Team: From left, Jamie Stein, Ryan Haws, Chandra Beaton, Michael Brody and Angela Lopez, new equity partners at LightGabler.
With an eye on the future, Camarillo-based employment law firm LightGabler LLP has named five new partners.
Not counting name partners Jon Light and Karen Gabler, the promotions represent 25% of the firm’s attorney headcount. Light, who is the firm’s managing partner, said the move, made this month, to give those partners a stake in the operation was to signal his confidence in their leadership.
“I wanted to create some continuity for the future,” he said. “They’ve got a 20-to-25-year shelf life, and this really sets us up for the future. They’re going to be the heart of the firm for the next five, 10, 15 years.”
The new partners are Chandra Beaton, Ryan Haws, Michael Brody, Jamie Stein and Angela Lopez.
Light said the attorneys’ time at LightGabler runs from about four years to more than 20, while their practices cover a wide range of employment litigation and employment counseling.
Beaton’s practice covers disputes including construction defects, personal injury, intellectual property and general liability, among others. Haws handles a variety of workplace disputes and compliance issues. Both Brody and Stein cover wrongful termination, workplace harassment and discrimination, wage and hour claims and other individualized disputes, while Lopez also picks up those areas plus compliance issues.
One consistency among the group, Light said: no egos.
“We don’t put up with egos,” he said. “It’s really been a pleasant firm, and I try to sustain that by hiring good people.”
Since forming in 2011, when Light left the since-shuttered Nordman Cormany Hair & Compton in Oxnard, LightGabler has grown from five lawyers, an administrator and paralegal to 20 attorneys, five administrators and five paralegals. It has a second location in San Luis Obispo, and Light noted that the firm posted a 20% revenue growth in 2020 in spite of the pandemic. At the moment, the firm is handling 98 class-action lawsuits.
“Year over year, we’ve had growth in terms of people. We’ve had positive growth, even during Covid,” he said. “That’s the best part about employment law. It’s noncyclical. In good times it’s busy, and in bad times it’s busy.”
And while Light formed the firm without having an institutional legacy in mind, it’s an idea that has crept into place recently. He admitted that while he’s counting down the years until his retirement and no longer has the energy for trials, his younger attorneys have taken the reins and made it worthwhile for the firm to invest in their careers here now.
That investment, Light added, creates a “bedrock foundation” to continue the firm’s work and growth.
“I really wanted to create a legacy for these folks and give them something to work with,” he said. “For the next 10 years, we’re dialed in.”
In California, there is a looming threat jeopardizing the safety of our communities, and it poses a significant risk to our business community: retail theft and organized crime. This urgent issue demands attention from our local and state officials to safeguard our retail businesses and the overall well-being of our state’s economy.
California, once synonymous with the three-strike rule, witnessed a transformative shift in its approach to dealing with crime. The elimination of the three-strike rule and the changes brought by Proposition 47, which made stealing less than $950 a misdemeanor, aiming for “fairness” in our justice system, paved the way for a troubling surge in retail theft and organized crime, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Contrary to the idea that economic hardships drive crime, the surge in retail theft has persisted even amid improving economic conditions. Even before the onset of the pandemic, major metropolitan areas in California were experiencing increases in retail theft, with the pandemic further prompting several locales to experience a shocking 700% rise in incidents. In a 2023 Retail Security Survey, data shows an increase in the “shrink rate,” representing the percentage of inventory loss due to factors like theft, escalating from 1.4% in 2021 to 1.6% in 2022, signifying an annual loss of $112 billion for 177 retail brands. What’s further concerning is that in the same survey respondents shared a concerning trend: an increase in the violence accompanying retail theft incidents, with obvious negative impacts on employees, bystanders and businesses.
The nature of retail theft has evolved and is now entrenched by organized crime rings. Large-scale theft events, such as mass shoplifting and smash-and-grab incidents, have become commonplace in California and other parts of the United States. California has three cities in the top 10 for high retail theft, and Los Angeles is No. 1 for the last five years.
This unacceptable trend prompted the Valley Industry and Commerce Association’s support for legislative measures such as Assembly Bill 1613 and Senate Bill 301 during the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions.
SB 301 looks to protect consumers and third-party resale platforms by imposing unified standards on high-volume sellers and preventing the sale of stolen merchandise, while AB 1613 expands the attorney general’s territorial jurisdiction for prosecuting theft offenses.
While the governor signed these commendable proposals into law, much more is needed regarding comprehensive measures to address the growing menace of retail theft.
