Company: LAZ
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-007441
Chunk: 134

Company: Lazard, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 134
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 in the best interests of the client. As a result, we are subject to a number of obligations and standards, and the violation of those obligations or standards may adversely affect our clients and us. It is difficult to detect and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in all cases.

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC have also devoted greater resources to the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In addition, the U.K., France and other jurisdictions have expanded the reach of their anti-bribery laws. While we have developed and implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with anti-bribery and other laws, such policies and procedures may not be effective in all instances to prevent violations. Any determination that we have violated these laws could subject us to, among other things, civil and criminal penalties, material fines, profit disgorgement, injunction against future conduct, securities litigation and reputational damage, any one of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

A failure in or breach of our information systems or infrastructure, or those of third parties with which we do business, including as a result of cybersecurity incidents or threats, could disrupt our businesses, lead to reputational harm and legal liability or otherwise impact our ability to operate our business.

Our operations rely on electronic information systems that we use for the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination or disposition of our and our clients’ information, which we refer to as “information systems”, including our computer systems, hardware, software and networks and those of our third-party vendors and service providers. Such information systems, which frequently include “cloud”-based networks and services, have in the past and may in the future be subject to unauthorized or fraudulent access, computer viruses or other malicious code or other threats, including “phishing” and social engineering attempts, that are constantly evolving and that could have a material security impact on us. There can be no assurance that we will not suffer material losses relating to cybersecurity incidents or threats, including cyber attacks that exploit vulnerabilities, or other security breaches involving our information and payment systems, or the information systems of third parties with which we do business, despite taking protective measures to prevent such breaches. The increased use of mobile technologies and remote working technologies can heighten these and other operational risks, as can the advancing sophistication and increased frequency and severity of cybersecurity incidents and threats globally. In addition, attacks against us, our customers and our third-party