The Subcommittee, led by Maria Barclay (Chair, Practical Law) and Tess Virmani (Vice-Chair, LSTA) invited Jane Summers and Andrew Fayé, partners at Latham & Watkins, and Kate Grimm, Associate General Counsel at Antares Capital, to present “It’s Always Better to Be Direct: A Guide to Direct Lending”. The speakers noted that the business model of direct lenders which primarily focuses on return from actual lending is very different from a distribution model and this has implications for the deal terms that they will accept. Given that many direct lenders are “buy and hold”, their credit discipline can be conservative.