Brad Karp, the chairman of high-powered U.S. law firm Paul Weiss, joined other prominent Democratic fundraisers at election night gatherings in Washington in November 2024 hoping for a Kamala Harris victory over Republican rival Donald Trump.
Karp had reached out to hundreds of corporate lawyers in a fundraising push for Harris soon after she replaced incumbent Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate in July 2024, and one of his Paul Weiss partners helped prepare the former U.S. vice president for her debate with Trump.
But Trump won the election. And his return to the presidency last year set in motion a series of events that first shook Paul Weiss and later, with the U.S. Justice Department’s release of records involving the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, led Karp to resign this week as its chairman.
Though he has not been accused of wrongdoing, the disclosures of his contacts with Epstein undid in a matter of days Karp’s longstanding grip over the firm that had cemented him as a Wall Street and Washington power broker.
“If you were going to write a Greek tragedy about a law firm leader, this is it,” a former senior Paul Weiss attorney told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
TRANSFORMING PAUL WEISS
After becoming chairman of Paul Weiss in 2008, Karp transformed it from a respected New York litigation firm to a big-money global powerhouse. And Paul Weiss lawyers and staff outpaced other major law firms in donations to Democrats during the 2024 election cycle.
Paul Weiss devoted pro bono work to progressive causes and recruited star Wall Street dealmakers alongside litigators who had served in Democratic former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Trump’s return to the White House quickly created tumult for Karp and his firm. Karp’s subsequent decision to cut a deal with Trump to rescind an executive order the president had issued punishing the firm made him the face of capitulation for some lawyers aligned with the Democratic Party.
At least a dozen partners, including the one who had advised Harris for her presidential debate, departed the firm afterward.
A bipartisan push in Congress last year, despite Trump’s objections, required the Justice Department to release files related to Epstein. A trove of emails made public at the end of January revealed extensive communications between Karp and Epstein, prompting him to resign as chairman.
Karp did not respond to requests for comment. The firm did not respond to a request for comment beyond the statement it released on Wednesday announcing his resignation.
In that statement, Karp said that “recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm.” The firm previously had said he regretted his Epstein interactions and “never witnessed or participated in misconduct.”
Karp, whose rolodex of representations has included large Wall Street banks and the National Football League, remains at Paul Weiss serving clients, the firm said in its statement. Karp was replaced as chairman by Scott Barshay, who he had recruited in 2016 to turbocharge the firm’s mergers and acquisitions practice and other corporate work.