: small, midsize and large businesses.

One of those best companies — ThunderCat Technology LLC — has always embraced the motto “work hard, play hard,” says co-founder and CEO Tom Deierlein. Before the pandemic hit, the Reston-based federal IT contractor hosted family picnics, arranged trips to sporting events and even sponsored a sky diving outing.

During the pandemic, the company is maintaining its emphasis on “performance, community, family and fun,” Deierlein says, by hosting virtual events such as a “funny hat happy hour” and a T-shirt design contest for employees’ children. ThunderCat has continued its community involvement by providing meals to local health care professionals and donating to food pantries.

Drushal. Photos courtesy ThunderCat Technology LLC, Total Quality Logistics
Drushal. Photos courtesy ThunderCat Technology LLC, Total Quality Logistics

ThunderCat’s nearly 100 employees made what Deierlein describes as a seamless move to teleworking when the coronavirus hit because employees had experience working from home and because “we have always had a results-only work environment where people are expected to get their job done without regard to ‘time in the office.’ … We have never really been a 9-to-5 company.”

Employee engagement

Total Quality Logistics, a Cincinnati-based freight brokerage firm that works with more than 85,000 carriers, is known for an open office environment full of  “high energy team members,” says Corey Drushal, its marketing and culture manager.

The company’s approximately 5,000 employees, including about 70 workers in Virginia, had not worked from home before the pandemic, so making the switch to teleworking was a big challenge.

“It was all hands on deck. We had to think quickly and change course,” Drushal says. “What allowed us to do that is our culture. Our philosophy is that employees come first, so the question was, how can we make sure they are taken care of?” As a result of the company’s philosophy, “the level of transparency has been really high. So has the level of trust.”

Total Quality Logistics is particularly proud of its commitment to volunteerism and to giving back to the community, she adds. When employees couldn’t volunteer in person due to pandemic restrictions, the company concentrated on its Moves That Matter program, which coordinates the transportation of donated goods to nonprofit and community organizations.

When a load of food, water or safety equipment is donated, “we coordinate and cover the cost to move it. This has been going on for six years, but with the pandemic, the need has increased. We just made a million-dollar commitment to the program,” she says.

Moves That Matter benefits employees as well as charitable organizations. “They are donating their expertise to help communities. It reminds our employees of what we’re all about.”

Like many other companies, Total Quality Logistics hosts virtual social events to keep employees connected during their time away from the office. One weekly trivia night had an unusual twist, according to Drushal: “It ended with one of the employees proposing to another employee. He asked her would she marry him” — in trivia question form.

Employer of choice

Instead of cookouts and parties, Chesbay Distributing is holding online happy hours and sent home meals to employees’ families, says President and General Manager Patrick Collins. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Instead of cookouts and parties, Chesbay Distributing is holding online happy hours and sent home meals to employees’ families, says President and General Manager Patrick Collins. Photo by Mark Rhodes

Another Best Places to Work business in Virginia is Community Housing Partners (CHP) in Christiansburg.

One of CHP’s main goals has been to be an employer of choice, says Laura Croft, vice president of human capital. When COVID-19 hit, she says, the organization was determined to maintain that reputation.

“Our executives have made decisions in the best interest of employees and communicated that well. And it shows. Every decision has been very employee-focused. It has shown when people have gotten sick or at high risk [of contracting the coronavirus],” Croft says.

About 350 people work for the nonprofit organization, which coordinates with private and public partners to develop and preserve homes and neighborhoods. Some employees have been able to telework, but many are in property management positions that require interaction with residents.

CHP set up strict protocols to protect residents and employees, she notes, and “we’ve supplied PPE [personal protective equipment]. The challenge is we have over a hundred locations to ship to. It’s not so much our size but that we’re spread out so much.”

Last fall, the organization expanded its flexible working hours to help employees cope with school-related disruptions.

Safety first

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, working from home wasn’t an option for most of Chesapeake-based Chesbay Distributing Co. Inc.’s 170 employees.

The company sells and distributes imported and domestic beers throughout Southeastern Virginia. “We drive around in 18-wheelers,” says President and General Manager Patrick Collins. “We’re in the service industry.”

Croft
Croft

Concern for the safety of both employees and members of the community has always been a key part of the company’s culture, according to Collins. When the pandemic hit, “one of the things we did was build on that foundation from a safety standpoint. We made sure we had PPE. We provide that free of charge” to employees who meet with customers.

Before the pandemic, Chesbay Distributing held cookouts, turkey fries and open houses that “looked like an amusement park. There were bands and DJs,” he says. And, of course, “there was always beer.”

Now, instead of in-person gatherings, the company has held online happy hours, sent home prepared meals for employees’ families and provided board games, Collins says. “My wife and I chose Scrabble.”

Chesbay’s annual awards banquet, which is being held in February, will also be held virtually, he says.

Shaping the culture

Pre-pandemic, Richmond-based digital marketing firm Workshop Digital had what co-founder Brian Forrester calls “a fun, collaborative environment,” with outdoor activities for employees and community service opportunities such as volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.

Workshop Digital also had what Forrester terms a great benefits package with unlimited vacation. But “increasingly that’s not enough to separate you from other companies,” he says. What’s required to stand out and to make it through a crisis is having a strong culture and “giving the people the ability to help and shape that culture.”

Workshop Digital employees had to make an adjustment to the physical changes, according to Forrester. “We had no work from home option” for the firm’s approximately 30 employees. The company temporarily opened its office “and people came in one at a time. We said,  ‘Anything that helps, take it, so you can do your best work — anything that’s not bolted down.’”

Forrester
Forrester

Teleworking also necessitated mental and emotional adjustments. “You’re opening this window into your personal life. There’s the understanding that people have pets and children that will be visible in Zoom meetings. There are all those human elements.”

