The following discussion should be read in conjunction with Lazard Ltd's condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (the "Form 10-Q").

Forward-Looking Statements and Certain Factors that May Affect Our Business

Management has included in Parts I and II of this Form 10-Q, including in its Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (the "MD&A"), statements that are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, those discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 (the "Form 10-K") under the caption "Risk Factors," including the following:

• a decline in general economic conditions or the global financial markets,

• losses caused by financial or other problems experienced by third parties,

• losses due to unidentified or unanticipated risks,

• a lack of liquidity, i.e., ready access to funds, for use in our businesses, and

• competitive pressure on our businesses and on our ability to retain our employees.

These risks and uncertainties are not exhaustive. Other sections of the Form 10-K may include additional factors, which could adversely impact our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for our management to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can management assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We are under no duty to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this Form 10-Q to conform our prior statements to actual results or revised expectations and we do not intend to do so.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

• the business' possible or assumed future results of operations and operating cash flows,

• the business' strategies and investment policies,

• the business' financing plans and the availability of short-term borrowing,

• the business' competitive position,

• future acquisitions, including the consideration to be paid and the timing of consummation,

• potential growth opportunities available to our businesses,

• recruitment and retention of managing directors and employees,

• the business' potential operating performance, achievements, productivity improvements, efficiency and cost reduction efforts,

• the likelihood of success and impact of litigation,

• expected tax rates,

• changes in interest and tax rates,

• expectations with respect to the economy, securities markets, the market for mergers, acquisitions and strategic advisory activity, the market for asset management activity and other industry trends,

• the effects of competition on our business, and

• the impact of future legislation and regulation on our business.

The Company is committed to providing timely and accurate information to the investing public, consistent with our legal and regulatory obligations. To that end, the Company uses its websites to convey information about its businesses, including the anticipated release of quarterly financial results, quarterly financial, statistical and business-related information and the posting of updates of assets under management ("AUM") in various mutual funds, hedge funds and other investment products managed by Lazard Asset Management LLC and its subsidiaries ("LAM"). Monthly updates of these funds are posted to the LAM website (www.lazardnet.com) on the third business day following the end of each month. Investors can link to Lazard Ltd, Lazard Group and their operating company websites through www.lazard.com. Our websites and the information contained therein or connected thereto are not incorporated into this Form 10-Q.

Business Summary

The Company's principal sources of revenue are derived from activities in the following business segments:

• Financial Advisory, which includes providing general strategic and transaction-specific advice on mergers and acquisitions ("M&A") and strategic advisory matters, restructuring and capital structure advisory services, capital raising and other transactions, and

• Asset Management, which includes strategies for the management of equity and fixed income securities, alternative investments and private equity funds.

In addition, the Company records selected other activities in its Corporate segment, including management of cash, certain investments and the commercial banking activities of Lazard Group's Paris-based Lazard Frθres Banque SA ("LFB", or "our bank"). The Company also allocates outstanding indebtedness to its Corporate segment.

LFB is a registered bank regulated by the Banque de France and its primary operations include asset and liability management for Lazard Group's Paris House through its money market desk and commercial banking operations, deposit taking and, to a lesser extent, financing activities and custodial oversight over assets of various clients. LFB engages in underwritten offerings of securities in France, and we expect that it may expand its scope to include placements elsewhere in Europe.

On September 25, 2008, pursuant to a definitive merger agreement dated August 14, 2008, the Company, LAM, and LAZ Sub I, LLC, a then newly-formed subsidiary of Lazard Frθres & Co. LLC ("LFNY"), completed the merger of LAZ Sub I, LLC with and into LAM (the "LAM Merger"). See Note 7 of Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information relating to the LAM Merger.

In June, 2009, the Company formed a new wealth management subsidiary, Lazard Wealth Management LLC ("Lazard Wealth Management"). Lazard Wealth Management will provide customized, investment

management and financial planning services to high net worth investors in the U.S. Lazard Wealth Management expects to work with investors to construct, implement and monitor an asset allocation strategy designed to meet the individual client's investment objectives, integrating tax planning, estate planning, philanthropic interests and legacy planning with investment and risk management services. Prior to the launch of this business, we intend to register Lazard Wealth Management as a registered investment adviser with the SEC.