And now, most of our elected officials are starting to get the message. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent call to create new laws to crack down on professional thieves and bolster police and prosecutor tools is a step in the right direction. State legislators have proposed more than a dozen new anti-theft proposals within the first two weeks of the 2024 session, and we can anticipate more proposals leading up to the February deadline. Additionally, a Select Committee on Retail Theft was created this legislative session and is chaired by Assemblymember Rick Zbur and has Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo – both represent portions of the San Fernando Valley – as part of its committee membership. Their inclusion and leadership within this committee underscores the significance of organized retail crime within Los Angeles County, specifically within local economies that rely on retail businesses. And moving forward, the focus should be on increasing penalties, mandating prosecutorial action and enabling cross-jurisdictional legal action.
Law enforcement agencies are also taking steps to respond to the crisis, with the California Highway Patrol increasing operations by over 310% by tripling CHP resources in Los Angeles County, with an allocation of $267 million to enhance local law enforcement capabilities, resulting in more than 1,000 arrests in the first 11 months of last year.
At the local level, the Retail Theft Task Force, comprising investigators from various law enforcement agencies including police departments in Beverly Hills, Burbank, Glendale and Los Angeles as well as the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, resulted in 89 arrests and the recovery of more than $370,000 of stolen merchandise within the first five weeks of its inception.
As California steps into the new year, state and local governments must prove to the business community that the Golden State remains a safe and viable place for investment. Elected officials must ensure the enforcement of laws, prosecutors must actively pursue cases and the state and local governments must direct their enforcement agencies to combat these threats to our safety and economy.
Our retail businesses are not expendable, and the lack of safety our retail businesses have creates a detrimental ripple effect that impacts job opportunities and fosters increased illegal activity.
It is time for California to show retail businesses are not an afterthought or not worthy of the protection that they absolutely deserve.
Stuart Waldman is president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a business-advocacy organization based in Van Nuys that represents employers in the San Fernando Valley area at the federal, state and local levels of government.
Lewitt, Hackman, Shapiro, Marshall & Harlan has named a new practice group leader and elevated one of its attorneys to shareholder.
Shareholder Nicholas Kanter was earlier this month made chair of the firm’s business litigation practice group. Meanwhile, employment law attorney Tal Burnovski Yeyni was made a shareholder for the firm. Managing shareholder Keith Zimmet noted that an elevation to shareholder amounted to a long-term leadership role in the mid-size firm.
Lewitt Hackman does not publicly disclose who are equity or nonequity shareholders.
Kanter, who joined the firm in 2005, has focused on employment and real estate litigation throughout his career. Zimmet said Kanter’s experience and tenure give him the demeanor for leadership.
“In terms of this particular position, he has a calm demeanor and the ability to build a shared consensus,” he added. “We have about 20 or so litigators here in various practices and I thought he was an excellent person to work with that diverse group of practices and people.”
Kanter said he relished a leadership role as the firm positioned itself to take on more complex cases.
“I intend to build on our past and guide our litigation practice into the future through innovative technological advancements to improve efficiencies in litigation that will be of great benefit to our clients and our firm,” he said in a statement. “I also intend to have our more senior litigators, including myself, continue to mentor junior litigators so they develop the litigation skills necessary to better serve our clients and to further their careers.”
Yeyni, who joined in 2015, handles employer risk reduction and compliance matters.
“I am very fortunate that throughout my career as an attorney, in Israel and California, I worked with amazing colleagues and mentors,” she said in a statement. “I have been with Lewitt Hackman for nine years and appreciate the invaluable support from my colleagues here.”
Zimmet said Yeyni had checked off all of the boxes for leadership at the firm.
“She’s shown an ability to generate business and maintain client relationships,” he said. “That’s a big thing that we look for when we look for someone to promote to shareholder.”
“Well, ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to see NASA’s newest X plane?” Pam Melroy, NASA deputy administrator, asked the 150 people gathered at the Skunk Works facility in Palmdale earlier this month. “Great. Me too. Well then, let’s see it.”
And with that, the curtain was dropped on the X-59, an experimental aircraft built by Lockheed Martin Corp. for NASA’s Quiet SuperSonic Technology mission, which is designed to reduce sonic booms to the sound of a mere thump.
The Skunk Works, known officially as Advanced Development Programs, is where the Bethesda, Maryland-based aerospace and defense contractor does its top-secret work. So, the invitation to attend a public unveiling of the X-59 there was a rare opportunity to see inside the facility.
The Skunk Works’ legacy includes some of the most advanced aircraft ever built: the XP-80, a prototype jet fighter developed during World War II; the U2 high-altitude spy plane; the SR-71 Blackbird, one of the fastest planes to have ever flown; and the F-117 Nighthawk, the first stealth bomber.
The X-59 continues that legacy.
“Today marks a historic milestone for us as we unveil the X-59. This is really another jewel in the crown, not just for Aerospace Valley, but also a very rich history of NASA aeronautics,” Melroy said.
The first A in NASA stands for aeronautics and the agency is all about groundbreaking aerospace innovation, she said.