To support those human elements, “the two words we dialed up when COVID hit were ‘empathy’ and ‘transparency,’” Forrester says.

Empathy matters, he says, because “we know that everyone is handling and processing this differently.”

Transparency, Forrester explains, is critical because “as soon as COVID hit, there was a lot of fear of layoffs. We started doing weekly company updates. We’ve talked about our clients. We’ve talked about our sales pipeline. We’re giving them updates. We didn’t lay off anyone,” he says.

Deierlein of ThunderCat also stresses the importance of having a culture that recognizes and supports the human element because some of his employees are feeling isolated, some are homeschooling their children and others are taking care of elderly parents while teleworking.

“It’s the entire spectrum here, as it is with many places,” Deierlein says. “It’s important to remind people they were not alone and that others are struggling or dealing with similar issues and that they can get through it. In many ways we all became more human, more vulnerable and more transparent, more forgiving of delays and missteps.” 

ThunderCat leaders are asked to make sure they touch base with each of their team members — preferably by video conference, but at least by phone — once a week, he says. The company also provides numbers to call and websites to visit to get help if needed.

“We send out encouraging emails periodically reminding people that we are there to support them 100% if financial or health or mental health issues come up. We have reminded folks it is OK not to be OK, and to raise their hand. We give them reminders that we’ve got their back.”

ThunderCat is now taking steps to introduce new people to its culture, which is based on “performance, community, family and fun,” Deierlein says.  “Our VP of HR is planning a new round of company Zooms since we have actually done some hiring during the pandemic.”

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Physician, heal thyself

After the pandemic locked down businesses in mid-March, Dr. Frank Iuorno and his seven employees at West End Orthodontics in Glen Allen busied themselves with what he calls “housekeeping stuff.”

Like most dental and medical primary care practices, West End Orthodontics faced many challenges due to the pandemic, ranging from securing funding to stay afloat during the lockdown to finding ways to make his patients feel safe and comfortable to return for care.

First, Iuorno says, he was “bound and determined” to keep his staff employed and, with the help of creative workarounds and a Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, “we weathered that storm pretty well.”

West End Orthodontics reopened in May after Gov. Ralph Northam lifted restrictions for dentists. By the first week of July, Iuorno says, the practice was back to 80% to 90% of normal patient volume.

It now has a new look and feel, designed to keep both staff and patients safe. “There’s a whole new set of forms and systems to screen patients and to keep the reception area clear,” says Iuorno, president of the Virginia Dental Association. His team produced a video to instruct patients about what all these revamped procedures look like. The video includes a scene of one staff member sitting in a car pretending to be a patient, talking by phone, getting instructions.

Getting the staff to feel comfortable with the changes was initially more difficult than gaining patients’ acceptance, he says, but he believes that having a small practice made it a little easier. “Getting buy-in from seven or eight people is one thing. It would be hard with 50.”

All of these revised safety features are critical, Iuorno notes, but he misses the in-person interaction.

“I do an adjustment and then go meet with Mom or Dad out in the car” for a quick meeting, he says. “I do a lot of phone calling.” He also performed some teledentistry but allows that “there’s not a lot that can be done” that way, other than monitoring a patient.

Receiving a PPP loan “was integral to keeping my employees on payroll and employed during our six-week shutdown,” Iuorno says. “Without the loan, I would have had to furlough nearly all employees, and as it stood, we were able to keep everyone off of unemployment.” He plans to apply for loan forgiveness once the protocol has been worked out.

Dr. Dipa Patel says a PPP loan allowed her to retain her four employees during the pandemic.
Dr. Dipa Patel says a PPP loan allowed her to retain her four employees during the pandemic.

Dr. Dipa Patel, an oral surgeon who is a past president of the Virginia Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, also credits PPP with saving her business. An estimated 5.2 million loans were approved around the country under the SBA program, which was set up to provide emergency relief assistance for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.

Patel’s practice in Arlington was shut down for six weeks, except for emergencies, and her office in Washington was closed an additional two weeks. She describes a roller coaster of financial ups and downs since reopening. Business in “May was at about 50%. June was practically a regular month. … July was down to 60%. August was at 80% to 90%. September has been quiet, with lots of people rescheduling.”

Patel employs four people and says, “PPP was a lifeline. It helped me retain my employees and it allowed us to continue rent payments while we had no revenue.” She also plans to apply for loan forgiveness.

Dr. Barrett W.R. Peters, immediate past president of the Virginia Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, says, “We came up with a completely new protocol” to protect both patients and staff at his specialty pediatric dentistry practice in Charlottesville and its satellite office in Waynesboro. “We changed procedures,” he says. “We chose to put in hospital-grade air filtration. We use more PPE [personal protection equipment].”

He adds that PPP helped cover payroll, rents, “exorbitant PPE costs,” and other increased office overhead due to COVID-19.

Peters
Peters

“Now we’re close to 90% [volume] but it’s time-consuming and exhausting to get the same thing done. Most people have been very respectful and receptive.”

Economic remedies

Virginia medical practices also benefited greatly from the loan program, according to Dr. Clifford Deal, immediate past president of the Medical Society of Virginia (MSV). “PPP saved everybody. Everybody I talked to said so.”

A Medical Group Management Association survey found that 97% of physician practices had lost money by April due to the pandemic, and nearly half had furloughed employees. As of mid-September, Deal estimated that most Virginia medical practices were running at full volume or close to it. He adds that the size of the practice matters. “Large practices have pivoted much more easily than small practices.”

Dr. Sandy Chung is CEO of Trusted Doctors, a large pediatrics management services organization in Northern Virginia, and president of Fairfax Pediatric Associates. The volume of patients at her pediatrics practice dropped below 50% during the early months of the lockdown but she estimates that it had risen to about 80% by early October.

