Lazard (NY) Groups

I worked as an analyst at Lazard in NYC. I don't work there anymore and while some of this information may be slightly dated, I would expect that most of it still holds true. Apologies in advance for the length of this post.

I really don't think the group you're in matters that much with respect to the buyside interviews that you will get. If you're a good analyst and you come off as well-polished in your HH meetings, I can guarantee that you will get invited to interview at several top notch funds. If you are in RX, you will be more likely to get looks from HFs/distressed PE but you'll find that several analysts on the M&A side have gotten offers at places like Centerbridge and Oaktree. I remember when I was an intern, one of the RX analysts I worked for said he thought he was slightly disadvantaged when it came to recruiting for traditional buyout roles because some HHs assumed he would be better suited for / more interested in distressed-related roles (guy was a beast and ended up going to a megafund in a traditional buyout role anyway but just sharing anecdotally what he told me).

I think the general view is that RX yields the best exits. I don't think it can be disputed that Lazard RX is the most prestigious group at the firm (surprisingly enough, I've come across multiple recent RX threads that bring up PJT, Moelis, Evercore, and HL and fail to bring up Lazard but perhaps this is not that surprising when you take into account that this website has high schoolers ranking target schools but I digress...). Historically, I think that this is probably true although in recent years, there have definitely been classes in which multiple M&A groups "outplaced" RX. And onto the M&A side...

Lazard has seven industry groups that all do their own in house M&A. The groups include: Consumer & Retail, FIG, Healthcare, Industrials, TMT, Power (Power, Energy, Infrastructure), and Real Estate. Overall, the deal flow is pretty strong throughout the bank. With respect to exits, Consumer, Industrials, and TMT will generally lead to a broader range of opportunities (given breadth of the sectors).

Consumer & Retail: These guys have done some absolute mega deals in the last few years (e.g., AB InBev / SAB Miller, Kraft / Heinz, etc.). Definitely hold their weight in the consumer space (not as strong of a franchise as say, Centerview, but still very solid). Not sure if their deal flow is as consistent of that of some of the other groups but they do have quite a few clients on retainer. For better or for worse, there will usually be 1-2 analysts per class who end up devoting 75% of their time to one very demanding client. Very strong European presence among the senior guys and even mid-levels. Couple of the MDs are absolute savages. One guy was a founding partner at Greenhill (stock fell 12% after it was announced that he was leaving). Culture definitely feels a bit stuffier than in other groups. Handful of good exits over last few years (e.g., AEA, L Catterton, Eurazeo, TPG Growth, Viking, Vista, etc.).

FIG: They might not be GS FIG (which is generally considered a top 3 group on Wall Street) but from what I've heard they're in the upper ranks for sure (probably at same level as JPM, know a guy who lateraled from there actually). Used to have a rainmaker in Gary Parr, who was a fiend, but he left for Apollo a few years ago. Don't think deal volume suffered that much though. I didn't interact with their team that much - things may have changed but they probably had the "weirdest" vibe (old staffer was incredible though). That being said, they seemed to generally get along with one another. They worked on the Invesco / MassMutual deal and churned out a lot of small-to-mid size deals during my tenure at the firm. Solid exits (e.g., Angelo Gordon, Carlyle, Golden Gate, GS Merchant Banking, Rhone, etc.).

Healthcare: Very good group (some may argue that it's the best group outside of RX). Hard to say that these guys aren't a top notch HC group. Maybe they're not at the same level as JPM (or GS) but I'd find it hard to believe that they're that far behind. Probably the worst working hours of any group at the firm, on average. There were times when these guys were pitching to no avail 3-5 years ago but they have been absolutely killing the game the last few years (e.g., CVS / Aetna, Express Scripts / Cigna, J&J / Actelion, athenahealth / Veritas + Elliott, etc.). Exits, as a whole, may not be as impressive as that of some other groups (I think partially a function of the brutal hours) but lot of good shops (e.g., Carlyle, HIG, NEA) as well as more niche LMM/MM HC-focused funds (e.g., Altaris, Consonance, Waud).

