For nearly a year, longtime chairman of the elite Wall Street law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Brad Karp, weathered intense scrutiny. There were protests against him, and he was openly mocked after becoming the first Big Law leader to make a deal with President Donald Trump. However, the person who ultimately ended his tenure was Jeffrey Epstein.
Karp stepped down Wednesday evening after newly released emails showed him thanking the late sex offender for dinners and even asking for help to land his son a job on a Woody Allen film production. The messages were part of the Department of Justice’s latest document dump, which questions what Karp and his firm had been insisting were settled.
According to the documents, Karp described Epstein as “amazing” and “extraordinary” and praised a 2015 dinner that included filmmaker Woody Allen. In a note sent the day after the gathering, Karp thanked Epstein for “an evening I’ll never forget” and hoped to be invited back. Epstein’s assistant also arranged movie screenings for Karp and his children over the years.
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Just three months before he was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges in 2019, Jeffrey Epstein had a mission: get Brad Karp, chair of the law firm Paul Weiss, into America’s most exclusive golf club. https://t.co/AKWAJTVcgY pic.twitter.com/FYe5kRqAnu
— Financial Times (@FT) February 2, 2026
At one point, Paul Weiss said Karp’s name appeared in the Epstein files because the firm had been retained by Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black. The firm maintained that it never represented Epstein. However, the emails revealed a very warm relationship even after Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor and had been registered as a sex offender.
In a statement announcing his resignation after 18 years as chairman, Karp said “recent reporting has created a distraction” and that the attention on him was “not in the best interests of the firm.” He remains at Paul Weiss and will focus on client work.
The firm has named corporate partner Scott Barshay as his successor.
Last year, Karp was criticized for a truce with Trump after the president issued executive orders targeting law firms linked to his political opponents or diversity initiatives. While rival firms sued (and won), Paul Weiss chose to accommodate.
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The firm agreed to provide $40 million in free legal services to causes backed by Trump and distanced itself from diversity and inclusion policies. As a result, there came protests, and Karp was heckled at a New York Bar Foundation gala. At the time, Karp said that Trump’s order threatened the firm’s survival. But people branded him as the Big Law executive who bowed to threats.
Some people flagged this 2019 Jeffrey Epstein email exchange because it’s about the owner of the Patriots. But see who it’s WITH: Brad Karp, the chairman of Paul, Weiss. And Karp was still chair when Paul, Weiss became the first law firm to cave to Trump’s demands in 2025. 1/ pic.twitter.com/Fz8Q49GRDS
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) January 30, 2026
Plus, Weiss represents Amazon, Exxon Mobil, and the NFL, and even boasts a proud pro bono tradition. On the other hand, Trump was friendly with Epstein for years, though he now denies knowing anything about Epstein’s crimes.
NEXT UP: Melania Trump’s Affectionate Email Exchange With Ghislaine Maxwell Revealed in New Epstein Files
