While most of the ominous warnings over the past few months about flu-related illnesses have focused on the avian variety, it’s easy to overlook the more common type that costs businesses millions of dollars in lost time. The seasonal flu, which typically starts around Thanksgiving and extends well into January, affects as much as 20 percent of the U.S. population each year or nearly twice the population of California. Out of that, about 200,000 people are hospitalized each year from flu complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control. For business owners, the lost time can really add up, said Gerald Subar, the director of pharmacy at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. “It can have a big impact on a company if their employees all get sick,” he said. So Subar, like many healthcare providers, has a simple suggestion: get a flu shot. “Everyone should get one,” he said. Companies are heeding his advice. “It’s a longtime tradition for us,” said Brad Kieffer, a spokesman for the Woodland Hills-based managed health care provider Health Net, which provides flu inoculations for employees at its 36 regional offices. More than 4,000 free shots are given each year, including about 1,000 in Woodland Hills, Kieffer said. “It’s part of our commitment to wellness,” he said. A similar tact is taken at Dole Foods Co., which hires a company to come provide flu inoculations at its Westlake Village headquarters. “We bring in a group that administers them in the fall,” said spokesman Marty Ordman, adding that the shots cost $25. The biopharmaceutical company Amgen Inc. also offers flu shots through the on-site clinic at its Thousand Oaks headquarters. The clinic, open year-round and staffed by a doctor and four nurses, sees hundreds of patients a year, especially around flu season. “It saves a lot of productivity time for the employees to be seen,” said Dr. Craig Conlon, who runs the clinic. “Our main goal is in line with what the employees want, which is to get them healthy and stay productive.” Most hospitals and nursing homes offer and sometimes require workers to receive influenza immunizations. California State University Northridge also provides flu shots for employees and students on-campus through its 19-physician clinic. For the public, Westfield Group is also offering flu and pneumonia vaccinations at its local malls, including Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks, Valencia and Topanga in Canoga Park. The shots $25 for flu and $40 for pneumonia will available Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. until Dec. 10. A variety of churches, senior centers, Los Angeles County health clinics and community centers are also offering flu shots. Healthy workers While flu vaccinations may seem overly cautious for healthy adults, there is evidence that shows immunizations cut down on workplace illnesses. A study by the University of Minnesota found that among healthy working adults who have received influenza vaccinations, there is a 43 percent reduction in the number of sick days due to upper respiratory illness. Providing flu shots is part of an overall effort by some employers to make sure workers stay healthy. Amgen, for example, offers fitness areas, nutritional classes and other health-conscious activities in Thousand Oaks. Like the clinic, the healthy activities ultimately help the bottom line, both in terms of lost time and retention. According to a study published last winter in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, employers can count on a return of as much as $6 for every $1 they spend over two to five years on health programs. Even with the returns, though, that doesn’t mean companies are jumping at the chance to open a clinic or offer shots. “They don’t think of the financial and productivity as well as wellness advantages to having a medical (clinic) on site,” Conlon of Amgen said. “A medical department certainly doesn’t seem like a core business to most companies.” Beating the Bug – Where to Get Flu Shots in the Valley Glendale Health Clinic 501 N. Glendale Ave., Glendale (818) 500-5750 North Hollywood Health Clinic 5300 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood (818) 766-3982 Pacoima Health Clinic 13300 Van Nuys Blvd., Pacoima (818) 896-1903 Westfield Promenade 6100 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills (818) 594-8732 Westfield Fashion Square 14006 Riverside Dr., Sherman Oaks (818) 783-0550 Westfield Topanga 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park (818) 594 8732 Westfield Valencia Town Center 24201 West Valencia Blvd., Valencia (661) 287-9050

The Woodland Hills insurance company 21st Century Insurance reported that its net income for the third quarter increased 35 percent. The company credited the increase during the quarter ended Sept. 30 to higher income from premiums outside California. Net income totaled $28.4 million $0.33 per diluted share compared to $21.1 million $0.25 per share a year ago. The company in October announced that it was expanding into the New Jersey insurance market.

