[Bruce Wasserstein] joined Lazard in 2001 and has hired bankers such as Gary Parr, formerly Morgan Stanley's mergers-and-acquisitions chief, to revive the firm's business of selling takeover advice. That left less money to pay dividends to nonworking partners and their families, led by Chairman Michel David-Weill, 71, who ceded control of the firm to Wasserstein as a condition of his employment, people familiar with the matter said in March.