“The X-59 proudly continues this legacy, representing the forefront of technology driving aviation forward,” she added.
The plane’s specs
The company received a nearly $248 million contract six years ago from NASA to develop, build and test the X-59.
With the plane finally built – there were delays in its construction – it will begin flying this summer, said David Richardson, head of the X-59 project at the Skunk Works.
The plane will fly about 15 times before it goes supersonic and proves that it can be quieter than the typical plane flying faster than the speed of sound, he said.
“That is really what we are shooting for,” Richardson said. “For me at least, when we don’t hear that boom that will be the big, monumental achievement, not first flight.”
The X-59 is a one-of-a-kind aircraft that Lockheed won’t build again.
“Everything we do is the first time anybody has ever done this,” Richardson said. “It’s made up of parts from other aircraft, but it has never been combined in this way before.”
The tail-mounted engine, for instance, was taken from an F-18.
“That is the only engine we could get to meet the requirements of the low boom that sort of fit the mission,” Richardson said.
The engine, however, has a limited life of about 1,000 hours, so the plane will only be able to fly for a couple of years, he continued, adding, “Fighters are usually in afterburner for maybe seconds. We stay there for minutes. We’re actually burning the life out of this engine.”
Michael Buonanno, chief engineer for the aircraft, said the entire airplane has been shaped for a sonic boom.
“One of the things that is challenging about designing a low sonic boom airplane is that you have to align the center of gravity of the airplane with the features that are otherwise challenging in terms of balancing the airplane,” he said.
One of the ways the Skunk Works team made those two conflicting things work together is by locating the wing where it is, shaping the distribution of the lift on the wing so that the shock waves that come from it do not coalesce, and adding the canards – small wings – in front of the wing and the horizontal tail in behind the wing, he added. The wings are located more than halfway back on the fuselage of the aircraft.
“We have them all share the load together, so they are all lifting when the airplane is cruising and that lets us meet our sonic boom goals,” Buonanno said.
Suppliers to the program are spread across the country and in the United Kingdom and Canada. Most, however, are in Southern California, with eight of the companies located in the San Fernando or Santa Clarita valleys.
Among them are EON Instrumentation Inc. in Van Nuys; Forrest Machining Inc. in Valencia; Embe Industries Inc. in Glendale; and Senior Aerospace SSP in Burbank.
Overcoming difficulties
Sleek: An X-59 in a Skunk Works hangar.
The program wasn’t without its challenges.
For one, the pandemic put it behind by about two months.
And then there were other problems, such as the microscopic solder short-circuits in one of the onboard flight computers, Richardson said.
“That’s one of the reasons why we had a standdown for about three months to try to solve that,” he added. “But we’re back in the saddle again and going forward.”
Part of the secret of quieting the sonic booms to the equivalent of a car door slamming shut is pushing everything as far aft – or to the rear – as far as one possibly can, Richardson continued.
“It is not that this airplane has a really long nose; what it is, is the wing and everything is pushed to the back,” Richardson said.
But the shock waves would coalesce not just at the front of the plane, but at the back of it as well.
“We have one at the front and then all the air closes together at the back, so you hear boom, boom,” he said.
The “T” on the back of the tail actually creates another shock that interferes with the louder shock wave, he added.
“So the energy is still there, but it’s sort of like noise cancellation, if you will, to help interfere with that so that people don’t perceive it as much,” Richardson continued.
Understanding noise levels
Peter Coen, who is in charge of the NASA Quiet SuperSonic Technologies mission integration, related the background on the regulations that the Federal Aviation Administration enforces and how the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection has no standard on supersonic flight but did pass a resolution that nobody should be intentionally exposed to sonic booms.
“The resolution also says that (the committee) welcomes information that can update them on the noise from supersonic flights,” Coen said. “Every time, what we have been doing is bringing information to them about our research.”
In 2016, the committee said it felt it was at the point that if NASA were to bring it the right data it would certify a supersonic aircraft to fly over land, provided it was flying below a certain noise level, Coen said.
“The idea of the X-59 is to help them find out what level is quiet enough,” he added.
Lab studies conducted by the space agency have put that figure at around 75 perceived level of decibels, Coen continued.
By comparison, the Concorde, the most recent commercial supersonic jet, generated 105 perceived level of decibels, according to NASA. Distant thunder is about 73, a basketball bouncing is about 90, and the average hand clap comes in at around 95.
When the X-59 conducts flights over six communities in the United States – both urban and rural – NASA will collect data from the residents living there as to whether they were bothered by the sonic thump or not. The flights have not yet been scheduled.
“That is the data we create and bring it to the committee. That is where NASA’s role ends,” Coen said. “We create scientific information in an unbiased manner and then the FAA and the (committee) can create policy and regulations which will allow for manufacturers to make decisions about whether they can build products that meet those regulations.”