The 101 Corridor is home to many internationally known technology companies creating innovative products. But those companies don’t interest Bill Baratto as he leads the Ventura County Economic Development Association in finding tech companies to include in a state-wide database. The association instead digs deeper to find the small- to medium-sized entrepreneurial companies hidden in industrial parks in the west San Fernando Valley. “That’s where significant amounts of innovation in technology are happening that doesn’t get recognized and is flying below the radar screen,” said Baratto, president and chief executive officer of the Ventura County EDA. The database of technology companies is among the projects funded by a $15 million federal grant to the California Space Authority, a not for profit agency finding ways to keep the state’s aerospace industry competitive in the global marketplace. The database fits that goal in that it will stimulate relationships among businesses to create new technologies. “The starting point is you have to know where everybody is and what everybody is doing,” Baratto said. The Ventura County EDA is among the more than 60 partnering organizations chosen by the authority to take part in the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development, or WIRED, program. The partners were chosen from a 13-county area dubbed the California Innovation Corridor stretching from Alameda County in the north to San Diego County in the south. Among the partners from the Los Angeles area are the Ventura County Workforce Investment Board, the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance, the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, the City of Lancaster Redevelopment Agency, Antelope Valley College, and College of the Canyons. The WIRED program promotes innovation in technology, creating workforce training and education programs for the manufacturing sector, and rejuvenating aerospace manufacturing through better supply chains. All that adds up to helping California companies maintain their competitive edge in the face of foreign countries taking away business. “We have to be responsive and be able to produce a workforce that will be competitive and maintain an economy that will be competitive,” said Les Uhazy, dean of mathematics, science and engineering at Antelope Valley College. The college’s part in the program is helping to survey 1,000 companies in the California Innovation Corridor on their needs to prepare their workforce to create and maintain efficient supply chains. The follow up to the survey is creating a training program for employees made available through the state’s community college system. Taking part in the WIRED program is an opportunity for the college to provide workforce training responsive to what manufacturers need, Uhazy said. Staying competitive, whether in local or global markets, requires a skilled workforce and ability by companies to adapt to changes in the market, Uhazy added. “If there is a particular need for a particular component that goes into CD players or a satellite dish or involved in the production of aircraft or spacecraft, and if people are going to be doing this in the most cost effective way with great efficiency we have to be prepared for that,” Uhazy said. The Antelope Valley Board of Trade, the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance along with the Kern County Economic Development Corp. are compiling a list of innovation companies and federally-funded research labs in the area to include in a database. Providing information on the companies, research labs, and universities doing research makes it easier for capital investors to find them so work stays in California, said board of trade Executive Director Cathy Hart. The board is also involved with forming a supply chain advisory council to learn the needs of manufacturing suppliers in terms of workforce and equipment. “We need to find out what is holding our suppliers back from competing in a globally competitive way,” Hart said. College of the Canyons is addressing the workforce shortage in high-tech manufacturing by developing programs for middle school students, said Dena Maloney, the school’s dean of the economic development division. The focus on middle school students parallels things the school is already doing to start planting seeds early to spark an interest in technical education programs that students pursue into college, Maloney said. LOCAL PARTICIPANTS IN WIRED Antelope Valley Board of Trade. Antelope Valley College City of Lancaster Redevelopment Agency College of the Canyons Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance Ventura County Economic Development Association Ventura County Workforce Investment Board

