US buyout house Apollo Global Management has hired former O’Melveny & Myers private equity partner Paul Loynes as its first-ever European head of legal.

Loynes, who left O’Melveny’s London office in October last year having made partner in 2006, will be based in London but will report to global chief counsel John Suydam in New York. During his time with O’Melveny he spent one year on secondment to the US law firm’s New York office.