Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504070028
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
With 71 lawyers and a staff of nearly 200, the firm is the largest in town, the largest west of Richmond, and the sixth-largest in the state.
It is also one of the oldest law firms in Western Virginia. But when Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove celebrated its 100th anniversary two years ago, there was little public fanfare, in keeping with the firm's aura of reserved self-assurance.
The multi-practice firm shuns the flashy Yellow Page advertisements, the television commercials or the sensational criminal cases that have catapulted some attorneys into the public eye.
Behind the scenes, Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove has built a client base of 4,000 over the years that includes many of the area's largest corporate names - Carilion Health System, Norfolk Southern Corp., First Union National Bank of Virginia, Appalachian Power Co. and Roanoke Gas Co.
But recent years have brought tougher times.
Growing competition in the legal field, the loss of some business to the transfer of corporate headquarters from Roanoke to other cities, and the effects of corporate downsizing on clients are forcing the firm to re-examine how it practices law.
"We haven't had to downsize, but we have been somewhat flat over the past five years," said Talfourd Kemper, chairman of the board at Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove.
"There's been quite a movement throughout the United States by the large corporate clients to reduce their legal bills," Kemper said. "They have taken steps to do what they call wringing out the waste, and they have put a lot of pressure on large firms to come up with new and innovative practices."
In response to those pressures, Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove has revamped its internal organization, converting from a traditional partnership to a professional limited liability company.
A new organizational makeup implemented at the start of this year, which created new positions of chairman of the board and president to centralize some management duties, gives the firm a more corporate structure.
The idea is to streamline operations and "to better position ourselves to provide a teamwork approach to the client," firm President Heman Marshall said.
At the same time, the firm is recruiting new business - more aggressively than it has in the past - in Roanoke, across the state and beyond.
"We like to think of ourselves as approaching the practice like small-town lawyers, but with a staff that can accommodate all of a client's needs without them having to turn to Washington, Richmond or Charlotte," Kemper said.
Although Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove compares itself to bigger-city firms, one of its major competitors is just a few blocks down Jefferson Street.
Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, which is also on the top-10 list of largest Virginia firms with 50 lawyers, actually has been growing faster that Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove in recent years.
The smaller firm has hired 11 additional attorneys in the past five years, along with a marketing director, as it goes after the same type of defense work for corporate clients that Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove offers.
"I wouldn't characterize the competition as anything like Ford and Chrysler," said David Paxton, a lawyer for Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore. "But clearly, law firms are becoming less bashful in letting people know about their services."
In the 1890s, just a few years after Roanoke received its city charter, three young lawyers launched careers that would preserve their names in the community for well over a century.
James P. Woods, Frank W. Rogers and William P. Hazlegrove started at slightly different times and places before their names would be linked years later.
The firm of Woods, Rogers, Muse, Walker and Thornton grew over the years to a staff of 34 lawyers by 1985, when it merged with the 17-lawyer office of Hazlegrove, Dickenson, Rea, Smeltzer & Brown.
It was big news at the time; a merger that created the largest firm in the region and prevented, at least in the eyes of some, the possibility of a major Richmond firm opening a branch office in Roanoke. And so far, none has.
But in their traditional low-key manner, partners in both firms played down the potential power of their combined strengths.
"We don't look at it as an announcement that we're opening up a helluva legal clinic and here we are," Wilbur Hazlegrove, the son of William Hazlegrove and still a member of the firm, said when the merger was announced.
In some ways, though, the offices that now occupy 31/2 floors of the First Union Tower do resemble a clinic - or perhaps more accurately, an arsenal of legal talent.
Each lawyer concentrates on certain areas of law: antitrust, banking law, bankruptcy and creditors' rights, commercial litigation, construction law, corporate law, elder law, environmental issues, estate planning and administration, family law, general tort, health law, insurance coverage, intellectual property, international practice, labor and employment law, local government, medical malpractice, product liability, professional liability, public utilities, railroad litigation, real estate, tax law and workers' compensation.
The firm touts its diversity, which enables it to offer a client an in-house expert on a moment's notice, often with a complement of associates and paralegals.
But some lawyers who wind up as counsel on the opposite sides of the courtroom say that bigger is not always better.
Like many large law firms, they say, Woods Rogers & Hazlegrove places a high demand on its lawyers to generate enough billable hours to turn a healthy profit.
And than means cranking out massive court briefs, holding marathon depositions and protracted legal maneuvering, some lawyers say.
"They can paper you to death," said Jonathan Rogers, a Roanoke lawyer who was once an associate with the firm.
"Their objective is not to achieve, but rather to delay, justice in a case," said Jeff Rudd, a solo practitioner who has faced the firm in court. "Because that is what generates more money for them. ... That's not so much a personal comment aimed at anyone at Woods Rogers, but it is the direction that the larger law firms have gone in responding to their financial needs."