Pacoima The San Fernando Valley Financial Development Corporation received a three-year federal contract to provide business consulting services in the northeast San Fernando Valley. The services target small- to medium-sized businesses looking to create jobs. The SFV Financial Development Corp. is an affiliate of the Valley Economic Development Corporation. That the financial development corporation was one of 12 nationwide recipients of the grant given by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows there is a need for the consulting services and the organization was the right one to do it, said VEDC President Roberto Barragan. “It’s an extremely competitive process,” Barragan said. “As an organization you have to be well run and as a program you have to be well designed and be able to perform.” The two consultants will work out of the organization’s Pacoima office and provide one-on-one consulting services, training and financing assistance. While any business can receive the consulting services, the program targets handymen who want to get a contractor’s license and women looking to provide at-home day child care, said Circe Cox, a program manager in the Pacoima office. Those two professions were chosen because of a lack of childcare in that area of the Valley and to help handymen provide legal and licensed construction work, Cox said. The VEDC has been successful in the past with securing federal dollars to support businesses in the Valley, Barragan said. The consulting services target businesses in the Northeast Valley Enterprise Zone, an area which helps provide financial incentives for business located there and the employing of local workers. There had been concerns several months ago that the zone would lose its designation but an application for renewal has been submitted and is expected to be approved by the state, Barragan said. The Northeast Valley Enterprise Zone was created in 1986 and renewed in 2001. The boundaries take in much of Pacoima and portions of Sun Valley and Panorama City. “We have numerous businesses that have located there or continue to be there because of the support of the tax credits,” Barragan said. Businesses within the boundaries are eligible for local tax incentives, the most popular being an employee tax credit of $31,000 per employee over a five-year period. Other incentives are a rebate on sales tax for certain equipment and parts purchases; a business expense deduction capped at $20,000; and a five-year subsidy from the L.A. Department of Water and Power. Currently, 165 businesses take advantage of the employee tax credit. Precision Dynamics Corp. and SDI Industries are among the zone’s largest employers Precision has 350 employees at its headquarters in San Fernando and a warehouse in Pacoima, while SDI, a consulting and design firm for the retail trades, has 200 employees in Pacoima, many of whom come from within a 20-mile radius. SANTA CLARITA VALLEY Santa Clarita Law: A new attorney’s office has opened in Valencia. Agoura Hills-based Drescher, Quisenberry, Ridley & Shiffman opened an office at 28494 Westinghouse Place. The firm handles business and property insurance, family law and personal injury. Loans: With home building and sales slowing, it’s important to go where the action is. And in the greater San Fernando Valley, what action there is can be found in Santa Clarita. So it’s no surprise that Chase, the home mortgage division of JPMorgan Chase & Co., has opened its first Valencia location. The office joins 3,000 branch locations across the country and two in the greater Valley area, including Woodland Hills and Westlake Village. Kimberly Patterson, manager of the new office and a Stevenson Ranch resident, noted that being close to consumers is a plus in the marketplace. “We wanted to make it more convenient for homebuyers and real estate professionals to find a mortgage lender in the vibrant and fast-growing Valencia area,” Patterson said. Chase held its ribbon cutting on Oct. 26. