Any legal entity or professional maintaining a place of business from which the entity or professional offers or provides architectural, engineering, land surveying, landscape architectural, or certified interior design services in Virginia shall name for each profession offered or practiced at each place of business at least one resident, responsible person.  The named resident, responsible person must hold a current valid Virginia license or certificate in the profession being offered or practiced.

Each named professional shall have knowledge and competency in the area of the work being offered or practiced at the place of business for which he is named.  Each named professional shall be responsible for only one location at a time.  A named professional may be responsible for more than one location provided that he is resident at the place of business during a majority of the hours of operation at each location. 

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There are several arguments for modifying this sentence.  First, here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, professional engineers are not licensed by engineering discipline; and, thus, it is only necessary for firms to identify one engineer as the “resident, responsible person” for engineering services as each place of business.  However, for a firm that offers and provides engineering services in multiple engineering disciplines, no single person is likely to be competent in every field of engineering services offered and provided by the firm.  Thus, for such firms, no single professional engineer can assume responsibility for exercising “direct control and personal supervision of the work being offered or practiced at the place of business for which he is named.”  And, even if a firm were to choose to identify a Virginia licensed professional engineer within every engineering discipline offered and provided by the firm, for a large firm it is likely to be similar impossible for a single individual to exercise direct control and personal supervision over all work within the office as there may well be numerous projects underway at any given time within the firm.