2026 Chicago Rankings
It's hard to compare BB to MM to EB in Chicago since they all have niches, what I learned from recruiting primarily in the city.
S - GHL IND M&A, EVR IND M&A, HL RX
A+ - GUGG PEAG, GS CMG, JPM MM M&A, WB
A - BOFA IND, CITI IND, GUGG IND, PWP IND, MOE
B - BARC (services & tech), BMO IND, Baird, HL
C - RJ, JEFF M&A, UBS (services), LAZ HC, Lincoln
D - Solomon, Piper, Cantor, Cain
E - Deutsche (IND; Chemicals), BOFA EGRC, BGL, Truist, Stout, Macquarie (Software)
PJT has a 4-5 person office, Rothschild lost its presence. Lots of micro-offices that still get deals.
Lincoln industrials is on par with half the industrials groups you have listed.
Why are y’all so obsessed with rankings? Lol
Congrats on Lincoln Industrials!
I’m not at Lincoln Industrials, “prospect”! Lol
ur entire comment history is dickriding Lincoln industrials. Congrats on MBA associate at Lincoln Industrials! Go churn another 40m EV midwestern widget company.
Ong, HSW MBA to Lincoln is crazy work
I don’t have a dog in this fight as I’m currently at an EB (though Lincoln CAG reached out to me regarding building out their RX practice), but this just doesn’t really seem accurate. I’m new to this site and it’s seriously bizarre how bifurcated people think the market is. This “everything that’s not a household name only churns dog work” kind of attitude is really sad and unrealistic tbh. I spoke to a friend of a friend who recently left Lincoln’s industrials team and he said he didn’t work on anything lower than around $700mm EV in his time there and closed a few over $1b. They also just worked on a $10b deal. Meanwhile, I have friends at BBs who left their analyst years having closed a single deal.
This narrative of MM banks only doing $2M EBITDA companies is pushed by sophomores in college that have never actually worked and parrot this site. Am at a top MM name (albeit squarely MM) and our MDs straight up aren’t allowed to pitch or pursue names that are 4-5x as big as this “$40M EV” comment above. Our team pretty routinely works on $1B+ mandates and I have never been staffed on a deal smaller than $200-300M. Obviously it’s not BB or EB sized deals, nobody is trying to argue that - but it’s pretty funny to see “prospects” on here shitting on MM (a space where, btw, most of the top BBs that freshmen on this forum touch themselves to have been trying to move into and displace with dedicated MM teams in recent years).
Ur literally at scotia I don’t wanna hear it
No one is taking LAZ RX CHI over HL RX CHI lol
Agree directionally but closer than you think, HL Chi focuses pretty heavily on manufacturing and not the headline bks that NY/LA get
I worked at PJT/EVR RX in NY and know people who have worked in both Chicago groups. In Chicago, Lazard is undoubtedly the better office for culture and exits at the analyst level. In New York, I’d pick HL.
Both offices are stronger than people realize.
Congrats on WB
Pretty accurate. Heres another list with more info on groups specifically. https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/chicago-ib-overview
Ignore title also.
I think BGL should be in C. It actually has a decent group in Chicago.
Met the team. Consumer hasn't closed a deal in 2 years. Healthcare is their strong group but not as strong as other services firms like Piper, Laz, UBS, Cain, Cantor, Etc.
Was referring to their industrials team unless they completely moved it to Cleveland
Should be in F
Lincoln CAG shoule be in S tier no question...
I genuinely can’t tell if this is a joke
Jeff c tier?
Good office but small and still expanding. Could definitely make a jump in the next couple years
Don't sleep on RJ
I thought JPM M&A Chi was only somewhat MM - like half MM, half regular large cap & sometimes cross staffed with NY?
Goldman CMG and JPM M&A are primarily to get middle-market deal flow. They don’t cross-staff too often and its a lot of sponsors deals. They are ranked highly because they historically exit better than typical chicago MM into other EB’s or buy-side
PJT has an office? Is it industrials or satellite of NY? Do they even take SA?
No SA program, its Satellite.
GHL chi is a dying office
Best per capita exits in the city by far though. All UMM/MF
Strongest GH office and incredible exits
Evercore is S tier they were on Sealed Air and Smurfit Westrock
Tf are those. I legitimately thought the names of these companies were a Smurf joke.
He knows ball
Gugg wb moe BofA need to be moved down for this to be accurate. Bofa and moe are coverage shops not same as nyc
Congrats on Blair!
MOE WB GUGG all need to be moved down
GS FIG missing pls fix
Some others that are missing: GUGG Tech & services, WF IND, WF Mid Cap
Gugg T&S is the same as Gugg PEAG, just an updated name. WF groups prob both D/E tier anyways
Barcs at top of lobby tier list
LAZ HC is ridiculously low, better then half the banks above it
EVR IND could be S+, heard they play beer pong at 3 am.
Moe is a satellite office
MQ Software much higher than that. theyre global head of software and services sits in chicago as does a very high profile education focused MD (brown boys up, iykyk
). you will probably do a lot of deals in knowledge based industries, but they are a pretty strong group with good senior exposure.Yeah and then your bonus is half of all the other banks get out of here
what are the names of the micro-offices and where can i find a list of the ones in chicago
bump
Bofa and moe are ranked way too high
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