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Lazard Times

How Wall Street’s most mysterious, enigmatic, and flamboyant firm—“l’haute banque d’affaires vis-à-vis the world”—was brought down by fate and tragedy, and what it can do to become exceptional again.

Under the leadership of Ken Jacobs, who has been extremely well paid, Lazard has grown bigger and more robust. But its stock has underperformed badly.
Under the leadership of Ken Jacobs, who has been extremely well paid, Lazard has grown bigger and more robust. But its stock has underperformed badly. Photo: Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Autism Speaks
William D. Cohan
May 10, 2023

Most readers know by now that I have a soft spot for Lazard, the international investment bank where I worked for six years between 1989 and 1995. And, of course, Lazard was the subject of my first bestseller, The Last Tycoons, which was published in 2007 and won the 2007 Business Book of the Year Award, courtesy of the Financial Times and, ahem, Goldman Sachs. I bring this up only because former Goldman C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein gave me the award at a modern branch of the London public library and I repaid him by writing my third book about Goldman. (Lloyd, let’s catch up again soon.)