Lazard also has a long history of making alternative investments with its own capital, usually alongside capital of qualified institutional and individual investors. At the time of Lazard Ltd's equity public offering and as a part of the separation, we transferred to LFCM Holdings LLC ("LFCM Holdings") all of our alternative investment activities, except for Fonds Partenaires Gestion ("FPG"), our private equity business in France. Such activities transferred to LFCM Holdings represented the alternative investment activities of Lazard Alternative Investments Holdings LLC ("LAI") and included private equity investments of Corporate Partners II Limited ("CP II") and Lazard Senior Housing Partners LP. CP II was managed by a subsidiary of LAI until February 16, 2009. Effective February 17, 2009, ownership and control of CP II was transferred to the investment professionals who manage CP II. We also transferred to LFCM Holdings certain principal investments by Lazard Group in the funds managed by the separated businesses, subject to certain options by us to reacquire such investments, while we retained our investment in our French private equity funds. Since 2005, consistent with our obligations to LFCM Holdings, we have engaged in a number of alternative investments and private equity activities. See Note 11 of Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding alternative investments. Effective September 30, 2009, the Company sold FPG to a fund management company forming part of a group managing investment companies and funds, in some of which Lazard could earn carried interests, and the managing directors and staff conducting this activity were accordingly transferred to the buyer. The sale of FPG had no material impact on our financial condition or results of operations. Operating results of FPG have been included in our consolidated financial statements through the effective date of sale.

We continue to explore and discuss opportunities to expand the scope of our alternative investment and private equity activities in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere. These opportunities could include internal growth of new funds and direct investments by us, partnerships or strategic relationships, investments with third parties or acquisitions of existing funds or management companies. In that regard, on July 15, 2009, the Company established a private equity business with The Edgewater Funds ("Edgewater"), a Chicago-based private equity firm, through the acquisition of Edgewater's management vehicles (see Note 8 of Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements). Also, consistent with our obligations to LFCM Holdings, we may explore discrete capital markets opportunities.

For the three month and nine month periods ended September 30, 2009 and 2008, the Company's consolidated net revenue was derived from the following segments:

                                Three Months Ended          Nine Months Ended
                                  September 30,               September 30,
                                2009          2008          2009          2008
         Financial Advisory         63 %          67 %          65 %          65 %
         Asset Management           39            36            38            42
         Corporate                  (2 )          (3 )          (3 )          (7 )

Business Environment

Economic and market conditions since early 2008 in the U.S. and global economies have been adversely impacted by factors including the contraction in worldwide credit markets and the related tightening of lending, volatility in currency and commodity markets and oil prices and write-downs within the financial sector. Overall, these economic and market conditions negatively affected our financial performance in both our Financial Advisory and Asset Management businesses through the first nine months of 2009, with improvement in the three month period ended September 30, 2009.

Lazard operates in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for Lazard's management to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can Lazard assess the impact of all potentially applicable factors on its business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. See the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Form 10-K. Furthermore, net income
(loss) and revenue in any period may not be indicative of full-year results or the results of any other period and may vary significantly from year to year and quarter to quarter.

Financial Advisory

M&A activity for the three month and nine month periods ended September 30, 2009 decreased substantially versus the corresponding periods in 2008 for global completed transactions as well as global and transatlantic announced transactions, while activity in restructuring accelerated during the 2009 periods driven by a significant increase in the number of corporate debt defaults. According to Moody's Investors Service, Inc., in the nine month period ended September 30, 2009, a total of 222 issuers defaulted as compared to 62 in the corresponding period in 2008. The following table sets forth industry statistics regarding the volume of M&A transactions in the 2008 and 2009 periods:

                                       Three Months Ended September 30,                        Nine Months Ended September 30,
                                                                     %                                                       %
                                   2009           2008          Incr /(Decr)              2009            2008          Incr /(Decr)
                                                                           ($ in billions)
Completed M&A Transactions:
Global                          $      358     $      675                  (47 )%      $     1,136     $    2,081                  (45 )%
Transatlantic                           29             70                  (59 )%               91            183                  (50 )%

Announced M&A Transactions:
Global                                 381            768                  (50 )%            1,375          2,113                  (35 )%
Transatlantic                           59             82                  (28 )%               97            266                  (64 )%

Source: Thomson Financial as of October 14, 2009

While overall M&A industry statistics regarding the number and size of announced transactions declined in the first nine months of 2009 as compared to 2008, we believe that in the current environment we are relatively well positioned for the upturn in the economy as our clients refinance, restructure and position their asset portfolios for growth. Nevertheless, we remain cautious with respect to the environment. Generally, during such periods of unfavorable market or economic conditions, the volume and value of M&A transactions may decrease, thereby reducing the demand for our advisory services and increasing competition among financial services companies seeking such engagements.

