Kelly Crabb is Beijing-bound, but the Los Angeles entertainment lawyer isn’t going on vacation.

Since 2002, Crabb and his firm, Morrison & Foerster LLP, have served as international counsel to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games. The San Francisco-based firm beat out more than 120 firms for the role.

Crabb, and five other lawyers from the firm’s Los Angeles office, have been advising the committee on everything from the construction of venues to security and hospitality issues.

And as an entertainment lawyer, Crabb said he has been able to use his expertise involving the advertising, licensing and broadcasting of the games.

“When the opening ceremonies are broadcast, the performance and the music has to be protected from a variety of angles,” Crabb said. “You have to protect against copyright infringement.”

Crabb is also working with other governments to make sure Olympic merchandise isn’t being pirated. He represents international clients in the financing and production of media and entertainment content, including the acquisition of motion picture, television and Internet rights.

In addition to representing the Beijing Olympic Committee, Crabb also worked with the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee and hired the producer for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Olympic Games.

But Crabb is best known for representing American gymnast Paul Hamm, whose gold medal win in the 2004 Olympic Games was contested.

Crabb is already planning his post-Olympic duties.

“At the end of every Olympic Games, the committee is required to settle all of their accounts and legally dissolve,” Crabb said.

New Commute

Tim McOsker, former chief of staff to Mayor Jim Hahn, joined some old friends last week when he moved to the Los Angeles office of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw LLP.

McOsker is leaving Los Angeles-based Christensen Glaser Fink Jacobs Weil & Shapiro LLP, which he joined in 2005 after leaving City Hall.

McOsker, a real estate attorney, said his departure from Christensen Glaser has nothing to do with Terry Christensen’s current trial related to allegations he wiretapped the ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.

“I couldn’t have higher respect for Terry both personally and professionally,” McOsker said.

McOsker, who is a member of the firm’s government and global trade practice, specializes in land use and entitlement projects. He represents local developers on a variety of projects, including Providence Health Systems, which operates several hospitals in the L.A. area.

McOsker is jumping from a firm of 110 attorneys to one that employs 1,000. But it won’t be impersonal for him.

Philip R. Recht, head of Mayer Brown’s government practice and a friend of McOsker, said the firm has been looking to expand its land use capabilities.

“We are pleased that Tim decided to join us because he is a high-quality lawyer who is an acknowledged land use expert in the city,” Recht said.

In recent years, Mayer Brown has wanted to strengthen its ability to serve clients who do business with local government.

“I can fill an area because I spend the vast majority of my time doing local land use matters,” McOsker said.

Woman President

When Holly Fujie was elected president of the State Bar on July 11, the Los Angeles lawyer didn’t celebrate her victory immediately.

First, she had to stay home and do some motherly waiting.

“My husband and I went out for dinner that Sunday because my daughter had a date on Saturday night,” Fujie said.

She practiced at Los Angeles-based Buchalter Nemer Fields & Younger PC for 17 years and is the third woman to be elected president of the State Bar. But she’s the first attorney at her firm to hold the title.

“It feels like it’s an honor and a privilege and a responsibility,” she said of her new role.

Fujie said she decided to run for bar president because it gives her the opportunity to bring changes to the legal profession.

“The president is sort of the captain of the board of governors, and helps to steer the policy making ship to do what we can to improve the profession,” she said.

A civil litigator, Fujie specializes in representing businesses in insurance-related litigation.

Before her election as president, she served as vice president of the organization. In addition to serving more than 217,000 lawyers, the State Bar is also an administrative arm of the California Supreme Court.

She will be sworn in at the association’s annual meeting in September.

Staff reporter Alexa Hyland can be reached at

ahyland@labusinessjournal

.com or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.