A KEY competitor to Lazard has launched an attack on Bruce Wasserstein, the investment bank’s chairman and chief executive, for teaming up with Carl Icahn in his campaign to restructure Time Warner.

The criticism by Robert Kindler, head of mergers and acquisitions at JPMorgan, comes after the revelation that Lazard and Time Warner share a common board member — a professor at Harvard Law School who specialises in corporate conflicts of interest.

Mr Kindler, speaking at an investment conference in New York, said: “I have no idea what Bruce Wasserstein was thinking when he took this assignment. It’s very difficult to get CEO meetings when there is any possibility that two weeks later you are going to show up with Carl Icahn rattling your cage at the company.”

Mr Icahn, a corporate raider who owns a 2.5 per cent stake in Time Warner, launched an assault on the world’s biggest media company with the appointment of Lazard on Tuesday. The bank will draw up a shortlist of potential new directors and prepare a break-up plan for the company. Mr Icahn’s chief target is Dick Parsons, Time Warner’s chairman and chief executive.

The debate about Lazard’s appointment kicked off on Thursday when it emerged that Professor Robert Clark was a non-executive director at both Lazard and Time Warner. He is thought to be paid about $175,000 (£110,000) a year by Time Warner and about $100,000 by Lazard.

Lazard will receive a $5 million fee on top of 5 per cent of any gains in Time Warner’s shares above $18, according to regulatory filings.

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