Lawyers at Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove say that's not the case, but acknowledge that such a perception may exist.
"We think the same thing sometimes when we're involved with a New York firm," Kemper said. "But the reality is that our clients won't let us get away with that."
Daniel Brown, who as head of the firm's litigation section helps defend Norfolk Southern Corp. against hundreds of lawsuits filed by injured workers, says that clients need - and want - zealous representation.
"Things are never absolutely black and white," Brown said. "So you have to go digging for the weak spots in a case, or else you let them walk into court and say anything they want, with the result being a verdict that is certainly not acceptable to your client."
A business address at the "tower of power," as some people call Roanoke's tallest building, does not come cheaply.
Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove Executive Director John Monahan declined to say exactly how much the firm pays in rent, but confirmed that it is at least $1 million a year
At $24 a square foot for an annual lease, First Union Tower houses the region's most expensive office space, according to a survey released last month by Waldvogel, Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group Inc. of Roanoke. Reports in 1989 put the law firm's rate at $20 a square foot, on a long-term lease. As one of the building's initial tenants, it is likely it negotiated concessions with the building's developer, Faison Associates of Charlotte, N.C.
Some lawyers say the firm may have made a mistake by committing to such a high figure.
"I think they got blinded by ego," said one lawyer who asked not to be identified. "If it was the tallest, biggest building in town, then there was a mentality that they had to be in it."
But Kemper said the sale of the firm's previous office on Franklin Road, now the home of the U.S. Attorney's Office, offset some of the costs. And Marshall pointed out that the firm's commitment in 1989 to occupy the tower was crucial to the development of a major city landmark.
"We're becoming more and more regional, but out roots are still here in Roanoke," Marshall said. "So what was good for Roanoke was good for Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove."
While the firm pays the highest rent in Roanoke, the design of its 14th-, 15th- and eighth-floor offices is as much business-like as it is posh. An antique grandfather clock stands a few feet from a room that houses a state-of-the-art computer network, its chimes blending in with the electronic chirping of telephones.
Offices for the lawyers form a perimeter, facing into open work areas where secretaries share work stations. The board and conference rooms are windowless, tucked away to make the most efficient use of space.
The hustle and bustle of a busy office takes on a controlled, almost hushed tone. And the grandfather clock chimes periodic reminders that business here is regulated by the billable hour.
A Landing a job at a large law firm can be a major accomplishment for someone fresh out of law school.
At Woods, Rogers and Hazlegrove, new associates can expect to start out earning about $50,000 a year. After becoming a principal in the firm, which takes at least seven years, a lawyer earns a percentage of the business's profits that is based on his or her performance.
Of the 71 lawyers, 11 are women and one is African-American. Three of the 40 principals are women. And leadership is heavy on seniority; five lawyers selected to represent Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove during a recent interview shared a total of nearly 100 years with the firm.
In the early years, the work, as in most large firms, is far more grueling than glamorous.
Some lawyers who have worked as associates for Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove or other large firms tell of long days and lonely weekends doing research and "grunt work" - a workplace like the one portrayed in the John Grisham novel, "The Firm."
"I would call it a white-collar sweat shop," said Rogers, who spent a year at the firm before quitting in 1978.
"They have to produce a very high number of billable hours," he said. "The expectations are very difficult to meet without staying late every day and working every weekend."
The firm charges clients $85 to $200 for each hour of work, which can include anything from making telephone calls and writing letters to appearing in court. Bills to clients itemize each telephone call made on a case, however brief, with a notation of who in the firm served as a timekeeper.
The rate varies depending on the type of case and whether the work is done by a paralegal, an associate or a principal.
Some senior lawyers have left the firm in recent years, but not because they were unhappy.
Bayard Harris, who specialized in labor law at the firm, left in 1991 to create the Center for Employment Law in Roanoke County. Although that puts him in competition with his former firm at times, Harris believes there is plenty of legal work to go around.
"Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove is a leader in the state of Virginia," Harris said. "But I think there will always be a market need and an interest in the business community to have a broad array of firms that are available."
So far, Roanoke has not seen a proliferation of "niche" or "boutique" law practices, ones that could carve into Woods Rogers & Hazlegrove's market base by offering specialty representation.
The concept of opening a niche practice "sounds great, but it doesn't always play out well," Monahan said. "Because clients want to feel that there is a safety net there." In other words, clients want a firm that can easily switch gears if an environmental issue suddenly turns into a health law matter.
Yet at the same time, Woods Rogers & Hazlegrove is doing some of the types of work generally associated with smaller firms and general practitioners, such as criminal and divorce law.
Rogers said that wasn't the case when he was there. "It was beneath them, it wasn't of a sophisticated enough level," he said.
But the firm is now taking those cases, Rogers believes, as it copes with the changing legal landscape. "I think it was an evolution out of necessity," he said.
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