Liberty Lake-based STCU is ranked 16th-best place to work in Fortune magazine’s rankings of medium-sized U.S. companies.

STCU is the third-largest credit union in Washington and the largest credit union in the Inland Northwest. It has 110,000 members with branches in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

The Best Places to Work ranking at cnnmoney.com praises STCU for a culture of celebration, fun and commitment to employees. The review noted STCU provides a tuition reimbursement for its staff of up to $8,225 per year for related studies.

“It allows parents to take time off for their kids' first day of kindergarten and first grade, as well as for parent-teacher conferences,” the magazine said.

The top-ranked medium-sized business in the ranking was Acuity, an insurance company based in Sheboygan, Wis. A total of 25 companies are listed.

Fortune's lists also include the annual 100 Best Companies to Work For. Northwest companies on that list include: Perkins Coie law firm, No. 58; Nordstrom, No. 61; Umpqua Bank in Portland, No. 69; Starbucks, No. 73,, Microsoft, No. 76; Everett Clinic, No. 87; and Schweitzer Engineering, No.  97.

For the second year in a row, Spokane's Lee & Hayes was cited as the No. 1 patent law firm in the United States, based on patent quality.  Intellectual Asset Management Magazine publishes the winners and uses a ranking system developed by Ocean Tomo. Ocean Tomo is a patent ratings company that specializes in assigning value to intellectual patents.

The magazine also hailed Lee & Hayes for being No. 1 in the information technology industry. Notably, Seattle's Perkins Coie landed at No. 6 for overall top IP firms.

The rankings appeared in the May-June issue of the magazine.

Ocean Tomo's ranking system relies on the premise that patent quality is a stronger measure of an intellectual property (IP) portfolio’s strategic value than the number of patents.

Lee & Hayes has continued to expand its operations. It recently opened a new office in Vancouver, Wash., focusing on clients in the Portland area.

Heading that office is Kevin Lemond, in photo above. The firm also has offices in Spokane, Seattle, Austin, Taipei and Beijing.