However, she sees a number of practices where physicians are still taking pay cuts and some people remain furloughed. “I think some will be permanent. Practices can’t afford to rehire everyone.”
Pediatric practices are especially hard hit because “parents are still afraid to be out with their children,” says Chung, immediate past president of the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. That’s obviously a business concern, but it also brings up health concerns, she adds: “We’re worried about children’s vaccination schedules and developmental issues.”

Dr. Sandy Chung, CEO of Trusted Doctors, saw the volume of patients at her pediatrics practice drop below 50% during the early months of the lockdown.
Dr. Sandy Chung, CEO of Trusted Doctors, saw the volume of patients at her pediatrics practice drop below 50% during the early months of the lockdown.

To raise patient volume back to pre-pandemic levels, health practitioners need to explore ways to make patients feel safer, Chung says. For example, “to minimize the number of people who are inside an office, a local van can go to homes or you can have curbside service for checkups.”

Hospitals also were hit hard by the pandemic’s lockdowns and economic crisis. Hospital patient volumes and resulting revenue dropped substantially at the onset of the pandemic and didn’t bounce back to expected levels once restrictions were lifted, according to Chicago-based consulting firm Crowe Revenue Cycle Analytics. Even with elective medical procedures resuming, Crowe reports the average U.S. hospital was down $56.3 million of net patient service revenue (annualized) due to COVID-19 as of mid-August.

Norfolk-based Sentara Healthcare, which operates in Virginia and North Carolina, declined to about 50% of patient volume but had returned to “about 92% of our normal clinical activity” by mid-September, according to COO Michael Gentry. “Outpatient care is now north of 95%. It’s not fully recovered, but very close.”

Bon Secours, in Hampton Roads and Richmond, is also on the road to recovery, according to Dr. Douglas Apple, chief clinical officer for Bon Secours Mercy Health’s Atlantic Group, based in Cincinnati. “Ambulatory care rebounded fairly quickly. We’re doing fairly well with that.”

It helped to be part of a larger system, Apple added, because Bon Secours hospitals in Virginia could learn from sister hospitals in other states. “We had a little bit of a lag time. Youngstown, Ohio, was hit hard. We were able to learn from that; it allowed us to adjust.”

An important factor in bringing back ambulatory care and outpatient services was putting screening programs in place and separating out coronavirus cases, Apple says. “Red” clinics were set up for COVID-related care and “green” clinics were set up for other care.

“We started looking at visitation. Who should be at the bedside? We needed to manage traffic flow. We reconverted spaces; conference rooms were turned into waiting rooms,” he says. “We made sure everyone understood the processes and that we answered their questions about safety.”

Take two aspirin and Zoom me

One small bright spot from the lockdown, according to Apple and other health care practitioners, is the increased use of telemedicine.

“We have seen a significant increase in televisits, and it’s not just for things that are COVID-related,” Apple says.

With telemonitoring tools, patients can have their vital signs — such as weight, blood pressure and blood sugar — checked while they remain at home. Health care providers can interact with patients and even diagnose diseases from a distance.

Also, he notes, “prescriptions used to require a doctor’s visit. Now people can use telehealth.” That change is popular with patients, too. Doctors.com reports that 93% of patients surveyed “would be likely to use telemedicine to get prescriptions filled or to learn more about their prescriptions from their doctors.”

Doctors.com also found that 91% of those surveyed said telemedicine would assist them with setting up appointments and following treatment regimens.

That may help with preventive care, which Apple says still is lagging. “I have concerns we have not gotten where we need to be. We’re still seeing delayed care in areas such as diabetes, hypertension. We don’t see the same number of visits. A lot of patients [are] not receiving regular care. How do we get back to what is normal for us?”

At Sentara, “a different way to care for COVID patients” was established to provide a safer environment, according to Gentry. “Usually you want human-to-human interaction, but we set up visits that were longer but less frequent and included fewer people. Staff members were in a room for longer periods of time, doing a wider variety of tasks.” That means that fewer staff members are exposed and they don’t need to use as much personal protection equipment, which remains in short supply.

It’s important not only to implement safety procedures but to communicate those procedures to employees and to potential patients who may not be seeking non-emergency care because they’re afraid of potentially exposing themselves to the coronavirus, Gentry says. “The comparison I make is, you’re walking down the street at night — do you feel safe or are you actually safe? For employee team members and the community, we want both. It’s more difficult to get that feeling of safety.”

 

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Law and disorder

The coronavirus pandemic shutdowns led some Virginia law firms to furlough employees and cut pay. Will an onslaught of COVID-19-related litigation be enough to prevent another wave of cutbacks?

Bill Van Buren, president and chairman of Norfolk-based Kaufman & Canoles PC, estimates that staffing levels at law firms throughout the country “are down 10% to 20%” because of pandemic-related cost cuts.

At Kaufman & Canoles, “We haven’t laid anyone off,” Van Buren says, but in the early stages of the economic crisis, the firm initially furloughed approximately 10% of its roughly 100-person workforce throughout the state. After receiving a Paycheck Protection Program loan, the firm suspended the furlough, however.

Nearly half of the 100 largest U.S. law firms have taken steps to trim costs in response to the pandemic, according to a July 23 Bloomberg Law report. But “a handful of firms say their first-half business was better than expected, so they’re reversing or reducing some pay cuts,” according to Bloomberg.

During the early stages of the economic crisis, Kaufman & Canoles temporarily furloughed about 10% of its workforce, says the firm’s president and chairman, Bill Van Buren. Photo by Mark Rhodes
During the early stages of the economic crisis, Kaufman & Canoles temporarily furloughed about 10% of its workforce, says the firm’s president and chairman, Bill Van Buren. Photo by Mark Rhodes

Another national report from Law360 states that while “experts expect a second wave of crisis and layoffs in the fall, firms may move the cuts up the ladder, targeting the senior lawyers who do not have an ownership stake in the firm.”

