Hong Kong, July 31, 2007 – O’Melveny & Myers LLP announced today a substantial expansion of its China practice and the appointment of Gregory D. Puff as the Head of Asia M&A.
Gregory D. Puff has relocated to the firm’s Hong Kong office from Tokyo to take on the new role of Head of Asia M&A for O’Melveny, with a continued coverage of the Tokyo office and the Asia region as a whole. The China practice has been further strengthened over the past few months by seven additional lateral hires in Hong Kong and six in mainland China, including Peter Chen as Counsel in Hong Kong.
The new additions will significantly bolster O’Melveny’s already robust corporate-related transactional practice in the greater China region.
Gregory D. Puff has been involved in a wide array of public and private transactions, including both U.S. and cross-border tender and exchange offers, contested mergers and hostile transactions, stock and asset purchases, and joint ventures. Puff represents multinational corporations and global investment and commercial banking firms in their M&A transactions around the world. Last year, Puff represented eAccess Ltd. in subsidiary eMobile Ltd.’s financing of more than US$3 billion. The deal was awarded “Asian Telecom Deal of the Year” by Project Finance International.
“Corporate and M&A practices are a key part of our Hong Kong practice,” says the firm’s Hong Kong office head and China practice co-chair Michael Moser. Moser was recently selected as Asialaw Leading Lawyers 2007 in the area of Dispute Resolution and also has been elected chairman of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC). “We are excited to have a lawyer of Greg’s strength join our office and lead the Asia M&A practice. His experience will add further depth to our high-quality team and will complement our existing corporate finance practice.”
In the first six months of this year, O’Melveny’s China practice has completed 10 capital markets deals, closed more than 10 FDI/M&A transactions and more than 20 private equity/venture capital deals.
“Our Asia practice is the busiest that it has ever been. In July alone, we signed or closed deals with an announced value of more than $4 billion, including very high profile transactions like the Promise/Sanyo Shinpan merger in Japan and the Westinghouse’s nuclear contract in China,” said Howard Chao, partner in charge of O’Melveny & Myers’ Asia Practice and Co-Head of the firm’s China pratice. “We believe the M&A opportunity in Asia is too big to pursue piecemeal. We have decided we need to approach the region in an integrated fashion using dedicated specialists, just like our clients are doing.”
With the arrival of the lateral hires, the firm’s China practice boasts over 100 professionals.
In Asia, O’Melveny has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo, and maintains the largest office of any international law firm in Shanghai.
About O’Melveny & Myers LLP
With more than 1,000 lawyers in 13 offices worldwide, O’Melveny & Myers LLP helps industry leaders across a broad array of sectors manage the complex challenges of succeeding in the global economy. We are a values-driven law firm, guided by the principles of excellence, leadership, and citizenship. Our commitment to these values is reflected in our dedication to improving access to justice through pro bono work and championing initiatives that increase the diversity of the legal profession.
For more information, please visit www.omm.com or www.omm.cn.
