The chairman of a powerful Wall Street law firm who drew outrage by caving to President Donald Trump’s revenge campaign has finally quit after his fawning emails to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were revealed.
Brad Karp, the 66-year-old head of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, had gushed that the disgraced financier was “amazing,” and asked Epstein for help getting his son a job with a Woody Allen production, according to documents included in the latest tranche of materials released by the Department of Justice.
Several days after the messages became public, he abruptly resigned as chairman of Paul, Weiss on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the firm.
“Leading Paul, Weiss for the past 18 years has been the honor of my professional life,” Karp said in a statement. “Recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm.”
According to the statement, Karp will remain with the firm and “focus his full-time attention to client service.”
Paul, Weiss had previously explained Karp’s presence in the Epstein files by saying that the firm was retained by Leon Black, the former CEO of a longtime client, investment firm Apollo Global Management, to negotiate fee disputes with Epstein.
“The firm was adverse to Epstein, and at no point did Paul, Weiss or Brad Karp ever represent him,” the firm said in a statement Sunday.
The emails, however, showed that the interactions between Karp and Epstein—who died in a Manhattan prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges—were often far from adversarial.
“I can’t thank you enough for including me in an evening I’ll never forget,” Karp wrote to Epstein in July 2015, the day after a scheduled dinner with Epstein, Karp, and Allen, the Financial Times reported. “It was truly ‘once in a lifetime’ in every way, though I hope to be invited again. You are an extraordinary host—and your home…!!!”
Epstein’s assistant also arranged for Karp and his children to attend multiple screenings of Woody Allen films between 2014 and 2018.
The 90-year-old filmmaker married his ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn in 1997 and was accused of sexually abusing Farrow’s other daughter Dylan, which he denies.
Allen and Previn were regular guests for years at Epstein’s townhouse on the Upper East Side, where they were always welcome despite the controversy surrounding the Annie Hall director, The New York Times reported in December.
Last year, Karp came under fire for being the first Big Law firm executive to make a deal with Trump after the president signed a series of executive orders targeting law firms that had represented his perceived enemies.
While other firms fought Trump’s orders and won big in court, Paul, Weiss agreed to provide $40 million in free legal services to causes championed by Trump, release a statement about neutrality in hiring, and avoid any policies promoting diversity and inclusivity.
The deal backfired with major corporate clients and led to an exodus of top talent. Karp was personally heckled and protested at a New York Bar Foundation gala in November, Bloomberg Law reported.
Trump himself was close friends with Epstein for more than a decade. The president has denied knowing anything about Epstein’s crimes.
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