The pandemic slowed the merger between Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders LLP and Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton LLP. And while the situation didn’t result in mandatory furloughs, 33 people in Troutman Sanders’ 250-person Richmond office took voluntary leave in May, says Brooks Smith, managing partner for the Richmond office of the merged Troutman Pepper, said. Almost all furloughed staff members were expected back at work by the end of August.

There also have been temporary salary reductions, tiered so that there was less impact on lower paying positions, Smith says. “The firm has done incredibly well during the pandemic, but legal is sometimes a lagging indicator, so it’s sound fiscal management,” he adds.

The merger of the two firms was pushed back from April  to July 1, due to the pandemic. The combined 1,100-lawyer firm is based in Atlanta and has offices in Virginia Beach and Richmond.

The jury’s out

After the crisis began to impact her solo employment law practice, Virginia Beach-based attorney Lisa A. Bertini says, “I immediately furloughed my associate and receptionist. The receptionist resigned and the associate found a new job in D.C. where he wanted to be anyway.” The firm still has a paralegal and an office manager.

When the shutdowns began in mid-March, “it was unsettling for the first four to eight weeks. The phone got quieter. I was worried about [paying] rent and meeting payroll,” she says. Bertini handles employee discrimination and harassment lawsuits but, she says, “this was not the time to want to sue your employer.”

“I’m able to get calls, etc. I go to administrative hearings. I do fact finding. I meet with clients — with masks and social distancing,” she says. “It’s kept me busy, but I don’t know that I would have been able to keep an associate busy full time. I made the right decision.”

While some legal work has been able to continue, jury trials came to a halt when the lockdowns began. The Virginia Supreme Court issued a March 16 Declaration of Judicial Emergency stating that no jury trials could convene anywhere in the commonwealth. The order was extended until at least the end of August, except for four local circuit courts that received Virginia Supreme Court approval to restart jury trials: Alleghany, Henrico and Stafford counties and the city of Norfolk.

The Supreme Court put together a task force and asked each district court to submit a plan to resume jury trials. The plan must be approved by a panel of three justices in consultation with the Office of the Executive Secretary.

“Much of court’s business has moved forward. But there’s a backlog [and] there’s a concern about how the courts will manage the influx of work” after jury trials resume, says Monica T. Monday, managing partner of Roanoke-based Gentry Locke Attorneys, which also has offices in Richmond and Lynchburg.

Jonathan Harmon, chairman of McGuireWoods LLP in Richmond, sees the Virginia Supreme Court’s steps as positive but isn’t making any predictions about when jury trials will be back statewide. “We have a ton of litigators. Some of them say late fall, others say not till the first quarter [2021]. Civil litigation is moving slowly.”

Silver lining for law firms

As with any crisis, the coronavirus pandemic also presents opportunities, Monday says. Attorneys “are anticipating new litigation caused by the upheaval created by the pandemic.”

So much so that Torsten M. Kracht, a Washington, D.C.-based partner at Richmond-headquartered law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, is tracking the wave of COVID-19 litigation with a webpage featuring an interactive map and dashboard tracking coronavirus-related lawsuits around the nation. (www.huntonak.com/en/covid-19-tracker.html)

“It gets a very steady flow of hits every day” since its April launch, says Kracht. Since mid-August, he has identified about 4,300 separate coronavirus-related lawsuits, excluding bankruptcy filings.

“The biggest group of cases … are businesses suing insurers for denying business interruption coverage,” he says. There are also civil rights cases related to matters such as mandated business closures and “cases that are challenging different measures related to voting. I expect that category will heat up as we get closer to the election.”

There are also unlawful termination cases filed by employees who say they were wrongfully let go after complaining about COVID-19 policies, as well as consumer cases. “There are a lot of class actions against universities for failing to give refunds when they switched to online education,” Kracht says.

Harmon with McGuireWoods foresees a big increase in pandemic-related bankruptcy cases, especially in such hard-hit industries as travel, retail and health care. He also anticipates employment and labor lawsuits as well as class action litigation relating to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

McGuireWoods LLP Chairman Jonathan P. Harmon anticipates an increase in pandemic-related bankruptcy cases and litigation. Photo courtesy McGuireWoods LLP
McGuireWoods LLP Chairman Jonathan P. Harmon anticipates an increase in pandemic-related bankruptcy cases and litigation. Photo courtesy McGuireWoods LLP

“Unfortunately I think there’s going to be more claims against financial advisers, wealth managers,” he adds.

Monday predicts an uptick in white-collar criminal cases such as price gouging as a result of the pandemic. She also expects more higher education cases as universities and colleges try to bring students and employees back to campus.

Troutman Pepper set up a COVID-19 resource center that is generating business for its attorneys not only in litigation, but in tax, real estate, construction cybersecurity and government regulation, Smith says.

“We may well see COVID-specific but also COVID-related work across all practice,” he says. “I’m an environmental lawyer and I saw a lot of work at the beginning of the pandemic. People were bringing new products to market. We have a strong employment practice and those folks are very busy.”

Bertini has begun to see new employment cases, particularly related to the Americans with Disabilities Act. “Employers are worried about liability. They don’t want employees getting sick. They want to make a profit and pay people. Doctors, nurses, medical assistants feel they are really stuck. They are not provided with the same rights as nonmedical personnel under [the Family Medical Leave Act],” she says. “I don’t have answers for these people. There’s no precedent in this area.”

Adding to all the changes brought about by the pandemic, the General Assembly passed new laws this year that increased protections for LGBTQ people and expanded protections for employees who engage in certain whistleblowing activities.

“I think we’ll see more whistleblowers cases. That makes employers nervous,” Bertini says.

