Short answers, pulled from the story.
Paul, Weiss traces its founding to 1875, when Samuel William Weiss and Julius Frank opened a general commercial practice in New York. The firm's current name dates to 1950, when Simon Rifkind joined and it became Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
On the 20th of March 2025, Paul, Weiss agreed to commit $40 million toward pro bono legal services supporting Trump administration goals and to abandon its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, in exchange for having Executive Order 14237 lifted against the firm. The order had barred firm employees from government buildings and security clearances.
Brad Karp resigned as chairman of Paul, Weiss on the 4th of February 2026, after emails surfaced showing his close personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, including correspondence written after Epstein's 2008 guilty plea to solicitation of prostitution with a minor. Emails also showed Karp helping Epstein attempt to arrange the deportation of a woman threatening to sue Apollo's Leon Black and reviewing a court filing on Epstein's behalf. He was replaced as chairman by Scott Barshay.
Paul, Weiss represented Exxon Mobil for over a decade in efforts to dismiss cases brought by U.S. cities and states seeking compensation for climate change harms. A 2021 assessment identified Paul, Weiss as the law firm most active in litigation, lobbying, and transactional work for fossil fuel companies, and the firm received the lowest grade in a 2021 climate scorecard. In 2025, the Supreme Court rejected the firm's bid to throw out Honolulu's climate case before trial.
Carolyn Agger became the first female partner at a major New York law firm when Paul, Weiss made her a partner in 1946. That same year, Lloyd K. Garrison and Randolph Paul joined the firm, bringing it to thirteen lawyers.
Partners Karen Dunn, Bill Isaacson, Jessica Phillips, and Jeannie Rhee departed Paul, Weiss in May 2025 to start their own firm, Dunn Isaacson Rhee. Partner Damian Williams left for Jenner & Block in June 2025. Over 140 firm alumni wrote a letter criticizing the firm's capitulation to the executive order.