Lazard LTD.

¶¶ . . . . . Please stand by.

Your program is about to begin. Good morning and welcome to Lazard's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. This call is being recorded. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the call, please press the star key followed by zero on your telephone keypad. At this time, I will turn the call over to Alexandra Degnan, Lazard's Head of Investor Relations and Treasury. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chelsea. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Lazard's earnings call for the first quarter of 2026. I'm Alexandra Degnan, Head of Investor Relations and Treasury. In addition to today's audio comments, we've posted our earnings release on our website. A replay of this call will also be available on our website later today. Before we begin, let me remind you that we may make forward-looking statements about our business and performance. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance, achievements, or other events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to those factors discussed in the company's SEC filings, which you can access on our website. Lizard assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of these forward-looking statements and assumes no duty to update them. Please also note that unless we state otherwise, all financial measures we discuss today are non-GAAP adjusted financial measures. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures are meaningful when evaluating the company's performance. The reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP measure is provided in our earnings release and investor presentation. Hosting our call today are Peter Orszag, Lazard's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, and Tracy Farr, Lazard's Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, Chris Hogben, Chief Executive Officer of Asset Management, will join us as we open the call for questions. I'll now turn the call over to Peter.