Lockheed is not in the commercial aircraft business, so it would not be building any airplanes that could carry passengers at supersonic speed, Richardson said.
The company would more likely partner with a commercial jet manufacturer, he said.
“If there is a company out there that wants to build a low-boom supersonic commercial airliner or business jet, we have the know-how and the experience to help them achieve that,” Richardson said.
Both Buonanno and Richardson said that operational supersonic commercial jets would likely not become available until about 2035.
Leader: Jeff Unger, the founder of eMinutes. (Photo by David Sprague)
The beginning of every year means employment law firms and practices need to bring their business clients up to speed on new rules and regulations.
One of this year’s new rules – the Corporate Transparency Act – focuses in on smaller businesses and the entities that entertainers often create. It mandates that those operations submit identifying information about their owners and beneficiaries. By disclosing full names, birthdates, addresses and other information, proponents said the appropriate federal agencies can better unmask bad actors behind money laundering and other illegal acts.
“What they’re trying to do is uncover dark money and just make sure people are complying with federal financial regulations,” explained Shaune Arnold, an affiliated counsel with Encino employment law firm Pearlman, Brown & Wax LLP.
Entity management is big business in Los Angeles, where the nature of the entertainment industry means that musicians, actors and other celebrities might have as many as a dozen or more business entities – that is, incorporated companies and other revenue-generating operations, with tax numbers – to cover all of their operations. For the financial professionals who work with those clients, any new regulation means a lot more work per client – and sometimes, that means going to a law firm.
“It’s just one more thing that we’ve got to follow,” said Amir Malek, a managing director at the Calabasas office of wealth and business management firm The Colony Group. “Most business managers like myself, we always look to see what is the most efficient way of doing work for our clients. Sometimes that means you farm it out to someone who has built the infrastructure to do this.”
Submitting info
Passed in 2021, the Corporate Transparency Act established a federal standard for business incorporation, one that requires business beneficiaries to file identifying information. While there are exceptions, broadly any incorporated business with 20 or fewer employees and annual revenue under $5 million must file this information. Larger operations typically already have to disclose this information in one form or another, while small businesses previously have not.
“If you have an LLC, who are your unit holders? If you have a corporation, who are your shareholders? If you have a limited partnership, who are your limited partners?” Arnold said. “Any entity that is registered with the secretary of state and that distributes shares or equity to investors are going to be impacted directly by this act.”
For all such officers, businesses need to file full legal names and corresponding birthdates, addresses and ID number from a driver’s license or passport to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, an enforcement arm of the Treasury Department. Entities formed after Jan. 1 have 30 days to report this information, while those existing prior will have through the end of the year to file.
Citing similar provisions in other countries, proponents of the regulation claim it will help federal officials identify, track and shut down “dark money” and money-laundering operations, among other illegal activities.
“Big picture, I think it’s really an effort to try and get more oversight and control over money and equity in these types of businesses,” added Corinne Spencer, a partner at Pearlman, Brown & Wax.
Checking in on clients
The need to make sure clients know about this law has provided a good opportunity for professionals such as accountants and lawyers to really check in on certain aspects of their clients’ companies.
“It has given us an opportunity to have some real conversations about corporate governance with clients we may not have served in the past,” Arnold said.
The impetus behind the rule change is that the ease with which people can form a limited liability company paves way for obscure shell companies to launder money and otherwise disguise illegal activity by shielding who owners and beneficiaries are.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who described the regulation as key to revealing the owners of shell companies and combating “dirty money,” said more than 100,000 businesses filed their information during the first week of the year. FinCEN previously estimated the rule would affect more than 32 million entities.
Beyond getting the information and filing the documents, Arnold said this presents a good opportunity for lawyers such as herself to check in on other aspects of companies they represent and help them clean up their books.
“Some entrepreneurs who bring on investors don’t necessarily do things by the book,” she said. “They may have taken a check and said ‘you have X percentage of my company’ and then taken another check and another check and not really made it clear to their investors what their equity is. They also need to make sure their investors are not prohibited by the IRS.”
Malek, at The Colony Group, said he often directs his clients to a West Hollywood law firm – eMinutes – that has for decades specialized in entity formation and management and is prepared to take on CTA filings.
Jeff Unger, who has a background as a corporate and real estate attorney and formed eMinutes in 1997, said the work began when an entertainment lawyer asked if he could handle corporate minutes. That quickly spiraled into an idea to offer rote business management services, efficiently and at a bargain.
Growing firms
The firm has since grown to a team of 10 attorneys, plus support staff, based both in Southern California and in a New York office. The team keeps things brisk and efficient using software, often developed in-house by full-time computer scientists on staff. This software, for example, prepares automated first drafts of corporate minutes, which are then reviewed and edited by an attorney. Documents are prepared using HTML.
