I’m curious to know what restructuring looked like during the dot com crash and GFC. How long after those events did restructuring banks continue to see increased demand (if at all)? What was it like to work during those times of intense distress? Did teams expand and then contract once things calmed back down?
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There's probably not very many people on here to speak to this frankly.
I don't have direct experience (I'm only an analyst who's spent too much time on the Rx lore), but I'd say the biggest difference between that era and today is how much more consolidated the field was back then. It was really mostly just HL, BX/PJT, Miller Buckfire, LAZ, GHL, EVR, JEFF, and ROTH, with the first four being considered the market leaders.
I think the biggest impact of the GFC on Rx was that it seemed to legitimate the field's value to independent advisory investment banks and started (or coincided with) a hot market for Rx talent. Lots of groups shuffled around during or in the immediate aftermath, probably because seniors could get fat guarantees from some new shop looking to move in. Kramer (future Ducera) got rolled into PWP, Moelis snapped up Derrough's JEFF group, and multiple waves of Miller Buckfire seniors (leaving pretty much just the named partners) left to form CVP and Gugg's practices.
If you're interested, I'd check out the HPS Cast podcast and the Irwin Gold (HL) and Daniel Aronsen (EVR) ones in particular.
Thank you for the podcast rec, listen to those two + Bryan Marsal. Great insights and inside scoop on some of the questions I was asking about in this thread. Appreciate it.
This was really interesting. Thanks for the post.
Post-GFC, people lived off energy and retail
It's actually pretty interesting tracing the history of the industry given how young it is. A lot of the newer restructuring groups were launched by ex-Miller Buckfire guys but have different people running them now.
HL guys were lawyers turned bankers that hired Kramer for a mail room job
Blackstone guys were from Chemical Bank (though Zelin came from EY)
Jim Millstein was a lawyer turned banker at Lazard
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