Wall Street has been a house of horrors over the past few years, with the largest investment banks – the so-called bulge bracket – laying off tens of thousands or even going out of business.

That has made things rough for L.A.’s nascent investment banking industry. As one local banker put it, “Whenever there’s a personnel cutback in finance, it is often easiest to cut the L.A. people.”

But at the same time, smaller local firms – from modest boutiques to emerging international players – have found opportunities in the chaos to add top-shelf talent and pick up new clients from the shrinking big banks.

The Business Journal has rounded up some of the most prominent L.A. bankers reshaping the local investment banking industry. Among the stars there’s Peter Comisar, who left Goldman Sachs after 20 years to establish the West Coast investment bank for a longtime New York money manager.

Then there’s Ken Moelis, whose three-year-old boutique is going toe to toe with financial giants and winning multibillion-dollar deals across the globe, such as restructuring Dubai World’s $26 billion in debt.

Read on to learn more about a dozen of our local bankers.