Lazard CEO Welcomes Rollback of ‘Extreme’ Private Equity Hiring

Lazard Inc.’s chief executive officer welcomed private equity firms rolling back aggressive hiring of investment-banking analysts, but said he won’t implement transparency rules the way many large banks have done to discourage analysts from leaving.

“It is a good thing that most of the private equity funds have shifted the timetable of their recruiting patterns, because it was getting a bit extreme,” Peter Orszag said on a media call Thursday, after the firm reported record second-quarter revenue for its financial-advisory business.

Orszag said he would focus on making Lazard an attractive place to work rather than requiring analysts to ...