We believe that corporate defaults will remain at a high level, and will be on a more global scale than during the last cycle. We expect that our Restructuring business should continue to be very active over the next several years from such significant level of corporate defaults, as well as from advising companies during this period of volatility on matters relating to debt and financing restructuring and other on- and off-balance sheet assignments. Our Restructuring assignments normally are executed over a six- to eighteen-month period.

In April 2009, governmental officials in New York announced a new policy banning the use of placement agents by funds seeking investment contributions from the New York State and New York City public pension funds. The use of placement agents has also been prohibited or otherwise restricted with respect to investments by public pension funds in Illinois, Ohio and New Mexico, and similar measures are being considered in other jurisdictions and by the SEC. Our Private Fund Advisory Group, which is part of our Financial Advisory segment, acts as placement agent for investment funds, including investment funds that have historically received capital from certain of these affected public pension funds. We are continuing to evaluate the potential impact of these restrictions on our Private Fund Advisory Group.

Asset Management



As shown in the table below, major global market indices at September 30, 2009
have improved compared to such indices at June 30, 2009 and December 31, 2008,
but were lower across most regions as compared to September 30, 2008.



                                                 Percentage Change
                                               September 30, 2009 vs.
                                   June 30,       December 31,      September 30,
                                     2009             2008              2008
    MSCI World Index                     17 %               23 %               (5 )%
    CAC 40                               21 %               18 %               (6 )%
    DAX                                  18 %               18 %               (3 )%
    FTSE 100                             21 %               16 %                5 %
    TOPIX 100                            (3 )%               5 %              (21 )%
    MSCI Emerging Market                 20 %               61 %               16 %
    Dow Jones Industrial Average         15 %               11 %              (11 )%
    NASDAQ                               16 %               35 %                2 %
    S&P 500                              15 %               17 %               (9 )%

The fees that we receive for providing investment management and advisory services are primarily driven by the level of AUM. Accordingly, since market appreciation (depreciation) and foreign currency volatility impact the level of our AUM, such items will impact the level of revenues we receive from our Asset Management business. Since a substantial portion of our AUM is invested in equities, market appreciation reflected in the changes in Lazard's AUM during the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2009 generally corresponded to the changes in global market indices. While AUM in the third quarter of 2009 improved versus the first half of 2009 and the second half of 2008, our management fee revenues, when compared to the corresponding periods in 2008, continued to be adversely impacted by the continuing effects on AUM of significant market depreciation experienced in the second half of 2008 through March 31, 2009.

Financial Statement Overview

Net Revenue

The majority of Lazard's Financial Advisory net revenue is earned from the successful completion of M&A transactions, strategic advisory matters, restructuring and capital structure advisory services, capital raising and similar transactions. The main driver of Financial Advisory net revenue is overall M&A activity, the level of corporate debt defaults and the environment for capital raising activities, particularly in the industries and geographic markets in which Lazard focuses. In some client engagements, often those involving financially distressed companies, revenue is earned in the form of retainers and similar fees that are contractually agreed upon with each client for each assignment and are not necessarily linked to the completion of a transaction. In addition, Lazard also earns fees from providing strategic advice to clients, with such fees not being dependent on a specific transaction. Lazard's Financial Advisory segment also earns revenue from public and private securities offerings in the form of referral fees for referring opportunities to LFCM Holdings for underwriting and distribution of securities. The referral fees received from LFCM Holdings are generally one-half of the revenue recorded by LFCM Holdings in respect of such activities. Significant fluctuations in Financial Advisory net revenue can occur over the course of any given year. These fluctuations arise because a significant portion of Financial Advisory net revenue is earned upon the successful completion of a transaction, restructuring or capital raising activity, the timing of which is uncertain and is not subject to Lazard's control.