Technology to the rescue

Throughout the lockdown, technology — well-funded technology — has come to rescue of law firms.

McGuireWoods “spent a lot of money on technology. It’s been fairly seamless” making the transition to remote work, Harmon says. The firm had some logistical concerns, such as how to effectively cross-examine key witnesses during remote depositions, but “we’ve been surprised by how much we can do. We’re weathering the storm well. Once everything gets back, I think we’ve learned that we can do some of these things remotely.”

Troutman Pepper also “has a great system of technology,” Smith says. “We didn’t miss a beat going remote.” The system includes protected platforms that ensure that client information is not compromised, he adds.

Monday. Photo courtesy Gentry Locke Attorneys

And at Gentry Locke, “we saw our technology carry the day,” Monday says. “In mid-March, when everything hit, on a dime we made the decision to send almost everybody home.” She calls working remotely “a great involuntary experiment.”

The biggest challenge hasn’t been on the tech side, she says. “It’s the soft, interpersonal side. There’s forced isolation, reduced personal interaction. It’s hard for people to collaborate.”

To overcome any sense of isolation, Gentry Locke not only has regular remote business meetings, but younger associates are putting together remote social events, she says. Monday also began sending out a daily email as soon as they left the office. “It provides opportunities for remote training, for humor; it keeps people connected and informed,” she says. “It was daily; now it’s twice a week.”

Troutman Pepper works hard to make the newly merged firm feel like a big family. “We have Zoom calls and happy hours,” Smith says.  “One associate who is a mixologist in San Francisco taught people how to [virtually] make classic drinks and we sent out kits to make the drinks. People take photos. We’re trying to stay connected.”

Not everyone appreciates the great involuntary experiment, however. “I hate it. It is definitely possible to help people remotely, but I miss the connection,” Bertini says.

Without face-to-face contact, she says, “I don’t know what kind of witness a person will make. How do I know I want to have a professional relationship with this person?” 

Virginia Business Editor Richard Foster contributed to this story.

 

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Amazon scoops up more NoVa land

Another quarter, another Amazon.com Inc. buying spree in Northern Virginia.

In January, the company bought 6.2 acres in Arlington County, the location of HQ2, for $154.95 million. According to county records, Acorn Development LLC, an Amazon subsidiary, bought the land from JBG Smith Properties, from which it leases its current HQ2 buildings.

The e-tailer has a policy against sharing its plans for properties, but Buddy Rizer, the executive director of Loudoun County’s economic development department, says he expects Amazon Data Services, also known as Vadata, to use 100 acres it bought last December in Loudoun to build three or four data centers.

H&M Gudelsky Asset Management LLC sold the land to Vadata for $73 million, well over the assessed value of nearly $3.5 million, according to Loudoun County. The land is zoned Mineral Resource/Heavy Industry. Vadata also purchased a 2.4 million-square-foot site just across the border in Fairfax County.

In October, Vadata paid a reported $54 million for 57 acres owned by Perspecta Enterprise Solutions LLC, an affiliate of Perspecta Inc., according to Fairfax County land records. The property is zoned for industrial development and is home to a building constructed in the 1980s for Electronic Data Systems, the company founded by     the late H. Ross Perot, and now used by Perspecta, a spinoff company that shares much of EDS’ DNA. Outside sits a gigantic bronze and iron eagle, which will be moved to Perspecta’s headquarters in Chantilly’s Stonegate II office park, says Lorraine Corcoran, the company’s vice president of marketing and corporate communications.

Office workers at the Herndon building, part of Perspecta’s corporate division, will move to a building under construction at the Plaza East II business park at state Route 28 and Westfields Boulevard in Fairfax County, not far from their headquarters. Move-in day is expected to be sometime in late April or May, Corcoran says.

“There’s such nostalgia and legacy in that particular location, so there are a lot of bittersweet feelings about leaving that building,” she adds. “We know what an important role that location has played in the history of the company.”

Nonetheless, time marches on. “There are still several hundred acres in Loudoun where data centers would be appropriate, so we still have a long way to go,” Rizer says.

You can Google it

If it’s not one tech giant, it’s another. Ever since Amazon.com Inc. ann­ounced in late 2018 that it would open a second headquarters in Arlington County, discussions about workforce and real estate in Northern Virginia have fixed on the e-tailer.

But Google LLC’s been busy, too. Last year the Mountain View, California-based global tech company announced a $13 billion investment across the United States. That includes major investments in Fairfax and Loudoun counties.

What stands out — physically — in Northern Virginia is Google’s new Reston office space. The company has maintained a presence in Reston since opening a small office there in 2005, but last spring Google signed a lease with Comstock for the top two floors, about 165,000 square feet, in 1900 Reston Metro Plaza, a distinctive building at Metro’s Silver Line Wiehle-Reston East Station.

The 16-story building, designed by architect Helmut Jahn, has bold geometry, an exposed structure and color-changing edge lighting. It looms over the Dulles Toll Road.

“Currently, we have over 300 Googlers — our name for our employees — across our data center in Loudoun County and office in Reston. We are continuing to hire for openings at our data centers and various teams in Reston,” says Peter Schottenfels, communications manager at Google. In 2019, the company surpassed 100,000 employees worldwide. Google expects to roughly double its workforce in Northern Virginia.

In 2018, Google announced plans to construct a data center complex in Loudoun County, and last year the company announced the expansion of the facility, bringing its total investment in Northern Virginia to $1.2 billion. Loudoun, known as “Data Center Alley,” is home to one of the largest concentrations of data centers in the world, with about 13.5 million square feet in operation.

“We build out our data centers in response to our own needs as a company, as well as customer demand for cloud services. Data centers are the engines of the internet,” Schottenfels says. “When you use Search, Gmail or YouTube, that information goes through one of our data centers.”

