Lazard has hired Mark Walker, a former managing partner of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton;  he'll serve as a senior adviser to the investment bank’s government advisory team.  His arrival helps Lazard’s Paris-based sovereign advisory team which specializes in counseling governments, largely on fixing the debt owed to outside creditors.  The firm is advising Greece in negotiations over its debt, and it previously worked for countries like Ivory Coast and Ecuador.  Mr. Walker has worked on sovereign advisory matters - including Argentina, Republic of Congo and Peru.  He also counseled the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Treasury Department.

Mr. Walker joined Cleary in 1966 and served as the law firm’s managing partner from 2005 to 2010.  He's a graduate of Stanford and Yale Law.   [NYT Dealbook, 6/6/11]