Industrials: Interesting group. Largest group by headcount. Usually top group with respect to revenue generation but this is also probably somewhat a function of the larger size of the group. That being said, the deal flow is pretty solid. A&D franchise in NYC is not good (but MD in LA office makes an absolute killing off MM sell-sides) but firm has solid presence in other verticals. Advised on Dow / DuPont and JCI / Tyco. Culture / lifestyle is a mixed bag. Seems like culture has improved after a few people left. The group tends to have 2-3 analysts who get absolutely crushed while the other 2-3 analysts chill. Exits have been good (e.g., AEA, CD&R, Lindsay Goldberg, Oaktree, Summit, Thomas H. Lee, etc.).

Power: I'm not really sure how strong their deal flow is out of NYC but I would guess it was relatively strong since George Bilicic was one of the top rainmakers at the firm (spent most of his time in Chicago though). That being said, Lazard Power is not at the same level as say, Barclays P&U. For at least a few years, had the frattiest vibe of any of the groups. Had a good culture at the surface level (e.g., Bilicic's NYC office had a ping pong table in which people would walk in throughout the day to play, analysts would leave mid-day to go to the gym, dress code was the most informal of any group, etc.). Among the weakest in terms of placement from a volume standpoint but this is largely because many of their analysts weren't particularly keen on buyside recruiting. One girl went to Vestar and one guy is at Vista. Sounded like they got a much stronger class a year or two ago and the placements from what I heard were pretty impressive.

Real Estate: Honestly don't know too much about them. They will do a big hotel deal every year or two but they seemed to chill more than any of the other groups. Have had really good placement, particularly into REPE (know a girl who left early for Blackstone REPE). Pretty small analyst class (sometimes only take 2 kids).

TMT: A group that seems to have rebounded nicely after Perella poached most of their team (want to say this was back in 2015). Don't do much tech, more of a focus on media and telecom in NYC (SF / Boston have greater focus on tech). They seemed to have a more relaxed culture (analysts would wear polos to work during the summer). Smaller group in terms of headcount. Probably not a top tier TMT group in NYC (and maybe SF has advantage with Google relationship) but deal flow seems to be picking up. Hired 3-4 new MDs over the last few years and it seems like some of them have have been able to bring in business. Very good exits (e.g., CD&R, Centerbridge, Cerberus, Harvest, Lindsay Goldberg, Siris, etc.) especially given the small class sizes (3 analysts, maybe now up to 4).

RX: Worked with these guys a bit when I was an intern. Knew the group was extremely well regarded so wanted to check them out. Quickly realized that looking at credit docs wasn't how I wanted to spend my two years at the firm. Deal flow is incredible. I'd say PJT RX is #1 on the Street but don't think it would be far-fetched to say Laz RX is #2 (just my opinion, but regardless, hard to say it's not at least top 3-4). People in the past have gone to the likes of Apollo, Carlyle, Centerbridge, Warburg, TPG Special Sits, distressed HFs, etc. The group used to without fail always take at least one analyst from Harvard or Yale (seemed to care the most about undergraduate prestige of any of the groups during the group placement process) although I'm not sure if this has changed as of late. Seems to have a decent culture although I didn't interact much with them after my internship.

Summary:

Exits: Overall, I'd say Lazard exits are solid. I'd say they are below those at PJT / Evercore / GS / MS and maybe more in line with the likes of Moelis / JPM (i.e., very good but not the absolute top tier). Anecdotally, it seems like the exits of the current two classes have improved (maybe due to increase in class size from ~25-30 to ~35-40). There are actually a surprising number of analysts not really interested in buyside recruiting.

Deal Flow: Pretty strong. Punches above its weight. They're never going to top GS in the league tables but they'll often outpace multiple mid-tier BBs (e.g., Barclays/Citi/CS) in a given year. PJT / Centerview probably have Lazard beat on a deal flow per analyst basis.

Culture: People are very quick on WSO to call Lazard a sweatshop with a poor culture. A lot of these comments come from interns or from people who last talked to analysts who worked there in the 2000s. Culture is highly dependent on group (tried to describe above). Hours can be bad and there will definitely be a handful of analysts who get smoked (you think the superstar analyst at GS TMT is working 50 hours a week?) but there are also a handful of analysts who chill hard. Would by no means say Lazard has the best culture but I do legitimately think it has improved (definitely has room to grow).

I kind of rambled and probably made some typos along the way but hope that color helps. Think the firm gets a somewhat bad rep on this website (I still agree that places like GS/MS/PJT/EVR are better, on average) but it's still a great place to start your career.