Unger said the firm had invested more than $5 million in technology and manages more than 48,000 businesses, at a starting rate of $155 per year. In California alone, eMinutes files nearly 15,000 statements of information to the state annually.
“Because we are responsible for tens of thousands of filings, we have developed fantastic custom-built tools to manage the data and filings,” he said. “When this new law was discussed, we immediately started looking at what tools we need to be able to apply the existing technology we have and leverage it to handle these new filings.”
Malek said eMinutes has been a great service to his clients, who will have separate businesses for, say, music tours and acting services.
“For a good portion of them, we usually have an infrastructure of an entity or multiple entities for touring and other aspects of their business,” he said. “There are multiple entities that they might have depending on the structure of their operations. Most of our clients have multiple entities that need to be maintained. If I had to come up with a number, I would say 90% have to (comply). I rarely have a client who does not have an entity.”
US Nuclear Corp.,which is based in Canoga Park, got some good news last month from its partner company, Magneto-Inertial Fusion Technologies Inc.
Magneto-Inertial, which is based in Tustin, demonstrated its fusion technology at the L3 Harris Lab in San Leandro, where it produced a yield of 150 billion neutrons, the company said in a release.
“This is 10,000 times higher than achieved by any other private company in the world,” US Nuclear said.
US Nuclear is a partner, investor, and possible prime contractor for Magento-Inertial’s fusion-power generator.
The firm has exclusive rights to make and market the fusion reactors, which Magneto-Inertial plans to commercialize. The technology has applications in the development of radiopharmaceutical products used in nuclear medicine procedures; clean energy; and to power spaceships to Mars and beyond.
The technology has several timelines for commercialization, according to the company. The reactor could produce radiopharmaceutical products in months; clean energy could be produced in about three years; and powering spaceships to Mars and beyond is at least five to seven years off.
In 2018, US Nuclear bought a 10% stake in Miftec Laboratories Inc., a subsidiary of Magneto-Inertial. It also has a smaller percentage of ownership in the parent company.
“That’s okay, because (Magneto Inertial’s) eventual valuation could be in the trillions someday, so even a teeny amount is still a good bet in our opinion,” Robert Goldstein, chief executive of US Nuclear, told the Business Journal in 2020.
Also, about four years ago, the San Fernando Valley company took a 40% stake in Grapheton Inc., a San Diego company that makes components used in machine-brain interface devices.
With recent results of 150 billion neutrons per shot and predictions by leading computer predictive simulator codes of achieving greater then “break-even,” Magento-Inertial expects that its fusion reactors will be able to generate low-cost clean energy to the world’s electric power grids sooner than any other technology, US Nuclear said in a release.
Radioisotopes are used in several industries, most notably for advanced medical imaging.
The required number of neutrons to make radioisotopes is 10 to the 12th power, or about 1 trillion neutrons. Magneto-Inertial’s recent breakthrough was very close (10 to the 11th) to that required number, and the company is going back to L3 Harris next month for the next round of testing, US Nuclear said.
US Nuclear trades on the over-the-counter market. Its stock hit a high for the past 12 months when it closed at 18 cents on Feb. 2 of last year. It has lost about 57% in the 52-week period through Jan. 23.
US Nuclear has three subsidiaries: Technical Associates in Canoga Park, which makes radiation detection equipment; Overhoff Technologies in Milford, Ohio, which specializes in tritium detection equipment; and Electronic Control Concepts, also in Milford, which makes voltmeters to check industrial and medical X-ray machines.
Valencia-based skin cell-regeneration company Avita Medical Inc. has signed a deal with a unit of a Chinese regenerative medicine company to commercialize that company’s wound-treatment product in the United States.
Financial terms of the transaction, which was announced earlier this month, were not disclosed.
Separately, Avita gave a preview of fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 earnings that came in below earlier guidance estimates.
But investors took both announcements in stride, sending shares of Avita up 7% in the three following trading sessions to close at $14.57 on Jan. 12. Shares closed at $15.06 on Jan. 23.
Commercialization deal
Avita Medical’s distribution deal for the wound-treatment product was inked with Stedical Scientific Inc., the United States subsidiary – located in Carlsbad – of Shanghai-based tissue engineering and regenerative medicine company Stedical Scientific Ltd.
Specifically, the deal grants Avita Medical exclusive distribution rights within the United States for Stedical’s wound-care product known as PermeaDerm. This product is a biosynthetic compound that facilitates wound healing while also providing a high level of permeability and biocompatibility.
According to the announcement, Avita intends to market PermeaDerm as an add-on treatment to its own wound-healing product. That product, which Avita calls “Spray-on Skin,” is derived from its skin-cell regeneration platform known as Recell that uses the patient’s own skin cells to create new cells.
