Virginia Real Estate, Land Use & Construction Law : Virginia Construction Lawyers & Attorneys : Bean Kinney & Korman Law Firm : VA Real Estate, Land Use & Zoning

Apologies from the staff for things being a bit quiet here of late .... speaking for myself, I have been whipped by over-engagement.  A whirlwind tour of seven different speaking gigs from mid-October through early December, a busy case load and other intervening factors have jointly conspired to make posting a tough reach lately.

It has been a blast lately though, from the Green Legal Matters seminar in New Orleans to speaking on social media, my first webinar, a fun AIA event, moderating a very interesting Bisnow sustainability panel, to wrapping up at Eco-build.

We return into action today shortly with a repost from the Washington Business Journal and you can expect more regular action here again moving forward!

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Our blog went live on September 10, 2010, so today marks our first anniversary.  We have enjoyed the conversations and appreciated being forced to keep up with the avalanche of technical and legal information that flows past trying to find good topics. 

By far the most gratifying part of this experience is getting to know and become peers, confidants and friends of people of so many people. At the risk of singling some individuals out, our blog would not be what it is without the consistent interest, support and commentary of people like Chris Hill, Chris Cheatham, Matt DeVries, Jay O'Keeffe, Shari Shapiro, Scott Judy, Andrew McRoberts, and especially the Lex Blog team formed by Kevin O'Keefe.  Your friendship and counsel and sharing, especially in the infancy of this effort, has been greatly appreciated.

I thought it would be interesting to share the twenty posts that got the most traffic this year, particularly as you may have missed some.  Thanks for your support!

1. Lead Paint Regulations April 22: Are You Ready? Is Anyone??
2. Renovators Beware: Lead Paint Regulations Change in April
3. Drywall Claims: New Testing Data, and is US Drywall a Problem Too?
4. Living in Architecture: Me and Eero Saarinen
5. Is USGBC Going To Gut GBCI Administered LEED Certifications?
6. Chinese Drywall News: New Verdict; New Appeal; Insurance Coverage Updates
7. Predictions on the Future of Green Building
8. Financial Contingencies, "Pay if Paid" Clauses and Takings, Oh My!: The Fallout from the Granby Towers Litigation
9. Modular Homes: Wave of the Future, But Currently Risky
10. Never Underestimate the Value of Face Time: Kersey v. PHH Mortgage Corporation
11. Subordination, Non-disturbance and Attornment Agreements
12. Misclassification as Independent Contractors: Contractors be Careful!
13. Basics of Mechanics Liens in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia
14. Chinese Drywall Verdict and the Economic Loss Rule: Forum Matters
15. Lead Paint Regulations Changing: Owner Exception Going Away, Commercial Structures Coming Soon??
16. LEED 3.0: Changes Reflect the Need to Increase Energy Focus
17. Huge Snowfall Leads to Wave of Roof Collapses
18. Virginia Builder Fixing Drywall Without Lawsuit Gets No Insurance Coverage
19. Fee Simple or Easement? Bailey v. Town of Saltville
20. Building Codes and Earthquakes: Contrast Haiti and Chile 

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We are very enthused to announce that I have been asked to regularly post as a guest blogger with the Washington Business Journal.  WBJ is one of our very favorite sources of information, news and commentary regarding business, law and real estate.  The guest blog spots will be weekly and part of their Biz Beat page alongside posts by WBJ reporters.  Our initial post is an expansion of our previous discussions regarding how little stimulus funding for transportation has actually been spent.

We have a very high regard for WBJ and follow numerous WBJ reporters on twitter and publisher Alex Orfinger.  We regard being invited to serve in this capacity by the go-to information source as quite an honor.  For those not familiar or not as focused on the WBJ's offerings, we strongly recommend not only their print subscription, but signing up for their daily e-mail news alerts which contain critical updates for the business community.  We will keep everyone posted on further developments on this front here and invite you to check out the Biz Beat blog!

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I just received an interesting and exciting e-mail I wanted to share with our readers.  Our friend Matt Handal has been involved with creating an iPhone application for the architecture, engineering and construction industries to share information and links.  He just passed along this note to me:

Dear Tim

As a courtesy, I wanted to let you know that your blog posts are now available to iPhone and iPad users through the AEC Info iPhone App. This is a free iPhone/iPad app available in the iTunes store. Your content is located under the Law category.

Users can read your posts, send them through email, share them on Twitter, and open your website up in the Iphone/iPad web browser (Safari). The app has been very well received and this should open up a whole new set of readers to you and your website. Go to http://www.aeciphoneapp.com to learn more.

The app offers the latest industry headlines and insight from across the web. All from one convenient mobile application. We selected your blog posts as important to the industry and therefore included them in the app.

Thanks for including us Matt, and best of luck with your new application!

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One of the more intriguing and rewarding aspects of our recent entry into the legal blogging and social media arena has been the rapid development of conversations and connections with interesting people.  Two of these friendships have led to cross-posts on a pair of our friend's blogs.

We have been friendly with Chris Hill at Construction Law Musings for some time before the launch of our blog.  Not only has Chris been a tremendous source of information, support, and helpful advice during our first fledgling steps, but we have enjoyed an extended dialogue on various topics, blog posts, and twitter.  Chris invited us to guest post at Construction Law Musings and you can see that post today, Yes, Virginia, Contract Terms Do Matter: Financing Term Offers Owner an Escape Hatch.

The "Six Degrees of Separation" style of internet interrelationships has led from Chris to dialogue with the Build2Sustain group.  The Build2Sustain blog in particular is home to some intriguing and important discussions regarding the development process.  Those discussions, on both the blog and twitter, have in turn led to us getting to know Yahya Henry.  Yahya has extensive development and real estate experience and brings not only a passion for sustainability, but a solid understanding of the business end of the equation. 

Amongst many interests and pursuits, Yayha is currently Director of Business Development for The Aribra Group, LLC.  The Aribra Group is an online commuity promoting sustainable development.  Yayha invited us to join the conversation at The Aribra Group and recently reprinted one of our LEED related posts, LEEDing to Unintended Consequences - The Ghost of LEED Future.

We appreciate the chance to reach out and extend our dialogue and look forward to such discussions in the future.  For those interested in more rapid dialogue, you can follow us all on Twitter: Timothy R. Hughes can be found @vaconstruction, Chris Hill can be found @constructionlaw, and Yayha Henry can be found @yahyahenry.

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