Industries served by last year’s winners of the Business Journal’s annual General Counsel Awards ranged from a home builder to a health real estate investor to a cooling systems company to a pair of restaurant chains.
Here’s a look at what they’ve been doing since last November, and how they’ve helped their firms and customers navigate the pandemic.
—Peter J. Brennan
COOLSYS STAYS HOT
Burton Hong is the general counsel of Brea-based Coolsys Inc., which aims to double its annual revenue to more than $1 billion by installing and maintaining cooling and heating systems for some of the country’s biggest retailers.
That means a lot of acquisitions, which include seven completed in the past year and three more under letters of intent that the company wants to close by December.
“These seven deals have significantly expanded our geographic reach and solidified our presence in the Northeast, Tidewater region and the Carolinas,” Hong said.
The company is in the process of rebranding several of its acquired businesses, which has required its legal department to work hand-in-hand with its marketing team to ensure there are no issues with the rebrand kickoff set for January 2021.
Also, adapting to COVID-19 and its consequences has been something the company has had to deal with daily because of the ever-changing nature of the virus.
“Fortunately, many of our customers are essential businesses (e.g., leading grocery retail chains, drug stores, c-stores, blood banks, etc.) so while we definitely experienced some challenges, we expect to finish 2020 ahead of 2019 from a revenue perspective,” he said.
The service side, which makes up approximately 60% of its revenue, is back to normal. Hong pointed out that since commercial refrigeration and HVAC systems are critical to the company’s essential business customers, their demand for services has actually increased in 2020.
Installations of refrigeration and HVAC systems, which make up about 30% of its business, has been the most meaningfully impacted by the pandemic. While its project pipeline is at an all-time high, the actual awarding of projects slowed down significantly in the second and third quarters.
“We started to see a recovery starting in mid-summer and are optimistic that we will see a return to “normalcy” in early 2021—although no one has a crystal ball when it comes to this pandemic and its impact on the economy and our customers,” Hong said.
Plans for the coming year are relatively simple.
“Acquisitions, acquisitions, and more acquisitions!” Hong said. “We plan on completing an additional six to 12 deals in 2021 to continue to expand our geographic coverage allowing us to provide our full suite of solutions to our national clients, while we also build density in key markets.”
GOING DUTCH
It wasn’t only the Business Journal judges who thought Louis “Dutch” Schotemeyer was a rising star.
He won the award last year as the associate general counsel for William Lyon Homes Inc., which was bought earlier this year by Taylor Morrison (NYSE: TMHC) in a deal valued at $2.4 billion when factoring in debt.
Schotemeyer transitioned to Taylor until his old firm, Newmeyer Dillion, offered him a partnership, which he began in September.
“We are thrilled to be welcoming Dutch back to Newmeyer Dillion,” the firm’s Managing Partner, Paul Tetzloff, said in a statement. “He brings a wealth of litigation experience and has served as a trusted advisor to companies facing myriad complex legal disputes.”
“His experience as in-house counsel will greatly complement Newmeyer Dillion’s business-first mindset when it comes to providing legal counsel to our clients. He is an invaluable asset to the team.”
As the son of an immigrant—his nickname is a nod to his paternal Dutch heritage—Schotemeyer witnessed the opportunities his family found in America, which is why he spent 23 years in the Marines. He graduated from the University of Washington in 2004, and spent the next decade serving in a different way, acting as a prosecutor and defense attorney for service members.
He then joined Newmeyer Dillion—well-known for its real estate legal work—before moving to William Lyon Homes. When Newmeyer came calling with an offer as a managing partner, “I just jumped at it,” Schotemeyer told the Business Journal.
Nowadays, he works construction, labor employment and real estate, similar to his prior jobs.
“I’m leveraging the things I learned at William Lyon and Taylor to smaller companies that don’t have in-house general counsels.”
Since the coronavirus struck, he’s been working more from home, utilizing his guest bedroom and dining room tables. Schotemeyer said previously he would often print out documents to edit them and now he does more editing by computer.
