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Credit & Direct Lending Funds

Credit & Direct Lending Funds

Overview


Schulte is a leader among law firms in representing private credit funds, especially in the rapidly growing and highly innovative direct lending market. We help our credit fund clients navigate the constantly evolving private credit market and create diverse and cutting-edge fund-level credit and lending strategies.

Our footprint

Unlike law firms that focus on only open-end (e.g., hedge funds) or closed-end (e.g., private equity or venture capital funds) structures, Schulte’s large investment management practice has always maintained a large and diverse client base of open-end, closed-end and hybrid funds.

Our experience with a mix of credit fund structures drawn from representing this broad credit fund client base gives us an advantage in representing diversified credit investors, in particular in circumstances where assets with varying levels of liquidity and expected maturities often justify a hybrid approach, such as PE-lite, Vintage and Evergreen funds, in which we have extensive experience.

Our decades of experience in the private credit market make us adept at advising clients on the right fund structure to use for each unique fund strategy. Due to the wide range of assets and investment strategies across various credit funds, these funds tend not to have a tight market of “standard” terms – fees, liquidity, investment periods and harvest periods, leverage and co-investment terms can vary tremendously and are mainly driven by a fund’s investment strategy and asset liquidity.

We know that a client’s success depends on a structure that is not only optimal for tax, but one that will function efficiently with a package of terms that prospective investors will accept. We have significant experience informing and guiding our clients in selecting a strategically optimal mix of credit fund structures and terms.

In addition to forming and structuring new credit funds, we frequently help our clients add, diversify or expand their existing credit fund structures or take advantage of other strategic opportunities, including by implementing investment strategies across multiple products, adding new types of products, restructuring their funds, building managed account and co-investment platforms, negotiating anchor investment relationships and acquiring and selling their businesses.

  • McDermott Will & Schulte represents a significant number of top private debt funds ranked by Preqin.
  • We are sought after for our ability to advise on “Evergreen” funds for credit and other illiquid assets—such as real estate, infrastructure, agriculture and other real assets. Clients have sought us out for this particular expertise.
  • We were among the first law firms to represent Direct Lending Funds, starting over 20 years ago.
  • We were among the first law firms to help US Credit Fund clients access the European investor market through the use of Luxembourg structures, a recent development.
  • Our tax team has deep experience in the difficult area of tax optimization for non-US investors seeking to participate in US credit and lending strategies.
  • We work closely with our Structured Products practice on leverage facilities and CLO and other securitization strategies for our fund clients.
  • We are highly skilled at advising clients on the fiduciary risks and compliance intricacies of managing multiple credit products simultaneously.
  • We were at the forefront of the post-2008 trend to move Special Situations Credit strategies from hedge funds into medium-term closed-end funds with manager-friendly terms and flexibility.
  • We advised on the creation of the first “fast pay-slow pay” fund (pursuing special situations credit) in the early 2000s, and many others since. These were the foundation of many of today’s “Evergreen” funds.
  • We have been among the first firms involved in niche credit strategies, including CLO equity funds addressing risk retention rules and crypto-focused credit strategies.

Our transactional practices – Direct Lending, Special Situations Credit, Distressed Investing, Structured Credit, CLOs, Trade Claims and Restructuring, to name a few – focus on the assets in which the Credit and Direct Lending Funds invest.

This transactional experience helps us devise terms and tax efficient fund structures that align with deal structuring and execution.

Results


  • AB Private Credit Investors — Advise AB Private Credit Investors LLC (“ABPCI”) — a subsidiary of AllianceBernstein — on multiple credit products, including evergreen Direct Lending Funds. ABPCI targets primary-issue middle market credit opportunities that are directly sourced and privately negotiated. As of July 2023, ABPCI has approximately $6.3 billion in assets under management.
  • Cerberus Capital Management — Advise Cerberus Capital Management on the formation and operation of many of its investment funds, and in those funds’ portfolio transactions, covering a wide range of lending, credit, NPL and commercial and residential real estate and mortgage strategies. We also advised Cerberus in connection with the investment of Dyal Capital in its Direct Lending platform. Cerberus has approximately $60 billion in assets under management as of June 2023 and has advisory offices in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and Africa.
  • MGG — Advise MGG on the formation and operation of their private debt investment funds covering a wide range of senior secured loans, revolving credit and other types of loans. Schulte also represents MGG’s recently launched structured solutions platform, which invests in mezzanine debt, preferred and/or minority common equity, offering investors exposure up and down the capital structure. MGG primarily focuses on North American companies with EBITDA between $5 million and $50 million. MGG has approximately $4.6 billion in assets under management with offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta.

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