Google is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy and has signed contracts for renewable energy that “will ensure that our facilities in Northern Virginia are matched with 100% renewable energy,” he says.

The company is looking to fill a variety of full-time and contractor positions in Loudoun, including computer technicians, engineers and various food services, maintenance and security roles, according to its website.

And it has plans to help build the talent pipeline it will need to fill those positions, according to Schottenfels.

“Not only are we excited by the region’s geographic location, friendly business environment and talented   workforce, we’re committed to being good neighbors and having a positive impact in the community,” he says. “In the past year, we’ve given $100,000 to the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties, and $100,000 to the Loudoun Education Foundation. Since 2011, Google has contributed $27.1 million in grants and employee-matched gifts to Virginia nonprofits and schools.”

The grants will support STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs, teacher training and grants for classroom materials, as well as special programs like the LEF-LCPS Backpack Coalition, which feeds 850 students and their families during the school year, according to Loudoun Economic Development.

Google “has truly embraced the role of a Loudoun corporate citizen,” says Buddy Rizer, executive director of Loudoun Economic Development. “It’s incredibly rewarding to work with companies like Google that enrich our community and positively shape the next generation.”

The byte goes on

The tech sector is growing in Northern Virginia, prompted by Amazon.com Inc.’s $2.5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington County and Google’s expansion in Fairfax and Loudoun counties as part of its $13 billion national growth plan.

Also, a new regional coalition, the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance, formed in September 2019, is bringing 10 localities’ economic development officials together just as some prominent faces change.

During the past year, Victor Hoskins, who as director of Arlington County Economic Development helped lead the successful effort to land Amazon, became president and CEO of Fairfax County’s Economic Development Authority. In January, Telly Tucker, former economic development director of Danville, replaced Hoskins in Arlington.

Christina Winn, who had been Arlington’s business investment director, became executive director of Prince William County Department of Economic Development. Alex Iams headed the Arlington department on an interim basis but joined the Fairfax County authority in December as senior vice president.

Fairfax

In addition to Google’s decision to relocate and expand offices within Reston to a new building on the Dulles Toll Road (read the story here), Fairfax County chalked up several gains in 2019, Hoskins says.

TEKSystems Inc., which specializes in IT staffing and operates locally in Falls Church, announced last year an addition of 840 jobs. Randstad North America, which has been in Tysons more than 30 years, announced plans to add 300 IT jobs in fiscal year 2020. Zantech IT Services Inc. is investing $317,853 to expand its corporate offices in Tysons.

And in January, education technology company Blackboard Inc. said it would move its global headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Reston, where the company already has offices. Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI), Israel’s largest aerospace and defense company, announced it would expand its North American headquarters in a new location in the Dulles Technology Corridor.

Last April, Inova Health System dedicated its 438,000-square-foot, $150 million Inova Schar Cancer Institute, which anchors the 117-acre Merrifield campus.

Loudoun

Loudoun County continued to rack up data center acreage in 2019, building on its already-established 10 million square feet, through which roughly 70% of the world’s internet traffic flows. Google’s expansion plan calls for spending $600 million to develop two data center sites it purchased in 2017, a 91-acre parcel in Arcola Center and 57 acres in Stonewall Business Park.

Sure Power Inc., a pro­vider of battery backup solutions for business, announced it was opening a new office in the county because “the proximity to Loudoun County’s expansive data center hub allows us to more efficiently provide critical power protection services,” Paul Merrick, the company’s founder and CEO, said in a statement.

The county had a good year attracting other sectors, too, according to Loudoun County Economic Development Executive Director Buddy Rizer. Satair, a wholly owned subsidiary of Airbus SE, announced in June that it would expand its customer service logistics center. The company plans to invest more than $10 million to move into a 250,000-square-foot facility. And biotech company Aperiomics Inc. selected Loudoun for its new 4,700-square-foot corporate headquarters.

Prince William

Prince William County already had about 4 million square feet of data center space in 2019. Then, in August, county officials announced plans to push that number to more than 5 million. 

And the data center market isn’t the only bright spot in Virginia’s second-largest county by population.

Winn says Prince William attracts a variety of industries such as life sciences and advanced manufacturing because it has created a supportive ecosystem. “There’s a transportation network. You can have your headquarters, manufacturing and distribution all in the same area.”

Much of the development is in and around Manassas, including the county’s partnership with Holladay Properties, which will build a 30,000-square-foot commercial wet lab facility in Innovation Park, a hub for new technologies coming out of the George Mason University Science and Technology campus. American Type Culture Collection, which collects, stores and distributes tissue samples, launched its second headquarters expansion, a $22 million project, in November.

High Purity Systems Inc. ann­ounced in September that it expects to invest approximately $8.5 million to expand into a new 30,000-square-foot piping fabrication facility, and last spring Mu-Del Electronics LLC, a manufacturer of high-performance radio frequency and microwave-based systems, relocated to a 19,358-square-foot operations center in the Merritt I-66 Business Park.

Arlington

Even without Amazon HQ2, Arlington County had plenty to boast about in 2019.

Incentive Technology Group LLC, a cloud services provider, announced plans last April to invest $5.1 million in a 50,000-square-foot headquarters in Crystal City, says Marian Marquez, director of the Business Investment Group at Arlington Economic Development. The company, which was purchased by Fairfax-based consulting and technology services provider ICF International Inc. for $255 million in the first quarter of 2020, committed to adding more than 1,000 jobs.

Yext Inc., a New York-based online brand management company, said it would hire 500 people during the next five years at its new, 42,500-square-foot Rosslyn location.

And, Marquez says, the county is pleased to retain Public Broadcasting Service, which “was in a real estate search toward the end of last year but chose to stay in Crystal City.”