“My plan for the new year is to build a client base for small- to medium-based companies that don’t have in-house general counsels.”
MILLER’S FULL PLATE
Kendra Miller, the general counsel at BJ’s Restaurants Inc. (Nasdaq: BJRI), had her plate full this year, so to speak.
The coronavirus caused the Huntington Beach-based restaurant chain to suspend its dividend, stop all capital spending and significantly reduce operating expenses. It drew down its $250 million line of credit and sold $70 million of common stock to a private investor. Its second quarter revenue fell 58% to $128 million.
Its stock plummet 87% from February to almost $6 in March. Since then, it’s recuperated to $31.93 and a $711 million market cap.
It initially kept open all its restaurants for take-out and delivery and then had to shutter a few.
“While we had to make the incredibly difficult decision to furlough and temporarily lay off team members, we provided paid vacation and sick time or emergency paid time off throughout the country, and we helped our team members identify interim job opportunities,” Miller said.
“We wanted to send a clear message—that we wanted our team members to come back to BJ’s when our dining rooms re-opened and business levels returned.”
To reopen, it implemented safety standards that often exceed CDC guidelines such as dividers, touchless pay systems and expanded outdoor eating sites.
“Operating in a pandemic has taught all of us that we must remain resilient, innovative and flexible to make quick adjustments.”
BELLS RINGING
Taco Bell Corp., which last year won the GC award for the in-house legal team, has more than 350 franchise organizations operating over 7,000 restaurants that serve more than 40 million customers each week in the U.S. Internationally, the brand is growing with nearly 500 restaurants across almost 30 countries across the globe.
Its legal team was front and center during the coronavirus.
At the start of the pandemic, the Irvine-based team “quickly and efficiently” came together with the Taco Bell Foundation to partner with No Kid Hungry for the ‘Round Up in the drive-thru’ initiative; these efforts resulted in nearly $5.5 million raised to end childhood hunger.
In collaboration with its franchisees, the legal team navigated the challenges including rolling out team member health check protocols and restaurant reopening plans.
It’s also working with partners within the company to support initiatives that enhance equity, inclusion and belonging, namely rolling out the company’s first-ever Employee Resource Groups.
As customers look to delivery services for convenient and safe meal options, it entered into contracts with Postmates, DoorDash and Uber Eats while reshaping its relationship with Grubhub.
“We’ve balanced these new changes while still delivering key litigation wins for Taco Bell and the industry overall, such as securing early dismissals on false advertising claims,” said Julie Davis, global chief legal officer at Taco Bell.
“Taco Bell has always been innovative, and this past year has proven that we can adapt to sudden changes in the industry at a moment’s notice while still being authentic to the brand.”
PEAK’S TIME
The health care industry literally is in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
And the Irvine-based Healthpeak Properties Inc. (NYSE: PEAK) is right in the middle of the health care industry by developing and owning real estate in the Life Science, Senior Housing and Medical Offices. Its shares dropped in half from February to March at the onset of the pandemic, but have since recovered some; it’s valued at about $15 billion, making it one of OC’s most valuable public companies.
The health crisis didn’t mean business stopped for 2019 GC winner Tracy Porter, the transactions counsel for the company, which in July said it had $2.85 billion of liquidity available for deal making and other expenses.
In June, it closed on a sale of the three Frost Street medical office buildings in San Diego, generating proceeds of approximately $106 million.
In April, it closed on the previously announced $320 million life science acquisition of The Post, a 426,000 square foot life science property located within the Route 128 submarket of Boston.
It delivered a 52,000 square foot, three-story Class A medical office building, located on HCA’s campus of Lee’s Summit Medical Center, in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
In June, it signed a 17-year lease with a full-building user totaling 74,000 square feet at its Boardwalk development project in San Diego.
The 190,000-square-foot Boardwalk will be Healthpeak’s flagship campus in the core life science market of San Diego.
It’s scheduled to report third quarter results on Nov. 3.