Jim Corbett
“For burn or wound procedures treated with Spray-on Skin cells from the Recell system, PermeaDerm can be applied to further aid in healing,” the release stated.
The announcement also noted that PermeaDerm is already eligible for insurer reimbursement for use in outpatient and inpatient settings.
“Avita Medical and Stedical Scientific are ideal partners given the complementary nature of our products, the overlap of call points, and the strength of our footprint and sales force,” Jim Corbett, Avita Medical’s chief executive, said in the announcement.
“We anticipate these synergies will allow us to effectively leverage our established commercial presence, enhancing the integration of PermeaDerm into our portfolio,” Corbett added.
For Stedical Scientific, the deal with Avita allows it to further penetrate the United States consumer and medical market.
“We are thrilled to mark this important growth milestone with Avita Medical, who shares our goal of treating millions of patients suffering from a broad spectrum of wounds,” Lin Sun, chairman of Stedical Scientific, said in the announcement.
“This collaboration will expand our reach to more patients, physicians, and hospitals with a compelling portfolio of solutions that improve care and surgical performance,” Sun added.
Earnings preview
Avita Medical was originally founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 1992. About five years ago, to better access the lucrative United States marketplace and equity markets, the company made a strategic decision to pursue a complex series of maneuvers to realign its corporate structure to make it more compatible with regulatory and market structures in this country.
Avita already had a United States headquarters in Northridge; around 2018, the company moved that headquarters operation to its current location in Valencia, a community within Santa Clarita.
As part of this process, the company’s stock had to undergo a reverse split, whereby holders of Avita Medical shares that had traded on the Australian Securities Exchange received one share of common stock in the new United States company as traded on the Nasdaq exchange for every 100 shares held in Avita Medical. The stock began trading on the Nasdaq in late 2019.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration gave its first approval for Avita’s regenerative skin cell technology in late 2018 to treat certain types of burns. The agency has since approved several additional applications of the technology.
Earlier on the same day as the commercialization announcement, Avita gave a preview of its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings for 2023, as well as first-quarter (2024) guidance.
According to the announcement, Avita is estimating fourth-quarter commercial revenue of about $14.1 million, an increase of approximately 50% from the same period in 2022. That is below the initial guidance for the fourth quarter of $15.3 million to $16.3 million issued with its third-quarter earnings report.
Avita offered no explanation for the slight lowering of its fourth-quarter revenue estimate.
Commercial revenue for full-year 2023 is anticipated at around $49.8 million, an increase of 46% compared to the previous year.
A major reason for the sharp increases in revenue last year was some key Food and Drug Administration approvals in 2022 and last year for Avita’s Recell system that allowed the company to expand the applications to different types of wounds and new pools of patients.
“This was a transformative year for Avita Medical as we focused on accelerating our growth profile,” Corbett said. “We have made tremendous progress over the last four quarters, with consecutive commercial revenue growth rates of 40%, 42%, 51%, and 50%, respectively, over the same periods in 2022. We remain committed to sustaining growth and building our business in 2024.”
Avita Medical is expected to issue its formal earnings report late next month.
The announcement also gave an update on a key study for Avita Medical. That study, known as TONE, aims at treating patients with a disease known as stable vitiligo, a type of autoimmune disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigmentation. The study of a repigmentation treatment, which Avita initiated last summer, is looking at skin repigmentation and its impact on patient quality of life.
Avita Medical said in its study update that patient enrollment has been completed earlier than expected. Patients will be followed for a 12-month period, with the primary follow-up period being six months after treatment.
Precise: U.S. soldiers fire a weapon fitted with a Teledyne Flir ThermoSight Hiss-HD.
Teledyne Flir has unveiled a long-range cooled thermal sniper sight, the ThermoSight Hiss-HD.
The company, a subsidiary of Thousand Oaks-based aerospace, marine and digital imaging products manufacturer Teledyne Technologies Inc., debuted the sniper sight on Jan. 23 at the first day of the Shot Show in Las Vegas.
The lightweight, high-performance thermal weapon sight allows shooters to detect, identify and engage targets more than 2,200 meters away with unparalleled accuracy, the company claims.
Rob Tarantino, vice president of surveillance strategy and development at Teledyne Flir, called the sniper sight the “unmatched choice” for shooters looking for a versatile, lightweight thermal sight that increases their range and accuracy.
“With Hiss-HD, we’ve leveraged our world-class thermal imagining technology to provide marksmen with a superior tool to identify and engage targets anywhere, in any environment,” Tarantino said.
Hiss-HD can be used by long-range snipers and for missions involving reconnaissance, force protection, surveillance and forward observation.
