Lazard Frères

"Lazard Partners is indeed an unusual bank, which has always operated on three legs - Lazard Frères in New York, Lazard Brothers in London, and Lazard Frères in Paris - and is endowed with a very rare legal status: that of a partnership. Its members are therefore liable with their personal assets."

"Lazard Frères continues to thrive cheerfully, with its San Francisco branch. During the war, President Wilson prohibited American public agencies from lending funds to belligerents. However, this policy of financial neutrality does not apply - liberalism obliges - to private banking establishments. As a result, almost all American banks have joined one of the two sides, most often that of the Franco-British allies. Lazard is obviously among them."

"Lazard Frères became a general partnership "for the operation of manufacturers and trading houses, banks, commission, and consignment in Paris and San Francisco, and in all other locations." The House of Banking was born! A historic date for this future investment bank was this January 1er, 1864."

"In the early eighties, I’d begun collecting relationships. For instance, I reached out to Felix Rohatyn, the Lazard Frères banker who had almost single-handedly rescued New York City from bankruptcy in the seventies, and who was on the board of MCA and had Lew Wasserman’s ear. I called and asked to see him, saying, “I need no more than ten minutes of your time.” On my next trip to New York, I went to his office, shook hands, and placed my watch on his desk. Then I said, “I’d love to talk to you about how you saved New York, and also how you advise Lew—to learn from the Dean. And I’d love to be helpful to you in L.A. in any way I can.” All to get him talking and to show that I knew what he’d done and that I admired it and wanted to learn from it. After ten minutes, I said, “Thanks so much,” and stood to pick up my watch. Felix—and everyone else I used this stratagem on—asked me to sit back down. In this way I got to know Herb Allen, the head of Allen & Co., and Bob Greenhill at Morgan Stanley, and I’d always drop in on them when I was in New York—as well as on Mort Janklow and fifteen other book agents, a number of figures in the art world, and our clients Meryl Streep, Mike Nichols, Al Pacino, Sidney Lumet, Bob De Niro, and Marty Scorsese. The relationships outside entertainment would prove useful to CAA in the plans I was beginning to develop. They’d be our bridges to a wider world."

"At that 1982 session, Joseph and the others drew up a list of the people who were the stars of the M& A world. It included Martin Siegel of Kidder, Peabody; Eric Gleacher of Lehman Brothers; Bruce Wasserstein of First Boston; Felix Rohatyn of Lazard Frères; Ira Harris of Salomon Brothers—and lawyers too, like Martin Lipton of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, and Joe Flom of Skadden, Arps, Meagher, Slate and Flom."

"At that 1982 session, Joseph and the others drew up a list of the people who were the stars of the M&A world. It included Martin Siegel of Kidder, Peabody; Eric Gleacher of Lehman Brothers; Bruce Wasserstein of First Boston; Felix Rohatyn of Lazard Frères; Ira Harris of Salomon Brothers—and lawyers too, like Martin Lipton of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, and Joe Flom of Skadden, Arps, Meagher, Slate and Flom."

"The group of investors, apart from Ferinel (11.5%), includes the companies Elf and Total (12%), Worms et Cie (10%), the Lebanese-Syrian holding Finial (5%), Lazard Frères (10%), and the British financial institution Charterhouse (1%)."

"At Lazard, he created Sovac (Society for the Sale of Credit Automobiles), a financing company specialized in consumer car loans, thus making Lazard Frères a significant force in consumer credit."

"Founded in 1848 by two New Orleans cotton merchants originally from Alsace, Lazard Frères was one of several American investment firms with deep southern roots. As the commercial shipping trade moved to San Francisco, Lazard followed. Then at the turn of the century, additional offices were opened in New York, and next in Paris and London. It was the David-Weill family, descendants of the Lazards, who controlled the firm and, wisely, brought Meyer into its Paris branch in 1927. He quickly earned respect in European financial circles for his role in helping to guide Citroën, the French automobile giant, through the depression of the 1930s."