Lazard's Asset Management segment principally includes LAM, Lazard Frθres Gestion SAS ("LFG"), FPG and, effective July 15, 2009, Edgewater. Effective October 1, 2009, the Asset Management segment will no longer include the operating results of FPG due to the sale of FPG effective September 30, 2009. Asset Management net revenue is derived from fees for investment management and advisory services provided to institutional and private clients. The main driver of Asset Management net revenue is the level of AUM, which is influenced by Lazard's investment performance, its ability to successfully attract and retain assets, the broader

performance of the global equity markets and, to a lesser extent, fixed income markets. As a result, fluctuations in financial markets and client asset inflows and outflows have a direct effect on Asset Management net revenue and operating income. Asset Management fees are generally based on the level of AUM measured as of the end of a quarter or month, and an increase or reduction in AUM at such dates, due to market price fluctuations, currency fluctuations, net client asset flows or otherwise, will result in a corresponding increase or decrease in management fees. The majority of our investment advisory contracts are generally terminable at any time or on notice of 30 days or less. Institutional and individual clients, and firms with which we have strategic alliances, can terminate their relationship with us, reduce the aggregate amount of AUM or shift their funds to other types of accounts with different rate structures for a number of reasons, including investment performance, changes in prevailing interest rates and financial market performance. In addition, as Lazard's AUM includes significant assets that are denominated in currencies other than U.S. dollars, changes in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies will impact the value of Lazard's AUM. Fees vary with the type of assets managed, with higher fees earned on equity assets, alternative investments (such as hedge funds) and private equity investments, and lower fees earned on fixed income and cash management products.

The Company earns performance-based incentive fees on various investment products, including traditional products and alternative investment funds such as hedge funds and private equity funds.

For hedge funds, incentive fees are calculated based on a specified percentage of a fund's net appreciation, in some cases in excess of established benchmarks. The Company records incentive fees on traditional products and hedge funds at the end of the relevant performance measurement period, when potential uncertainties regarding the ultimate realizable amounts have been determined. The performance fee measurement period is generally an annual period (unless an account terminates during the year), and therefore such incentive fees are usually recorded in the fourth quarter of Lazard's fiscal year. These incentive fees received at the end of the measurement period are not subject to reversal or payback. Incentive fees on hedge funds generally are subject to loss carryforward provisions in which losses incurred by the funds in any year are applied against certain future period net appreciation before any incentive fees can be earned.

For private equity funds, incentive fees may be earned in the form of a "carried interest" if profits arising from realized investments exceed a specified threshold. Typically, such carried interest is ultimately calculated on a whole-fund basis and, therefore, clawback of carried interests during the life of the fund can occur. As a result, incentive fees earned on our private equity funds are not recorded until potential uncertainties regarding the ultimate realizable amounts have been determined, including any potential for clawback.

Corporate segment net revenue consists primarily of net interest income, including amounts earned at LFB, and investment gains and losses on the Company's investment portfolio of LAM-managed equity funds and principal investments in equities, debt securities at our bank and alternative investment funds managed by LAI and FPG. Interest expense is also included in Corporate net revenue. Corporate net revenue can fluctuate due to changes in the fair value of investments classified as "trading", and with respect to "available-for-sale", when realized, or when a decline is determined to be other than temporary, with respect to "available-for-sale" and "held-to-maturity" investments, as well as due to changes in interest and currency exchange rates and in the levels of cash, investments and indebtedness.

Effective July 1, 2008, as permitted by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("U.S. GAAP"), the portion of our bank's corporate debt portfolio that had been previously designated as "trading" was re-designated to "available-for-sale". During the three month and nine month periods ended September 30, 2009 and the three month period ended September 30, 2008, the Company recorded mark-ups and mark-downs of $22, $38 and $(18) million, respectively, in "accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), net of tax" ("AOCI").

Although Corporate segment net revenue during the nine month period ended September 30, 2009 represented (3)% of Lazard's net revenue, total assets in Corporate represented 55% of Lazard's consolidated

total assets as of September 30, 2009, principally attributable to the level of assets associated with LFB, and, to a lesser extent, investments in LAM-managed funds, other securities and cash.

Operating Expenses

The majority of Lazard's operating expenses relate to compensation and benefits for employees and managing directors. We have a policy that targets our ongoing compensation and benefits expense in our traditional businesses, excluding special items, to usually not exceed 57.5% of operating revenue each year, including compensation and benefits payable to our managing directors and amortization of the relevant portion of the restricted stock unit awards ("RSUs") under the Lazard Ltd 2005 Equity Incentive Plan, the Lazard Ltd 2008 Incentive Compensation Plan and the related deferred cash component of such incentive awards, with such amortization determined on a straight-line basis over the vesting periods and not on the basis of revenue recognition (see Note 13 of Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements). As discussed . . .