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Brad Karp is stepping down as chair of US law firm Paul Weiss after revelations about his relationship with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The New York law firm has picked Scott Barshay, a star deals lawyer who runs its corporate department, to take over the role.
“Leading Paul Weiss for the past 18 years has been the honour of my professional life,” Karp said in a statement on Wednesday evening, after the FT first reported on the shake-up.
“Recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm.”
The FT reported this week that Karp, who has chaired the law firm since 2008, told Epstein he was “amazing” after he arranged a dinner with Woody Allen, according to documents released by the Department of Justice.
Karp also arranged, through Epstein’s staff, for his children to attend Woody Allen film screenings. In March 2019, four months before Epstein’s arrest, Karp sent a letter written by the disgraced financier’s lawyers to four “editorial folks I know best” at The New York Times. The letter was a defence of an earlier plea deal that had let Epstein avoid federal charges.
The law firm said earlier this week that Paul Weiss and Karp never represented Epstein and that the firm was hired by Leon Black, then Apollo Global Management chief executive, to negotiate long-running fee disputes with Epstein. Black stepped down from Apollo in 2021 after revelations about his ties to Epstein.
Karp “spent his entire 40-year legal career” at Paul Weiss, during which time the firm “achieved significant growth”, it said in the statement late on Wednesday. Karp will stay at the firm as a partner focusing on client work.
Karp is one of the highest-profile Wall Street figures to be drawn into the Epstein scandal in recent weeks, as new disclosures from the justice department illustrate connections Epstein had with powerful figures.
Barshay said Karp had “transformed Paul Weiss in an unprecedented way to the great benefit of our clients” and that he was “grateful to him”.
The decision to replace Karp at the top of the firm was reached on Wednesday after hours of deliberations by senior partners over the impact the Epstein revelations were having, said the people briefed on the matter.
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Documents released by the justice department last week also showed Karp corresponding with Epstein in February 2019 about two high-profile men ensnared in a Florida prostitution crackdown. He asked for Epstein’s help in finding a lawyer for one of the men.
Since joining Paul Weiss from Cravath in 2016, Barshay has transformed Paul Weiss into one of the go-to advisers for corporate America’s biggest listed companies, including IBM, Qualcomm and Kraft Heinz.
Barshay had long been viewed internally as Karp’s likely successor, the people said. Last year, Paul Weiss advised on nearly $400bn worth of transactions, making it the sixth-best performing law firm by deal volume in the US.