O'Melveny appoints first Asia M&A chief

•O'Melveny & Myers partner Gregory Puff has been named as the firm's head of Asian M&A, based in Hong Kong. In the newly created role Puff, who was a partner in O'Melveny's Tokyo office, will now coordinate all aspects of the firm's M&A practice across its offices in Japan and China. M&A activity in the region had previously been handled informally by Asia practice head Howard Chia and co-chair of the China practice Michael Moser. The firm has changed the structure to cater for an increase in Asian transactions.