Lazard

Lazard Asset Management operates with autonomous portfolio management teams organized by strategy, overseen by CEO Peter Orszag at the firm level. The global head of Lazard Asset Management is Evan Russo, who reports directly to Orszag. Individual portfolio managers retain significant discretion within their mandates, a structure inherited from the firm's partnership culture.

The restructuring group provides on-the-ground intelligence about distressed credits that can inform the asset management team's positioning, while asset management's bondholder stakes can create conflict-of-interest firewalls that the public-company structure makes visible through quarterly disclosures. This dual model — advisory fees plus AUM-linked revenues — tends to offset cyclical downturns in either line.

Lazard is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker LAZ, having gone public in 2005. The firm maintains a dual-class structure and an Executive Chairman role alongside the CEO, preserving some partnership-era governance features while subjecting the firm to SEC reporting requirements that private advisory peers avoid.

Lazard Alternative Investments operates both commingled fund structures and separately managed accounts for institutional clients, spanning private equity, private credit, and real assets. The firm also runs co-investment vehicles alongside fund commitments, with investors typically gaining access through the asset management platform rather than through the advisory side.

Lazard's advisory practice organizes around industry groups including financial institutions, healthcare, energy, technology, media and telecommunications, industrials, real estate, and consumer and retail. The firm maintains a separate sovereign advisory practice handling government-side restructuring mandates.

Lazard Alternative Investments co-invests alongside third-party general partners through its private equity and real assets platforms, typically targeting deals where the firm's advisory relationships provide sourcing advantages or sector expertise. The firm does not operate a broad fund-of-funds program, preferring direct and co-investment structures that align with the house view generated by its restructuring and M&A bankers.

Lazard Frères Gestion is the separately listed French affiliate based in Paris, operating as an independent asset manager with its own product suite, distribution network, and regulatory framework under French law. It traces its lineage to the original Paris house of Lazard Frères and maintains a distinct brand identity while remaining historically tied to the Lazard name.