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Calabrese Named to Head O’Melveny Century City Office
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Entertainment lawyer Joe Calabrese, a 22-year veteran of O’Melveny & Myers, has become managing partner of the firm’s 100-lawyer Century City office, the firm announced yesterday.
Calabrese was also recently named to chair the firm’s Entertainment and Media Practice Group. He represents producers, studios, independent film, television and music companies, video game publishers, and financial institutions, and spent two years in Europe when the firm opened its London office.
Last year he represented the International Olympic Committee when it auctioned U.S. broadcast rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games for $2.2 billion.
He earned his law degree in 1981 at Cornell University and his undergraduate degree at Boston College.
O’Melveny, established in 1885, has 13 offices around the world, and employs more than 900 attorneys. In a statement, the firm’s chair, Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., called Calabrese a “terrific choice to head our preeminent Century City office,” citing his “service in many leadership capacities” and “strategic practice in the entertainment and media industries.”
Culvahouse is based in O’Melveny’s Washington, D.C. office.
Calabrese, who assumed his new duties at the end of last month, said yesterday he is looking forward to the challenge and plans to continue working closely with lawyers in the firm who informally served his predecessor, David Weil, as liaisons to the litigation and transactional wings of the office.
He noted that one colleague outside the firm, to whom he commented that managing 100 lawyers might prove difficult, responded by email, “You don’t manage lawyers, you lead them.”
Calabrese said that is “a thought I’ll tuck away in the back of my head.” But he noted he has served on the firm’s policy committee and has found that O’Melveny lawyers do not generally require aggressive supervision.
He said that he will make some adjustments in his practice commitments, but added:
“The tradition here at the firm is that you juggle the responsibilities. At a firm like ours, the clients come first.”
Weil, who has become chief executive officer of Anschutz Film Group, will remain an O’Melveny partner, the firm said.
Weil served for the past year as an advisor to Philip F. Anschutz on film investments. AFG is the parent company of two film companies that are O’Melveny clients, Walden Media and Bristol Bay Productions (formerly Crusader Entertainment).
Weil has transitioned his client work to other members of the firm’s entertainment and media practice, the press release explained.
Copyright 2004, Metropolitan News Company