The Great Divide: So, How Do You Feel about Brad Karp?

Larry Summers

Leon Black 

Kathy Ruemmler.

The feeling is almost universal: They got what they deserve. 

In contrast, there's the great divide in the legal sector and more how humans feel about Brad Karp, superstar lawyer and former chair of elite Paul, Weiss. 

Today, on Substack there's a conversation between two legal journalists Vivia Chen and David Lat about that binary situation. Like myself they have been obsessive in covering what the Epstein Files have disclosed about Karp's relationship with monster Jeffrey Epstein, the internal coup which stripped him of his chairmanship title and his current state of being.

As so many know, there are those who are outraged that Karp, unlike Summers and Ruemmler, still has a job. Essentially they perceive that as a continuity of the abuse of power that the Epstein loopings were all about. If Karp didn't control about a nine-figure book of business, so goes the thinking, he would have been purged. Shame on Paul, Weiss for its mindset of greed to compromise its principles for that book of business.

Then there are those, including myself, whose attitude is: Let those without ambition cast the first stone. Given the opportunity to have access to the Epstein network who wouldn't jump? The exception seems to have been Melinda Gates. She, though, was in a privileged position. Karp started out middle class. That makes you hungry. From the hood, I was ravenous.

In addition, so many of us treasure that Karp, despite his lofty position, not only responded to our reach-outs. In many encounters he was kind. We don't forget. Several in touch with me about the fallout express sincere concern about Karp's health. In January 2025 he had a major heart attack. 

Were we taken in by his almost mystical charm? That is what Chen and Lat ask. So what if we were. The issue is: We understand why he did what he did. Actually, it's standard at that level. For decades I ghostwrote for the C-Suite. Now and then I confidentially coach them. It's all in Shakespeare's history plays. Jungian psychology. And the Roman Catholic concept of "original sin." Recall how Adam and Eve also wanted to get ahead.

To some of us the new chair Scott Barshay is the bad guy. 

Barshay participated in the coup, without Karp present. Gleefully we enjoy that crisis on his watch has happened fast. It includes Exxon yanking climate defense work from Paul, Weiss and New York City's top lawyer Steve Banks indicating he probably won't refer work. 

The all-business, doesn't suffer fools gladly Barshay might be incapable of the myriad strategies that got Karp and the firm through high-stakes troubling times. The Great Recession was blowing through the economy when Karp started out as chair in 2008.

Legacies are funny things. What seems like the end of a brand can be turned around. Lee Iacocca pulled that off, going from washed-up to American folk hero. Given Karp's drive he could also turn this around. And all the current intense debate could vanish from the collective memory bank. No one will care, not anymore. 

In my coaching I hammer: It isn't what happens. It's how you handle it. 

Finding your way in confusing times starts from the inside.

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For confidential complimentary consultation please contact Jane Genova at 203-468-8579 (text, voice)  or janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

 


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