2024 Sponsors

Arnold & Porter combines sophisticated corporate, transactional, regulatory, and litigation capabilities to resolve clients’ most complex issues. With over 1,000 lawyers practicing in 15 offices worldwide, we offer deep industry experience and an integrated approach that spans more than 40 practice areas. Through multidisciplinary collaboration and focused industry experience, we provide innovative and effective solutions to mitigate risks, address challenges, and achieve successful outcomes. Our finance lawyers advise clients on complex structured finance, specialty finance, and private finance transactions, including asset-backed securities, asset-backed lending, warehouse facilities, collateralized loan obligations, risk transfer solutions, and credit derivatives. The team is skilled in navigating the intricate regulatory landscape, ensuring compliance while optimizing deal structures. With a robust practice that spans various financial sectors, we provide comprehensive services to a diverse clientele, including financial institutions, investment funds, and corporations.

For over 17 years, our experienced team has pursued a focused strategy of originating senior loans for lower middle market companies. Our mission is to be a leading middle market direct lending firm with a singular objective of building valuable, long-term relationships with our investors, borrowers, private equity sponsors and management teams. Since inception in 2007, Deerpath has deployed over $10 billion of invested capital in more than 975 investments, across a broad range of industries and transaction types. Deerpath has direct origination and execution capabilities throughout the United States with origination offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, and Los Angeles. In addition, the Firm has offices in London, Seoul, Tokyo, and Australia to attentively support investors outside of the U.S. Our experienced and empowered team allows us to respond timely to equity owners and company management teams while simultaneously delivering consistent value to our investors. We maintain a long history of scaling our investment to match the borrower’s financing needs and working with private equity sponsors to nurture long-term growth. Deerpath’s mission is to be a leading middle market direct lending firm with a singular focus on building valuable long-term relationships with our investors, borrowers, equity sponsors and management teams.

DLA Piper is a leading global law firm with offices in over 40 countries across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. With a portfolio of services to match every stage of the business lifecycle, we combine practice area knowledge with modern industry insights and an expansive geographic footprint in a way that no other firm can. Our solutions are tailored and seamless – and ready to meet your toughest challenges.

Egan-Jones Ratings Company is a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO). Egan-Jones rates the creditworthiness of issuers looking to raise capital in private credit markets across a range of asset classes. Website: egan-jones.com

At KBRA, we aim to establish a higher standard of excellence and integrity regarding credit ratings. Since launching our full-service rating agency in 2010, we have remained committed to restoring consumer confidence in credit ratings. From establishing new standards for risk evaluation to providing timely and transparent ratings, we are changing the credit rating landscape. Our team offers in-depth ratings and research for various industries within the United States, United Kingdom and Europe, giving all market participants an alternative credit rating solution. As a company, we value fresh perspectives and prioritize innovation and creativity rather than relying solely on conventional wisdom. We know collaboration is essential to our ability to provide investors with better products. Additionally, we work hard to make tools and solutions developed by the KBRA Analytics group easily accessible to aid in better market decisions.

Kirkland’s Structured Finance & Structured Private Credit team structures highly complex and first-of-their-kind transactions across the full range of structured financings, hybrid structured/leveraged credit facilities, securitizations, structured private credit and private placement transactions, with experience across a wide range of industries including whole business, energy, digital infrastructure, auto, equipment, trade receivables and consumer loans.

Milbank LLP is a premier international law firm handling high-profile, complex cases and business transactions through 12 offices worldwide. Milbank has one of the world’s leading CLO practices. Since the inception of CLOs, Milbank has represented market-leading arrangers, collateral managers, issuers, risk retention lenders, anchor investors and derivatives counterparties on a multitude of credit arbitrage transactions involving a diverse array of asset classes. Our complex securitization team works with practices across the firm in matching business-focused and hybrid structures with capital, with a particular focus on esoteric asset securitization, whole business securitizations, digital infrastructure securitizations and other first-of-their kind transactions. Our attorneys are active in a full range of structured financings, hybrid structured/leveraged credit facilities and complex securitization transactions. Milbank was named Law360’s Structured Finance Group of the Year in 2023. Milbank was ranked as the #1 legal services provider to collateralized loan obligation (CLO) managers globally and in Europe in Creditflux’s year-end advisory firm rankings and we were ranked #1 US CLO manager counsel on 9fin’s US BSL law firm league tables. For the last seven years, Milbank has remained at the top of Creditflux’s global rankings We were also named #1 US legal services provider to US CLO managers and #1 legal services provider to European CLO managers in the 2022 Creditflux CLO Census.

For more than 115 years, Moody's Ratings has been a leading provider of credit ratings, research, and risk analysis helping businesses, governments, and other entities around the globe to anticipate, adapt and thrive in this era of exponential risk. www.moodys.com/web/en/us/solutions/ratings.html

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 42 countries, the firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.