Charlottesville as a "Hotbed for Innovation": Fastest Growing Area in US for Venture Capital Funding

Where a court is located often determines the type of cases that it hears.  For example, the "Rocket Docket" of the Eastern District of Virginia hears a large number of patent and technology-related cases both because of the speed at which it dispenses justice and also the many technology companies in Northern Virginia--not to mention that the Patent and Trademark Office is a few blocks away from the Alexandria courthouse.

The Western District of Virginia, however, is not traditionally known for its patent docket or technology-related cases.  When I clerked for Judge Wilson in Roanoke, one of the biggest cases the court heard that year was a RICO conspiracy involving (alleged) moonshiners in Franklin County.  Growing up in nearby Lynchburg, I often heard Franklin County referred to as the "moonshine capital of world."  While the homemade distillation of spirits certainly involves some measure of technology, that RICO trial was certainly not a technology-based case.  At the time, it was not surprising that the court heard more moonshining cases than patent cases.

All of that may be about to change, however, given the recent growth of tech start-ups in the region.  This growth is largely fueled by the universities--the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and James Madison University--located in Charlottesville, Blacksburg and Harrisonburg.

According to an article in today's Daily Progress, the Charlottesville area is the fastest growing area in the country for venture capital investment since 2010.  The largest investments were in technology companies, many of which got their start from academic research associated with UVa.  The article explains:

The Center for Innovative Technology also was involved with most of the companies receiving venture capital funding.  The center works to promote the technology industry around the state, and since 2004 it has invested seed money in numerous technology and life-science companies around the state, including local biotechnology and semiconductor companies.
...
As the market in Charlottesville has grown, [the center's investment director] said, word is spreading that it's a good place for tech startups -- it has a high concentration of talented people, a nice location and access to a major university...

The number of local companies receiving venture capital funding has increased 55 percent annually since 2010, and the amount of investment dollars pumped into the Charlottesville market has increased by $157 million.

This type of growth--fueled by the confluence of nearby universities, public-private partnerships, low taxes and livable communities--reminds me of the success of North Carolina's Research Triangle Park.  Womble Carlyle's early commitment to technology led us to open an office in RTP in the 1990s.  As a law firm, we have seen first hand how a technology driven economy can transform a region, including its courts and legal market.  Let's hope the same thing (without the traffic, of course) is happening here in Charlottesville.

Do Public School Athletic Leagues Have To Admit Private Schools?

Liberty Christian Academy (LCA), a private high school in Lynchburg, Virginia, has filed an antitrust action against the Virginia High School League (VHSL), a non-profit organization of public high schools in Virginia.  The lawsuit was filed June 2, 2014 in the Charlottesville Division of the Western District of Virginia.

The VHSL organizes public schools into districts and regions for purposes of conducting athletic competitions and statewide playoffs.  LCA filed its lawsuit because, as a private school, LCA is barred from membership in the VHSL and claims to be unable, with limited exceptions, to schedule athletic games with the nearby public schools.  LCA complains that it has to travel far distances to play games against inferior opponents.  LCA argues that the VHSL's rules are akin to a group boycott and constitute an unreasonable restraint of trade in violation of federal and state antitrust laws.  The relevant markets alleged in the Complaint are the markets for commercial exhibition of high school football contests and basketball contests in Virginia.

Although some states allow private high schools to join their public high school athletic leagues, other states have separate private and public leagues, such as Virginia, Maryland and Texas.  In the lawsuit, LCA argues that the prohibition on non-public high school membership in the VHSL has no pro-competitive purpose and cannot be justified on any claimed basis that it is necessary to promote fair on-field competition.  I suspect that the ability of private schools to recruit and give scholarships to football and basketball players from a wide geographic area (unlike public schools who have to find players within their own geographic district) would be one of the reasons for the VHSL's rule.

The Complaint's reference to the "integration of public and private schools into one athletic association" appears to suggest a strained analogy to civil rights and the racial integration of public schools in Virginia.  LCA should be very careful in suggesting any such analogy, given that LCA was specifically founded in 1967 as a segregation academy in response to the integration of public schools in Virginia.  There is no small amount of irony in LCA's complaint that it is being excluded and segregated from public school athletic competition.

Several public high school athletic programs are described in the Complaint.  These schools are very familiar to my ears: T.C. Williams in Alexandria, famous from the movie Remember the Titans; football powerhouse Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake; and Brookville High School outside Lynchburg, my fathers' almar mater and the arch rival of my high school, Jefferson Forest.

More about the lawsuit can be found here and here.

Magistrate Judge Crigler's Last Day On The Job

As previously noted on this blog, today marks the last day on the job for Magistrate Judge Waugh Crigler.  Charlottesville's Daily Progress published a nice article today about his retirement and the simultaneous retirement of his judicial assistant Judy Pace.  Local attorneys will miss them both very much.  The article also explained that, while Judge Crigler's offices were based in Charlottesville, his (yet to be determined) replacement will be based in Harrisonburg.  This will mark the first time since 1978 that Charlottesville has not had a resident trial level judge.  Fourth Circuit judges do not count as trial judges (except, I guess, for the rare occasion when they act as trial judges, such as election redistricting cases).  Of course, district judges from Roanoke and Lynchburg frequently travel to Charlottesville, and less frequently Harrisonburg.  When I clerked for Judge Wilson in Roanoke, we would often travel to Harrisonburg for hearings and trials.  I particularly remember one interesting criminal case in Harrisonburg that resulted in the acquittal of all defendants.  Whoever the new magistrate judge is, he or she will frequently have to travel to the other divisions.  Such is the nature of  being a trial level judge in the Western District of Virginia.

Welcome to the WDVa Law Blog









  This blog will focus on noteworthy civil cases, news and administrative procedure in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. I have a special affinity for this part of the Commonwealth and its federal court. I grew up in Bedford County, just outside Lynchburg, Virginia -- the center of the seven divisions in the WDVa. After law school, I served as a law clerk for then Chief Judge Samuel G. Wilson in Roanoke, Virginia. After a brief hiatus in North Carolina, I returned to the Commonwealth and have been practicing law in Charlottesville, Virginia, home of my alma mater, the University of Virginia. Although not as famous as the Eastern District of Virginia's "rocket docket," I find the Western District to be appropriately expeditious in moving cases forward, courteous towards lawyers, thoughtful in their deliberations and fair to all litigants. I am looking forward to writing more about significant cases and developments within the Western District of Virginia.