Also, the Drug Enforcement Administration will keep its headquarters in the county. The federal agency occupies more than 511,000 square feet of space and employs about 3,000 people.

But any discussion of deals in Arlington County often comes back to The Big Deal, Amazon HQ2. Amify, which “helps brands selling on Amazon maximize sales and profitability,” signed a three-year lease in August for a location just blocks away from the HQ2 site.

“They moved to be closer to Amazon,” Marquez says. “We expect to see more of that sort of thing.”

Alexandria

Alexandria laid plenty of groundwork for new projects in recent years, says Stephanie Landrum, president and CEO of the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership. “We celebrated when the deals were signed, but time passes while waiting for permits. This was the year we celebrated the actual groundbreakings.”

One big event was the December groundbreaking for the $320 million Potomac Yard Metro station. “This has been in the pipeline for two decades. … This is the piece of infrastructure that supports other projects” on the Alexandria/Arlington line near Amazon’s HQ2 campus, she says.

One of those projects is Virginia Tech’s forthcoming Innovation Campus. The $1 billion, 1 million-square-foot graduate campus will be part of a 65-acre mixed-use district planned and developed by Lionstone and real estate investment trust JBG Smith. This year, the university will offer classes at two temporary spaces in the Potomac Yard shopping center.

Ground was broken in July for a mixed-use project that will include an 80,000-square-foot Wegmans grocery store, 130,000 square feet of other retail space and 750 residential units at a 5-acre site near the city’s Eisenhower Avenue Metro.

On the Old Town waterfront, the CIM Group announced in December the redevelopment of the 12-story former Crowne Plaza Hotel into a residential condominium with a 13th-floor penthouse and rooftop deck. An adjacent parking lot will be developed into 41 town houses, and a performing arts theater will occupy the base of the tower.

Landrum, who, along with Victor Hoskins, was a co-winner of the Metropolitan Council of Government’s Collaborative Leadership Award in December, sees plenty of opportunities ahead. With the new NOVA alliance, “we’re operating as one regional group. Now we can chase the big projects together.”

Alarm.com launches apprenticeship program

In cooperation with Northern Virginia Community College, Tysons-based Alarm.com launched an apprenticeship program Friday aimed at producing workers with in-demand tech skills.

Supported by the state’s GO Virginia economic development initiative, 10 initial apprentices, including three from the military community, will participate in Alarm.com’s paid yearlong apprenticeship program. They will receive 10 weeks of technical instruction at Northern Virginia Community College and nine months of on-the-job training from the home security and technology company.

The public-private partnership is designed as a template for businesses having trouble finding talent amid the current tight labor market.

“We’re cultivating sustainable talent that’s rich with intelligence, aptitude, grit and perseverance. Everyone at Alarm.com will be cheering on our apprentices during their journey and is excited to see the apprenticeship program flourish,” said Victoria Schillinger, Alarm.com’s vice president of human resources.

Megan Healy, Virginia’s chief workforce development advisor, spoke at the launch event held Friday at Alarm.com’s headquarters. At a time when Northern Virginia has such a low unemployment rate, she said, “you have to grow your talent, particularly in the tech sector.” She noted that tech companies are so competitive that “when we tell them Alarm.com is doing this, everyone else will do it too.”

With college tuition costs escalating, apprenticeships offer an alternative for aspiring tech workers, Schillinger said. And the program also increases the Alarm.com’s diversity, she added, pointing out that the 10 apprentices come from backgrounds ranging from the military, sales and biology to playing the violin professionally.

“We know that there is a dire need for tech talent in our region,” said Anne Kress, president of Northern Virginia Community College, who was present at the launch event held Friday for the apprenticeship program. “NOVA and Alarm.com are excited to launch an innovative talent development solution designed to meet this growing need for highly skilled employees. At NOVA, we’ve had more than 200 individuals over the last two years progress through our new Tech Apprenticeship initiative and we are thrilled to see this number grow with the addition of Alarm.com’s new apprentices.”

“There are more than 100,000 job openings right now in Northern Virginia, half of them in technical fields, so the need for connecting companies with talent is obvious,” said Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. “I congratulate Alarm.com, Northern Virginia Community College, the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the state government for taking the lead on the kind of collaboration the region needs to meet the growing demand for tech-savvy workers.”

Alarm.com employs more than 600 workers at its Tysons headquarters. The company creates smart security systems that allow consumers and businesses to manage and control their property from any location.

Recruitment pitch

The lowest U.S. unemployment rate in 50 years isn’t slowing down the companies honored as this year’s Best Places to Work in Virginia. The winners find plenty of applicants are attracted to their good pay and supportive cultures.

For example, Burns & McDonnell, a global architecture, engineering and construction company with four offices in Virginia, hired nearly 1,000 people last year, growing its companywide workforce to more than 7,000 employees.

Job seekers “are coming to us. We are able to select the best,” says Jeffrey Ganthner, a Chesapeake-based regional vice president with Burns & McDonnell, a global architecture, engineering and construction company. Photo by Mark Rhodes

The firm’s Virginia offices are doing their part to keep Burns & McDonnell growing, says Jeffrey Ganthner, vice president and general manager of Mid-Atlantic region offices for Burns & McDonnell. Its Roanoke office opened in 2015 with only six employees; it expects to expand to a staff of 100 there by next year.

Although Virginia’s unemployment rate dropped to 2.6% in October, Burns & McDonnell hasn’t struggled to find the right workers because of the company’s reputation as an outstanding employer, Ganthner says. For example, fire protection engineers, who design smoke suppression and sprinkler systems, are scarce and can be hard to locate, but “in the last 18 months we have hired six in Arlington pretty quickly.”

