Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is opening a Hong Kong office with partners recruited from Shearman & Sterling and Norton Rose.
Gregory Puff will lead the new office. Previously a mergers and acquisitions partner in the Hong Kong office of Shearman & Sterling, Puff last November advised the chief executive and majority owner of Chinese gaming company Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. on a $690 million take-private transaction. A former Shearman associate, Puff rejoined that firm in 2008 from the Hong Kong office of O’Melveny & Myers, where he had been head of Asia M&A and had also worked as a partner in both Tokyo and New York.