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY Calabasas Writing: Final Draft Inc. honored the winners of its 7th annual Big Break Screenwriting Competition Oct. 26 at a party at Montmartre Lounge in Hollywood. Calabasas-based Final Draft creates and distributes software used by scriptwriters all over the world. The contest winners were Stinson Carter of California, Tom Cosgrove of Dublin, Ireland, and Yehudi Mercado of Texas. The event also honored writer, lecturer, and teacher Syd Field with the Hall of Fame Award. Glendale Autos: Acura of Glendale hosted “Take the Ride of Your Life” career open house on Oct. 25 as part of Automotive Career Month. The dealership welcomed students from Glendale schools to learn more about careers in the automotive industry. The students met with dealership management, viewed a DVD and toured the facility, which celebrated a remodeling in July. “Auto dealers need to educate the public on the amazing career opportunities for sales, technical service and parts support that exist in a dealership,” said Jeanne Brewer, president and general manager of Acura of Glendale. The dealership donated a 2004 Acura MDX to Los Angeles Trade Tech so that students can experience updated technology on newer vehicles. Mission Hills Honored: Providence Holy Cross Medical Center has been awarded three HealthGrades Excellence Awards for its stroke, pulmonary and gastrointestinal care programs. HealthGrades also ranked the 255-bed hospital as the best California facility for overall pulmonary services. Holy Cross earlier this year received the 2006/2007 HealthGrades Specialty Excellence Award for Women’s Health. San Fernando Clinic: A new branch of a Los Angeles multi-specialty group has opened in San Fernando. Clinica Medica San Miguel opened Nov. 2 at 1500 Glenoaks Blvd. and offers clinical and internal medicine services, medical tests, urgent care, vaccines and weekly health seminars. It is the 15th branch of the clinic, founded 25 years ago in Huntington Park to provide healthcare to the community. There are also locations in Panorama City and North Hollywood. Copy Cats: An annual competition at FedEx Kinko’s has named the Woodland Hills and Calabasas office and print centers as the best in the country. The competition recognizes the best-of-the-best at delivering superior financial performance, customer services and care for the environment. The two locations were chosen as the Cluster of the Year from among 1,300 U.S. retail locations. A cluster consists of a hub and one or more spoke locations that operate together as a business unit. FedEx Kinko’s Chief Operating Officer Brian Phillips and other company executives visited the Woodland Hills location on Oct. 27. ANTELOPE VALLEY Lancaster Permits: The city is offering a 30-day amnesty period for businesses operating without a license to receive proper permits without worries of prosecution. The grace period, which started Nov. 1, is part of an effort to crack down on the number of businesses operating illegally in the city, said Mayor Henry Hearns. “In the past, the city has been a bit casual about enforcing violations, but it’s time we took business licensing more seriously,” he said. “Businesses need to understand that licensing is not a penalty, but rather a protection.” Through the end of the month, businesses found to be operating without proper permits will be issued a warning letter. Starting Dec. 1, businesses will be fined. SIMI VALLEY Moorpark Medical: The Moorpark City Council has approved a new medical office building on a four-acre site on Shasta Avenue. The two-story, 79,000-square-foot structure developed by property owner Menashe Kozar will house physician and other medical support offices. It is slated to break ground next summer. Simi Valley Prism: TBM Associates received an Award of Excellence at the 2006 Public Relations Society of America Los Angeles Chapter Prism Awards. The firm received the Award of Excellence for its entry in the Corporate/Brand brochure category. The Prism Awards recognize outstanding work of local public relations firms and entries are judged by public relations professionals in other markets. TMB clients include Simi Valley Ford, CareNow Foundation, Inc. and Simi Valley Pontiac-GMC-Buick.

LTC Properties Inc., a Westlake Village-based real estate investment trust, reported net income available to shareholders of $6.8 million or $0.29 per share for the third quarter ended Sept. 30. That compares with net income of $5.9 million or $0.26 per share for the comparable period a year ago. Revenues increased to $18.1 million for the quarter, versus $17 million for the same period last year.

