Company: LAZ
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-007441
Chunk: 128

Company: Lazard, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 128
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 business. Although back-up systems are in place, our back-up procedures and capabilities in the event of a failure or interruption may not be adequate. 

Aspects of our business, including our Asset Management business, rely heavily on our financial, accounting, trading, compliance and other data processing systems and those of our third-party vendors or service providers who support these functions. We expect that we will need to review whether to continue to upgrade and expand the capabilities of these systems, including legacy systems, in the future to avoid disruption of, or constraints on, our operations, and any such system upgrades or expansions could result in significant costs to us. We may need to hire additional staff in order to continue to upgrade or expand the capabilities of our systems, including with respect to quickly advancing technologies like generative artificial intelligence, and failure to attract and retain staff with the proper skillset could disrupt or constrain our operations. Certain investment teams within our Asset Management business, for example, employ proprietary systems, including quantitative models, in connection with their investment processes. These systems and models are often designed and, with assistance from technology personnel, maintained by employees who are members of those investment teams. If any of the foregoing systems fails to operate properly or is disabled, including for reasons beyond our control, we could suffer material financial loss, a disruption of our businesses, liability to clients, regulatory intervention and reputational damage. The inability of our systems (or those of our vendors or service providers) to accommodate an increasing volume of transactions also could constrain our ability to expand our businesses. In addition, errors resulting from these issues or from human error when conducting a trade or other transaction could expose us to significant risk.

In addition, if we were to experience a local or regional disaster or other business continuity problem, such as a pandemic or man-made or natural disaster, our continued success would depend, in part, on the availability of our personnel and office facilities and the proper functioning of and remote accessibility to our computers, telecommunications, transaction processing and other information systems and operations, as well as those of third parties on whom we rely. Such events could lead us to experience operational challenges, and our inability to successfully recover could materially disrupt our businesses and cause material financial loss, regulatory actions, reputational harm and legal liability.

For additional information regarding operational risks with respect to our businesses, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Operational Risk” below.

Risks Related to Legal or Regulatory Factors and Taxation

Extensive regulation of our businesses limits our activities and