For The State Journal

Fortune magazine has named Chesapeake Energy to its list of “100 Best Companies To Work For” for the third consecutive year.

The business magazine ranked Chesapeake as No. 34 on its list, nearly 40 spots higher than its No. 73 position last year.

SAS, which has been on the list every year since Fortune initiated it 13 years ago, won the top spot on this year’s list. SAS, based in Cary, N.C., bills itself as the world’s largest privately owned software company. In according SAS the No. 1 spot, the editors at Fortune noted the impressive “laundry list of benefits” enjoyed by its employees.

Edward Jones finished No. 2 on the list, which appeared in the magazine’s Feb. 8 issue. Fortune said it ranked the financial services firm so high because it “weathered the recession without closing one of its 12,615 offices or laying off a single employee. Salaries were frozen, but profit-sharing continued.”

In ranking Chesapeake No. 34, the editors said, “Employees at one of the largest natural gas producers are provided a rich array of benefits: 401(k) match up to 15 percent of pay, regular stock grants, medical and dental care at HQ.”

In explaining its list, Fortune said the rankings were based in large measure on the results of a survey sent to a random sample of employees from each company.

In a prepared statement, Chesapeake CEO Aubrey K. McClendon said the company was “honored to have been selected again this year as one of America’s 100 best places to work.

Chesapeake has had an up-and-down history in West Virginia.

In February 2009, Chesapeake announced it was reorganizing its Charleston-based Eastern Division from a regional corporate headquarters to a regional field office. The company said 215 of its 255 Charleston-based positions would be either moved to its Oklahoma City headquarters or eliminated, with 40 positions remaining in Charleston.

This represented a dramatic turnaround from August 2007, when Chesapeake broke ground for a new regional headquarters building in NorthGate Business Park in Charleston. The building featured an eye-catching futuristic design — and a $35 million price tag.

The project was canceled in May 2008.

At the time, the company said it changed its plan partly because of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit verdict out of Roane County relating to gas royalties paid to landowners. The verdict was one of the largest in the country and spurred much discussion in West Virginia and elsewhere about the state’s legal system, the need for possible tort reform and the fact that it is consistently labeled a “judicial hellhole.”

Shortly after Chesapeake’s announcement, West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse issued a statement linking the company’s decision to reduce its presence in the state with the Roane County decision. The grassroots group that is pushing legal reform said the announcement called the company’s decision “a loud and clear reminder of the need to fix the state’s broken legal system.”

The WV CALA release quoted McClendon as saying previously that “until West Virginia’s judicial system provides fair and unbiased access to its courts for everyone, a prudent company must be very cautious in committing further resources in the state.”