Fragility and Thanksgiving

Team Jefferies,

Success is fragile and, especially in service-oriented industries like ours, completely dependent on people.  Just last week, partners at the highly prestigious Wall Street law firm, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, decided to dissolve the firm.  We know only what we read in the papers, but that’s enough to see another stark example of the fragility of success.  We empathize with the partners, associates, and staff at Weil, and only use this unfortunate example of fragility to discuss a few points about what our mission, philosophy, and long-term strategy are at Jefferies.  Since this is also a month to reflect and give thanks, this is yet another reminder of why we are so appreciative of all of you.

Jefferies is people first. Sure, capital also matters, but we believe that, without our Jefferies people delivering innovative ideas and global access to markets and capital to help our incredible clients build and sustain their businesses, we could have all the capital in the world and still not achieve nearly the same success. Our people and the right partnerships among them define Jefferies and our future. Combining people, ideas, and access to markets and capital around the world to help build and sustain businesses makes Jefferies distinct and special.

Our people drive our culture.  Our priorities at Jefferies have been consistent: family first, followed immediately and in order by clients, our firm, and then ultimately each of us individually.  We believe we have all come together (whether you are a lifer or a recent joiner) at Jefferies, embracing the reality that we are all stronger when we lock arms to serve our clients for their long-term benefit.  To truly maximize our individual long-term growth and gain, the best and most productive path is for us to do it together through teamwork, communication, partnership, and a shared entrepreneurial spirit.  We believe this is why people join Jefferies, and this is why we stay together as partners and win.

Complacency is the Achilles’ heel of every endeavor, including building an investment banking and capital markets firm.  If you don’t invest, evolve, grow and push yourselves out of your comfort zone, it will only be a matter of time before you look to your left and see a very busy passing lane.  Whether by investing in and embracing AI and ever-better technology to ensure we optimize performance, maintaining our commitment to research, or adding and welcoming the very best from our industry, we are grateful that our entire Jefferies team is committed to what we can accomplish tomorrow, rather than being satisfied with what we did yesterday.  

And having the right people shape the right culture drives sustainable success.  To build a special and durable firm, responsibility and accountability must be shared at all levels.  When you do that, it helps to sustain success even when you suffer the unfortunate but inevitable bad trade, misguided advice, incorrect research call, tech glitch, misplaced trust in the wrong person, ill-advised email, wrong tone on a call, or any of the other countless mistakes that can surface in a world that requires each of us to react constantly and immediately.  If you look at history, the firms that do well are the ones that own their mistakes, always escalate problems quickly, never shoot the messenger for raising problems, and embrace the reality that, as long as there isn’t intentional wrongdoing or, God forbid, a cover-up, second chances are an important part of building the best culture.  We are beyond thankful that all of us at Jefferies have embraced this philosophy, and we all know that it has always been through periods of adversity that we have learned and grown stronger personally and collectively.

In a few weeks, it will be Thanksgiving.  This will be followed by the November 30 conclusion of Jefferies’ 2026 fiscal year.  We are incredibly appreciative of all of you, and we know that each of your families has contributed to our success by supporting each of you through the demanding times of 2026.  We have one more month to finish this year to the very best of our abilities and position ourselves for further momentum in 2027.  Most importantly, let’s continue to build Jefferies for the long term because, as long as we stay focused, committed to each other, and humble, the building will continue. We both believe, we are still very early in what Jefferies can be.

With deep appreciation,

Rich and Brian