Last season, the San Fernando Valley’s entry took the No. 2 spot in the runaway television reality show hit “American Idol.” Now the production company responsible for the show is set to take a Valley address as well. FreeMantle Media North America Inc. has inked a deal to occupy 41,000-square feet at 4000 W. Alameda Ave. in Burbank. The production company responsible for “American Idol” along with a string of other reality programming is moving from Santa Monica, where it has occupied an 18,000-square-foot space. Craig Jablin, a broker with Studley, said the company conducted an exhaustive search throughout the Valley, Tri-cities and Hollywood before deciding on the Burbank facility. “They were experiencing exponential growth, and they found that the ability to acquire space at rates that made economic sense was better in alternative locations (outside Santa Monica),” Jablin said. “This location worked well for a number of reasons, including accessibility for their workforce. They were also close to a lot of other companies they do business with.” Rents in Santa Monica have been creeping upwards of $4 a square foot, and as of the third quarter, the average asking rate for office space in the Valley was nearer to $2.48 per square foot. FreeMantle is part of an international organization that delivers over 8,500 hours of programming to countries including the U.K., Germany, Australia, Western Europe, Latin America and Asia. It is owned by Bertelsmann AG. “American Idol,” by far the most famous of its U.S. programs, has garnered 22 Emmy nominations since it launched in 2001. Last season, Sherman Oaks resident Katharine McPhee took second place in the competition. The North American division also produces “American Inventor” for ABC, “America’s Got Talent” for NBC, “The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency” for Oxygen and “Property Ladder” for TLC. Jablin, along with Arlene Sommer at Studley, represented FreeMantle. Douglas Marlow and Nico Vilgiate, with CB Richard Ellis, represented the landlord. Construction Spending Flat Non-residential construction spending rose across the country, but not enough to compensate for the continued downturn in residential construction spending. Commenting on monthly U.S. Census figures, the Associated General Contractors of America noted that residential construction spending dropped another 1.1 percent in September, bringing the total decline in spending for the sector down by 8.2 percent since March. Seasonally adjusted construction spending slipped 3 percent in September, but non-residential construction rose 1.1 percent. The trade group noted that the highest growth categories year to date have been hotels and resorts, which showed a 48 percent spending increase year to date; retail centers, which were up 37 percent for the same period; and hospitals, up 25 percent. “Nearly all of these categories should continue growing over the next year,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the AGC. East Valley Deals Three office building sales have recently taken place in the East San Fernando Valley. The largest, a 33,000-square-foot office building in the Burbank Media District at 2727 W. Alameda Ave., was sold for $10.45 million to First Capital Commercial Investment. The seller was a private investor. A 17,000-square-foot office building at 12800 Riverside in Valley Village was sold to Oasis Christian Center for somewhat more than $4 million. Oasis Christian plans to occupy about 10,000 square feet. The remaining space is currently leased by a Fox Television production unit. Another 16,000-square-foot office building at 10911 Riverside in Toluca Lake was sold to a private investor for somewhat more than $3 million. Stacy Vierheilig-Fraser, a broker with Charles Dunn, represented the seller of the W. Alameda property along with Dunn’s Bob Harrison. Vierheilig-Fraser also represented the seller, Granite Falls Holding, in the Valley Village deal and both buyer and seller in the Toluca Lake transaction. First Capital was represented by Mark Miller of Stevenson Real Estate Services. Oasis Christian was represented by April Stefen of Coldwell Banker Commercial. Printer Moves A Canoga Park printing company will relocate to Chatsworth with the just-completed deal to lease 30,700 square feet for its new headquarters. Impress Communications Inc., which is currently based in Canoga Park, will relocate to 9320 Lurline Ave. The five-year lease is valued at $1.6 million. David Hoffberg, a broker with Delphi Business Properties, represented Impress. The landlord, Lainer Investments, represented itself. Senior reporter Shelly Garcia can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or by e-mail at [email protected] .

