Lazard's appointment of George Bilicic as a managing director in the bank's New York office is the first senior hire at Lazard since Bruce Wasserstein's arrival who is not one of his former colleagues.

Bilicic joins after a brief stint at Merrill Lynch, which hired Bilicic in late 2000 as a managing director within the bank's mergers and acquisitions group, focusing on utilities and power deals. His move was seen as a great coup for Merrill at the time, as he had come from Cravath, Swaine & Moore, heading the law firm's utilities and power practice, and had extensive experience in the sector. While he was a lawyer he worked on several of the same deals for which Merrill Lynch provided financial advice.