Last year, the company, which is based in Kansas City, Missouri, received 70,000 applications from people ranging from new college graduates to seasoned professionals. “They are coming to us. We are able to select the best, ” says Ganthner, who is based in Chesapeake.

Another 2020 Best Places to Work winner, Fortune 500 financial services firm Edward Jones, also isn’t encountering difficulties with recruitment. “At Jones, we grow intentionally and organically. The downward trend in unemployment hasn’t created a difference for us,” says regional leader Brian Callery, who is based in McLean.

Engineering, architecture and planning firm DJG Inc. has only 23 employees, but “we’re always looking to grow, looking for other avenues to further provide services to our clients,” says John Ozmore, co-owner and architectural group manager.

Some of these companies were selected as this year’s Best Places to Work in Virginia. Since 2011, Virginia Business and Pennsylvania-based Best Companies Group have collaborated to identify the commonwealth’s best workplaces.

One hundred companies were chosen for the Best Places to Work list in three categories: small, midsize and large businesses. (See selection process.)

Close-knit culture

What is it about these companies that makes them award-winning — and attractive to job applicants?

“The best way to support people is to invest in them,” Ganthner says. “We are 100% employee-owned, have flexibility and a wonderful wellness plan and highly support continuing education.”

End-of-year bonuses are part of the equation. “The best way to reward people is to give them the money right back,” he says. “We also have a wonderful paid time-off plan, flexibility and we highly support continuing education.”

Job seekers also appreciate that Burns & McDonnell is a very flat organization, Ganthner adds. “People a year or two out of school are leading projects.”

At Edward Jones, “people who work for the company and who are the source of success participate in the rewards. They share in the profits,” according to Callery.  “And an associate has the ability to become a partner in the firm and an owner of the firm.”

The company’s benefits aren’t just financial. The culture of the firm is unique, Callery says, and that itself is a benefit. “One of our core values is working in partnership. Everyone helps one another. It’s really a philosophy everyone lives by. People are invested in one another’s success. It really brings the best out in people.”

DJG Inc., located in Williamsburg, has a profit-sharing system. The small company fosters a close-knit culture with activities ranging from an annual retreat to an office chili cookoff. People even join together to pick up litter along a nearby stretch of highway.

Reaching out

When best companies recruit, they often use the usual tactics: employee referrals, postings on job boards and listings on the company website. But they go above and beyond to reach out to the top candidates.

Engineering, architecture and planning firm DJG Inc. reaches out to universities and professional organizations to find talent, says co-owner John Ozmore. Photo by Mark Rhodes

DJG Inc. works closely with area universities to find fresh talent, according to Ozmore. “We’ve sent staff members to Virginia Tech and Old Dominion, where they have good architectural and engineering programs. We go to the architectural school at Hampton University.”

Many DJG staff members belong to professional organizations, where they can meet prospective candidates in their specific fields, he says. “That helps out a lot. Everybody gets different ideas to entice people to come.”

When Burns & McDonnell chose to open in Chesapeake, Arlington, Richmond and Roanoke, “we looked at launching offices for our clients and the incredible talent pool. We tap into the talent in each community and better serve clients around the world from these locations,” Ganthner says. 

Paying dividends

In Chase City, Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative has been scrambling to hire workers. “We’ve hired more [employees] in the last 18 to 24 months than we have in 10 years,” says Leilani Todd, vice president of human resources.

Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative has been on a hiring spree to refresh its workforce as baby boomers retire, says Leilani Todd (center), vice president of human resources. Photo by Mark Rhodes

But that’s because the award-winning company is so good at retention. “We have extremely low turnover,” she says. “We knew this was coming. We foresaw that trend as employees became eligible to retire” after decades on the job. Accordingly, more than a dozen years ago, the company began preparing to replenish its ranks.

The co-op started working with partners in the industry, in schools and in state agencies to make people aware of its career offerings.

“We’ve been in schools for many years. We work with not just students but with parents,” she says. “Energy is not going away. If folks want to contribute to the environment, to their community, this is a great career path.”

But the company has had to push back against the mentality that a four-year college education is the best path for every student, Todd says.

“They don’t have to have a college education, but they have to enjoy working outside. They need to be mechanically inclined for a number of the jobs. They need to understand teamwork and critical thought processes,” she says. About 75% of the co-op’s 100 employees are technicians working in the field.

The company turns to Southside Virginia Community College’s line worker program to find students who have gained some of the skills the co-op needs.

Job applicants undergo a rigorous interviewing process that assesses not only their skills but their cultural fit with the company. “We want the applicant to know us as well as we get to know the applicant. We put time in up front because when both of us make the decision, it’s pretty much a lifetime decision. Taking the time up front pays dividends on the back end.”

Once onboard, employees find that communication and flexibility are vital parts of the company’s culture, according to Todd. “We look at all the ways we can disseminate the same information in different ways. Face-to-face contacts are vital. You have to make the time to sit down and be present.”

Employees especially appreciate the work-life balance. The co-op offers floating holidays and personal time off in addition to vacation and sick leave. “The extra days provide time to be involved with their families and communities,” Todd says.

In addition, “we require a lot of folks to be on call. We’re pretty flexible when they need time off. We encourage folks to volunteer in the community and to be involved with their kids. If we’re going to encourage that, we can’t demand that they work an 8-to-5 schedule.”

And that’s because “the flip side is, there’s going to be times when we take them away from their families. There are going to be emergencies,” such as hurricanes and snowstorms.

And when that happens, “you will find our CEO and all our senior staff out in the field working with everyone else. They’re taking meals to them, into the field, so they can get the lights back on,” she says. When it comes to hiring and keeping good workers, “it’s those little things that they appreciate most.”

This article has been updated from the version that appeared in the February 2020 issue of Virginia Business.

Click here to see photos from the 2020 Virginia Business Best Places to Work awards luncheon.