Lazard

Reference what makes Lazard distinct: its independence as an advisory only firm, its leading restructuring practice, its intellectual culture, and the responsibility you get early in a small firm. Avoid generic prestige.

Explain why advisory: you want to give judgment and advice on the biggest strategic decisions, not raise or trade capital. That framing suits a boutique and sets up your 'why Lazard'.

For a spring week, motivation is everything: what you want to learn, why now, and why a boutique like Lazard specifically. Show curiosity and a clear reason you applied here.

The defining elite boutique question. Explain the boutique model: advisory only, so no conflicts from lending or trading, more responsibility and senior exposure early, and world class restructuring. Then differentiate Lazard specifically (largest independent adviser, its restructuring and sovereign practices, its intellectual culture) versus other boutiques. Generic bulge bracket reasons fail here.

STAR. Show real collaboration: your role, a disagreement you navigated, and the result. In a small firm you work closely with a lean team, so this matters.

STAR. A real, non-trivial challenge, the actions you took, the outcome, and a brief reflection. Resilience and initiative are the signals.

Lazard leads in restructuring, so have a current distressed or restructuring situation ready: who is involved, why they are in trouble, and the options on the table. It shows genuine interest in what Lazard actually does.

Lazard probes how you think, not what you memorised. Pick a company or sector, give a clear thesis with evidence, and defend it under pushback. An independent, well reasoned view beats a safe consensus one.

Elite boutiques go a level deeper. Project unlevered free cash flow, then derive WACC properly: cost of equity via CAPM (risk free rate, beta, equity risk premium), the after tax cost of debt, weighted by capital structure. Discount, add a terminal value, sum to enterprise value, then bridge to equity. Expect follow ups on every input.

Enterprise value equals equity value plus debt, preferred and minority interest, minus cash. Be ready for the trickier adjustments a boutique pushes on: operating leases, unfunded pensions, associates and non controlling interests, and net operating losses.

A core restructuring concept and a genuine elite boutique differentiator. The fulcrum security is the most senior part of the capital structure that is not fully covered by the enterprise value, so it is the piece that converts to equity and controls the outcome. You find it by walking down the capital structure against enterprise value until value runs out. It matters because whoever holds it drives the recovery and the control of the restructured company.

The kind of open ended restructuring case Lazard loves. With $50m of EBITDA the enterprise value is likely well below $500m at any sensible multiple, so the debt is impaired, which is why it trades at 60. Advising the company you would look at liability management, a maturity extension or a Chapter 11 to cut the debt. Advising the creditors you would focus on maximising recovery and where the fulcrum sits. Show you can argue both sides.