On paper, it would seem the increase to the state’s minimum wage Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law this fall would have only mild effects on small business owners. After all, the total increase of $1.25 an hour only amounts to an average load of laundry and is phased in over a year from the current $6.75 to $7.50 on Jan. 1, 2007, and $8 in 2008. That $1.25 an hour might not amount to much, but there are growing signs among small business owners that the total amount an additional $2,600 per employee each year is a hard pill to swallow. One indication is at the Valencia investigation company California Fingerprinting Authority, where owner Lance Wilson said business has substantially increased since September, when the law was passed. The company, which Wilson founded just a year ago as a live-scan fingerprinting service, had been completing 40 to 50 cases a week this summer. After the law was signed, it zoomed to 75, then 100. Wilson reasoned the additional $1.25 has made small business owners more cautious about investing in sub-par employees. To address the concerns, some have turned to background checks to make sure new employees are worth the investment. “They don’t mind paying them more because they know they’re getting a better employee and they have the longevity of the employee,” Wilson said. Michael T. Hull, a regional advocate in the U.S. Small Business Administration, said that while it’s difficult to quantify the trend of companies vetting employees more intensely because of wage increases, there are indications it causes business owners to think twice about the type of employee they want to hire. Hull said that employers are more likely to want a better-trained employee if they’re paying more. The result is that minimum wage positions are becoming tougher and tougher to find, he said. “Some report that many minimum wage jobs are no longer offered as a result of the minimum wage increase as employers will no longer look to hire minimum wage earners with no experience but rather focus on experienced employees only,” he said. New hires Business has also been steadily escalating over the past few years at InfoLink Screening Services Inc., a Chatsworth company that specializes in background checks, drug tests and employee verifications. But company President Barry Nadell said he’s not sure that’s because of the minimum wage increases. “It’s an interesting thought that a company wants to be cautious because they have to pay people more,” he said. “If that’s driving things, great.” Instead, Nadell thinks his business has been building simply because more employers become more cautious about whom they hire. “People understand that in order to make an intelligent hiring decision, they need more information,” he said. “It’s just commonplace.” Jonathan Goldhill, CEO of the Woodland Hills business advisory firm The Growth Coach, said it makes sense that employers would be more apprehensive about hiring the wrong person given the additional costs associated with the wage hike. “The more money that employers are going to invest in employees, the more they want to know they’re investing their time and money into someone who’s going to be around for the long haul,” he said. “I’m not surprised.” Regardless of the causes, this much is clear: business is booming for Wilson. He opened a Bakersfield location a few months ago and plans are in the works to expand into the San Fernando Valley. Wilson credits the success to the minimum wage change. “We’re seeing an increase in interest,” he said. “We’re seeing an increase in everything.”

Beverly Hills Bancorp Inc. today reported net income of $2.6 million or $0.13 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2006, down more than 40 percent from $4.4 million or $0.21 per share in the like period a year ago. The company attributed the decline to a decrease in net interest income totaling $2.5 million, a $500,000 decrease in other income and “slight increases” in provisions for losses and other operating expenses. The bank’s net interest margin declined to 2.28 percent compared to 3.08 percent for the Sept. 2005 quarter. Beverly Hills Bancorp, the parent of First Bank of Beverly Hills based in Calabasas, also said that it completed the sale of its Beverly Hills branch to First Bank on Nov. 3. As of Sept. 30, the bank’s assets totaled $1.5 billion, compared with assets of $1.4 billion in the same period a year ago.

Cynthia Elkins was on the partnership track when it became clear that her employment law practice didn’t fit well with the firm’s main focus, workers’ compensation. Instead of moving to another firm, Elkins decided to hang out her own shingle, a move she admits was “scary” at first. “Now I don’t look back,” said Elkins, whose practice has grown large enough to add another associate. “When you’re an associate the partnership mentality is so dominant in your head because it’s the thing that validates you. But I gained more respect by venturing out on my own.” Most attorneys will tell you that a partnership at a firm still carries the greatest cachet in the profession, and there is a lingering stigma that those who choose to go it alone can’t cut it in a big firm, but more and more, those clinging to that image are the partners in those very firms. Many who opt to go it alone or with a small firm are finding plenty of respect measured in the size of their practice, the work that they do and the recognition they get from