With the added flexibility of an optional remote-control pendant, the HISS-HD enhances shooting stability, reduces revealing movements and is configured for remote observation, the company added. This unique combination of stand-off range and long-range target engagement empowers shooters with overmatch capability in any operational scenario, it said.
Teledyne Flir exhibited at the Shot Show from Jan. 23 to 26. The show’s organizers bill it as “the largest and most comprehensive trade show for all professionals involved with the shooting sports, hunting, outdoor and law enforcement industries.”
Bonchon USA Inc. is opening its first location in the greater San Fernando Valley region.
The Dallas-based chicken franchiser will open a store at 24919 Pico Canyon Road in Stevenson Ranch; the company’s website states that the location is “coming soon.”
Bonchon also has locations in L.A. County in Artesia and San Gabriel.
Founded in 2002 in Busan, South Korea, by Jinduk Seo, Bonchon – Korean for “my hometown” – opened its first store in the United States four years later in New York City.
“When police were dispatched to manage traffic around the new restaurant, I knew we had a winning formula,” Seo said at the time, according to the company’s website.
The company has roughly 119 franchised locations in the United States and a total of about 415 globally, through the U.S. subsidiary’s parent Bonchon International Inc. All but five stores are owned by franchisees.
In other news, the U.S. division named Suzie Tsai its new chief executivethis month.She replaces Bryan Shin, who will focus on global expansion as international chief executive and group chief financial officer, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
Tsai has worked in marketing and branding with such brands as On the Border Mexican Grill and Cantina, Chili’s Grill & Bar, KidZania, and Verizon Communications Inc., Nation’s Restaurant News added.
“Bonchon continues to evolve and strengthen critical elements in our offerings, from menu and technology, to store formats that reach our customers when and where they get that one-of-a-kind Bonchon craving,” she said. “We look forward to breaking into new territories and exploring possibilities in the years to come.”
The Hollywood strikes are still affecting employment numbers.
L.A. County’s job creation machine slowed in December as the county added a net 5,300 jobs during the month, down from 32,000 in November, according to state figures released Jan. 19.
The more modest increase was almost entirely due to a hiring surge among retailers amidst the holiday shopping rush.
Meanwhile, the state Employment Development Department figures showed, the county’s December unemployment rate remained unchanged from November at 5.3%, which in turn was up slightly from October’s 5.2%.
Returning to the payroll jobs figures, the Employment Development Department figures from last month showed a total of 4.72 million jobs, an increase of just 5,300 from November. Nonetheless, the December figure was still a record high for the county, nearly 70,000 more jobs than the pre-pandemic high reached in Dec. 2019.
The retail sector accounted for virtually all of this payroll jobs increase as retail outlets added 5,200 jobs to their payrolls in December.
The state agency also releases seasonally adjusted payroll jobs data that factor in typical occurrences such as holiday hiring surges among retailers. Those seasonally adjusted figures showed the county gaining on net 17,800 jobs.
Other sectors reporting net job gains in December were health care/social assistance, with a gain of 4,300 jobs, followed by financial activities (up 1,500 jobs) and business/professional services (up 800 jobs).
As has been the case for much of this year, the motion picture/sound recording industry posted the biggest loss in payroll jobs in December, shedding 2,200 jobs. While the strikes that plagued the industry much of the year had been settled by December, there was still enough resulting turmoil to prompt many employers to continue cutting payrolls.
Other sectors posting job losses in December were construction (down a net 1,600 jobs), accommodation/food services (down 1,100 jobs) and manufacturing (down 1,000 jobs).
For the 2023 calendar year, the county gained a net 96,000 payroll jobs, a 2.1% increase over the previous year.
The sector posting the biggest gain for all of last year was health care/social assistance, where employers added 49,000 jobs to their payrolls. Next was accommodation/food services (up nearly 26,000 jobs), followed by government (up 12,500 jobs).
Not surprisingly given the writers’ and actors’ strikes, the motion picture/sound recording industry posted the biggest net drop in jobs during last year, shedding 23,300 jobs. Two other sectors posted more modest net drops in jobs: professional/business services (down 5,400 jobs) and manufacturing (down 1,300 jobs).
Unemployment holds steady
After hovering in the 4.9% to 5.0% range for much of the year, the county’s unemployment rate has in the last three months pushed higher out of that range to a new steady level of 5.3%. By comparison, the Dec. 2022 unemployment rate was 4.6%
The county’s rate in December was slightly higher than the statewide 5.1% rate and significantly higher than the national average of 3.7%
The unemployment figures come from a survey of households in Los Angeles County, while the payroll jobs figures come from a sampling of employer payroll data submitted to the state. For the past three months, these sets of figures have been moving in different directions.
In December, the county’s labor force fell by 17,000 to 4.98 million as many unemployed residents may have suspended their job searches during the holiday season.
