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LACBA Nears Filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection
Will Move Offices Next Week to Historic Building at Second and Spring Streets
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Los Angeles County Bar Association, which has not paid rent on its two floors of office space since March and owes more than $1.3 million, will go into bankruptcy if it can’t work out a deal with its present landlord, the Council of Sections, a watchdog group, announced yesterday.
An email sent to 119 persons also disclosed that LACBA will move its offices next week to what it termed “the Met News building.” Actually, it will move into the corner space of the1896 Wilcox Building at Second and Spring Streets, the building in which the Metropolitan News Company has its offices (and which is owned by the METNEWS’s co-publishers).
These matters were expected to become public tomorrow night at the monthly meeting of LACBA’s Board of Trustees. However, the email notes that the information was gleaned last Thursday night when the council met, via Zoom, with officers and trustees, with the conversation lasting in excess of an hour.
The email says that if a resolution is not reached with the lessor of space in the building where LACBA currently has its offices, at Seventh and Bixel streets, the association will file for bankruptcy protection between Feb. 3 and March 3, under Chapter 11, Subchapter V (applicable where debts total less than $2,725,625).
Yesterday’s communique notes that LACBA will have 5,000 square feet under its new two-year lease and that the rent will be $240,000 per year.
It relates that LACBA’s paid membership is 9,016, down about 900 from last year. Membership topped 20,000 some years back.
Staff is down from 88 persons in 2018 to 66 now, the email says. L.A. Lawyer magazine will be available online, only, it announces.
A financial report to the board, attached to the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting, says:
“As of November 30, 2020, LACBA is behind budget by ($672,000). Both income and expenses are below expectations comparing to the YTD budget specifically due to the effects of the pandemic on programming, advertising, and sponsorships.”
It shows revenues for the year, through Nov. 30, to be $8,823,905, and expenses to be $9,571,111, amounting to a loss of $747,206.
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