clients, they say. That’s especially true for business attorneys who say their clients appreciate their experience running a business as much as they do their legal expertise. At the same time, the Internet has eliminated the biggest shortcomings traditionally attributed to the solo practice the support of a research department and a hand from colleagues when they need it. Solo practitioners now have access to a number of online resources to help with everything from case law to feedback on opposing counsel and locating experts for testimony. “As a sole practitioner, with the onset of the computer age, I have access to resources from the county bar; trial lawyers have another service,” said Allan Oberman, a Woodland Hills-based business transaction and litigation attorney. “You can ask questions about how to handle a problem or has anyone dealt with this attorney or that judge. I needed a Spanish interpreter for a trial and within a minute and a half I had two recommendations.” Among the members of the San Fernando Valley Bar Association, a full 50 percent are solo practitioners, according to a survey the association conducted last year, and another 20 percent work at firms with five or fewer attorneys. Women are least likely to have partnership positions at firms. According to a study conducted by the National Association for Legal Career Professionals, although 47 percent of the attorneys at L.A. area law firms are women, just under 19 percent are partners, a fact perhaps as much attributable to lifestyle choice as to the glass ceiling, some say. “I think a lot of women purposely take themselves off the partnership track,” said Sue M. Bendavid-Arbiv, a partner at Lewitt, Hackman, Shapiro, Marshall & Harlan in Encino and a mother of three. “For me, it was a goal to become a partner, and I was very driven. I didn’t think I couldn’t do it and be a good mother at the same time.” But many female attorneys choose jobs that give them more time at home, and men too are increasingly choosing career paths that provide a better balance between domestic and professional responsibilities. Some left large law firms to start a solo practice only to build it into a larger firm this time on their own terms. Consider Ira Rosenblatt, founder and director of Woodland Hills-based Stone, Rosenblatt & Cha, which began as a solo operation in 1992 and has since grown to number 20 attorneys. “We’ve hired a number of associates who have taken significant pay cuts to work for our firm,” said Rosenblatt. “The tradeoff is it’s going to be a shorter commute, and it’s not uncommon for a number of lawyers here to be out coaching their kids’ soccer game.” Choosing a partnership at a large law firm means commuting to downtown Los Angeles or Century City, trips that, for Valley residents, can eat three hours out of the day. Besides the commute, achieving partnership status means an attorney must produce about 36 so-called “billable hours” a week, a requirement that translates to 10-hour days and more. And it often means being in the office when the partners are there, regardless of individual preference or clients’ needs. “I’m not a morning person,” said Elkins. “When I worked at a firm where the partners got there at 7 in the morning, and I didn’t, it was an issue. They left at four or five and they didn’t acknowledge that I was there until 10.” Women may be more likely to choose a solo practice or in-house counsel role when they are raising children, but many of the reasons for the choice also involve the nature of a large-firm practice. Issues resonate with both sexes. The whole issue of billable hours, many attorneys say, means that they spend time doing, not the work they most enjoy, but merely the work that generates revenue for the firm. Deborah Sweeney left a partnership at Michelman & Robinson for an in-house counsel position at Mycorporation.com after giving birth to her first child. But she has stayed in that role even as the company was acquired by Intuit and what began as a part-time position has evolved into full-time work. “It’s not quite the hours of a law firm where you’re expected to be there from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. as a partner,” said Sweeney, who has since had a second child. “The billable hours are a stress and of course, the client demands are different. It’s not necessarily easier. It’s more manageable.” In place of partnership pressures, those who choose to go it alone must become their own IT, billing and accounts payable managers, time consuming work even as compared to the race for billable hours, as Wendy E. Hartmann found when she left a seven-attorney practice to go solo. “My daughter was in high school, and I wanted to be able to spend more time with her,” recalled Hartmann, who is now folding her solo practice into Alperstein, Simon, Farkas, Gillin & Scott. “I thought I could limit the amount of work I wanted to take on and I could make my own hours. But I think I was a little na & #271;ve thinking I would have more flexibility.” The difference, these attorneys say, is not that they work less hours, but that they can choose the hours when they work. “I coached my son’s little league team for eight years,” said Oberman, who notes that being his own boss drove him to hang out his own shingle directly after leaving the district attorney’s office. “Without being a sole practitioner, which allows me to adjust my time accordingly, I probably would have missed those eight years.