The state agency also breaks down the unemployment figures by city. The county’s two largest cities, Los Angeles and Long Beach, reported December unemployment rates of 5.2% and 4.8% respectively.
Among cities with more than 10,000 residents in their labor force, Lomita had the lowest unemployment rate at 2%, while Calabasas had the highest rate at 7.1%.
Among the cities in the San Fernando, Conejo, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, after Calabasas, the city with the highest unemployment rate in December was Burbank at 6.9%. Next was Lancaster at 6.7%, followed closely by Palmdale at 6.5%.
In the middle of the pack were the cities of Los Angeles at 5.2%, Glendale at 4.9% and Santa Clarita at 4.7%.
San Fernando, with its 3.8% December unemployment rate, stood alone at the low end for cities in the quad-valley area with labor forces exceeding 10,000.
OpEd: Retail Thievery Is a Menace to Economy
In California, there is a looming threat jeopardizing the safety of our communities, and it poses a significant risk to our business community: retail theft and organized crime. This urgent issue demands attention from our local and state officials to safeguard our retail businesses and the overall well-being of our state’s economy.
California, once synonymous with the three-strike rule, witnessed a transformative shift in its approach to dealing with crime. The elimination of the three-strike rule and the changes brought by Proposition 47, which made stealing less than $950 a misdemeanor, aiming for “fairness” in our justice system, paved the way for a troubling surge in retail theft and organized crime, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Contrary to the idea that economic hardships drive crime, the surge in retail theft has persisted even amid improving economic conditions. Even before the onset of the pandemic, major metropolitan areas in California were experiencing increases in retail theft, with the pandemic further prompting several locales to experience a shocking 700% rise in incidents. In a 2023 Retail Security Survey, data shows an increase in the “shrink rate,” representing the percentage of inventory loss due to factors like theft, escalating from 1.4% in 2021 to 1.6% in 2022, signifying an annual loss of $112 billion for 177 retail brands. What’s further concerning is that in the same survey respondents shared a concerning trend: an increase in the violence accompanying retail theft incidents, with obvious negative impacts on employees, bystanders and businesses.
The nature of retail theft has evolved and is now entrenched by organized crime rings. Large-scale theft events, such as mass shoplifting and smash-and-grab incidents, have become commonplace in California and other parts of the United States. California has three cities in the top 10 for high retail theft, and Los Angeles is No. 1 for the last five years.
This unacceptable trend prompted the Valley Industry and Commerce Association’s support for legislative measures such as Assembly Bill 1613 and Senate Bill 301 during the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions.
SB 301 looks to protect consumers and third-party resale platforms by imposing unified standards on high-volume sellers and preventing the sale of stolen merchandise, while AB 1613 expands the attorney general’s territorial jurisdiction for prosecuting theft offenses.
While the governor signed these commendable proposals into law, much more is needed regarding comprehensive measures to address the growing menace of retail theft.
And now, most of our elected officials are starting to get the message. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent call to create new laws to crack down on professional thieves and bolster police and prosecutor tools is a step in the right direction. State legislators have proposed more than a dozen new anti-theft proposals within the first two weeks of the 2024 session, and we can anticipate more proposals leading up to the February deadline. Additionally, a Select Committee on Retail Theft was created this legislative session and is chaired by Assemblymember Rick Zbur and has Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo – both represent portions of the San Fernando Valley – as part of its committee membership. Their inclusion and leadership within this committee underscores the significance of organized retail crime within Los Angeles County, specifically within local economies that rely on retail businesses. And moving forward, the focus should be on increasing penalties, mandating prosecutorial action and enabling cross-jurisdictional legal action.
Law enforcement agencies are also taking steps to respond to the crisis, with the California Highway Patrol increasing operations by over 310% by tripling CHP resources in Los Angeles County, with an allocation of $267 million to enhance local law enforcement capabilities, resulting in more than 1,000 arrests in the first 11 months of last year.
At the local level, the Retail Theft Task Force, comprising investigators from various law enforcement agencies including police departments in Beverly Hills, Burbank, Glendale and Los Angeles as well as the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, resulted in 89 arrests and the recovery of more than $370,000 of stolen merchandise within the first five weeks of its inception.
As California steps into the new year, state and local governments must prove to the business community that the Golden State remains a safe and viable place for investment. Elected officials must ensure the enforcement of laws, prosecutors must actively pursue cases and the state and local governments must direct their enforcement agencies to combat these threats to our safety and economy.
Our retail businesses are not expendable, and the lack of safety our retail businesses have creates a detrimental ripple effect that impacts job opportunities and fosters increased illegal activity.
It is time for California to show retail businesses are not an afterthought or not worthy of the protection that they absolutely deserve.
Stuart Waldman is president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a business-advocacy organization based in Van Nuys that represents employers in the San Fernando Valley area at the federal, state and local levels of government.