The recent staffing cuts and consolidation of business functions at the Daily News follows a pattern established at other newspapers its Denver-based MediaNews Group parent owns. Just this year, the company reduced staff at its papers in Denver and San Jose, and employees of three papers in the San Francisco area were warned via memo in late October of pending layoffs. In the summer, the Denver Newspaper Agency, which runs business operations for MediaNews’s Denver Post, made cuts in its finance, human resources, and circulation departments. The cuts at the Daily News, which is part of MediaNews Group’s eight-newspaper Los Angeles Newspaper Group, will consolidate a number of business functions, a strategy outsiders say has been regularly employed by MediaNews group and steered by its Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman William Dean Singleton. Singleton runs a “lean ship” at other newspapers owned by MediaNews and streamlining the Los Angeles group of papers allows them to take advantage of economies of scale, said Kevin Roderick, editor of the L.A. Observed website. Los Angeles New Group President and Chief Executive Officer John McKeon declined to comment for this story. Last week, the media company announced that it was eliminating the position of publisher along with the directors of circulation, human resources and finance at the Daily News and assigning those responsibilities to executives already responsible for those areas at Los Angeles News Group. Four editorial positions were also eliminated. The editorial cuts came from the paper’s sports department and its Antelope Valley edition. The paper is expected this month to scale back its daily Santa Clarita wrap to Saturday and Sunday only, and its daily Antelope Valley wrap to Sunday only. News from the Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita is expected to be included in the main section of the paper. McKeon will take over the responsibilities of Daily News publisher formerly held by Tracy Rafter, who joined the newspaper two years ago. The moves represent a streamlining across LANG to make use of resources they can share, said Roderick at L.A. Observed. “Maybe they can share them wisely,” Roderick said. Brent Hopkins, a Daily News reporter and one of two union stewards, said that McKeon told him that additional layoffs were not planned although the possibility could not be ruled out. Before the recent cuts, the union represented 110 non-management employees. When rumors began to circulate three to four weeks ago about potential layoffs, Hopkins said he and the other union steward met with editor Ron Kaye to discuss the situation. The union contract with the paper does not set an established number of positions and the union was not consulted about which editorial staffers would be let go. The union did facilitate a voluntary layoff that resulted in one newsroom position being saved, Hopkins said. The day the cuts were made, Kaye had a meeting with the editorial staff during which he explained the challenges faced by the paper and the importance of working together, Hopkins said. The atmosphere around the newsroom has been mixed, Hopkins added, with one veteran editor telling him that Kaye’s talk was one of the best he’s heard. “It made me feel like there is hope and they didn’t just arbitrarily cut people or that they didn’t have a plan to get us out of this mess,” Hopkins said. The staff reductions come at the same time when circulation numbers are declining for the Daily News and other MediaNews papers in the region. For the six-month period ending Sept. 30 Daily News circulation dropped 10.7 percent to 151,215 daily copies and 12.7 percent to 170,434 Sunday copies. But the Daily News was already getting by with a small staff scrambling to get daily news, and any further changes in staff could cut into the paper’s enterprise reporting, Roderick said. “I would hate to see that suffer anymore,” he added. The cuts are indicative of what has been happening in the industry as a whole. The Los Angeles Times has also reduced staff in recent years through layoffs and buyouts. The pressure for profits does affect the impact that newspapers can have, said Manley Witten, an instructor in the journalism department at California State University at Northridge. “With fewer reporters and fewer editors it’s hard to serve the communities we are supposed to serve,” Witten said. In the class he teaches on editing, the students notice that common ownership leads to a similar look in their publications, be it newsprint or online. Recently, Witten’s students were looking at newspaper websites, including two from LANG and commented on how much the two sites looked alike, he said. “Even on the Internet where we’re supposed to have multiple voices and limitless bandwidth we find that numerous sites are identical as a result of being owned by the same company,” Witten said. He added that, as a journalism teacher, it’s challenging to counter layoff news with encouragement and not paint a bleak picture for the students. “What I try to remind them is there are 1,500 daily newspapers in the country,” Witten said. “They might have to leave Southern California but there are opportunities and just because a company owns multiple papers doesn’t inherently make them bad.”