On The Merits

Legal giant Paul Weiss is getting a new chairman for the first time in nearly two decades, but this transition is definitely not happening in a planned, orderly fashion.

Brad Karp stepped down from the role yesterday after the latest tranche of Justice Department documents showed he had surprisingly close ties to disgraced financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein—far closer than what Paul Weiss had originally indicated.

On this special episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law editor Chris Opfer talks about what happened at this elite law firm and about the informal work Karp did for Epstein shortly before his death. Opfer also talks about why the firm's profits may not actually suffer that much from this abrupt change in leadership.

"Long gone are the days of Paul Weiss being this, sort of, large litigation boutique," Opfer said. "It's much more a corporate-focused mega-firm."

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There was a time when elite Wall Street firms such as Cravath or Wachtell seemed to rise above the lateral tug-of-war among other firms. That doesn't appear to be the case any longer, with a handful of partners from both of these firms announcing their departures for competitors last month.

"I don't think these are one-offs," legal recruiter Sabina Lippman said. "It's a pattern."

Firms like these will need to adjust their mindsets—and perhaps their pay structures as well—to stay at the top, according to two New York-based legal recruiters who spoke on our podcast, On The Merits.

Lippman, co-founder and global managing partner at CenterPeak, and Todd Merkin, executive director of Wegman Partners, spoke to Bloomberg Law's Jessie Kokrda Kamens about this newest phase of what Lippman calls "the talent wars."

Merkin said that these firms have "really been focused on talent retention, and not so much on talent acquisition. So they're a little bit behind as far as that goes."

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Last year, the litigation finance industry was nearly taxed out of existence by a measure Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) tried to attach to a big tax and spending package.

The measure, which would have imposed a 41% tax on litigation finance profits, didn't become law. But it did spook many who work on this fast growing $16 billion industry.

Two attorneys have responded by launching the American Civil Accountability Alliance, a lobbying group designed to push back against laws targeting the outside funding of lawsuits. One of those two co-founders, Houston patent lawyer Erick Robinson, is our guest on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits.

"I think we were all just shocked," Robinson told Bloomberg Law's Emily R. Siegel. The litigation funding tax "came very close, a lot closer than anybody including, I think, Senator Tillis, thought to passing."

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The trial of Tom Goldstein, the elite Supreme Court advocate and co-founder of SCOTUSBlog who was charged with criminal tax evasion after years of playing ultra-high-stakes poker games, continues this week in Maryland. Bloomberg Law reporter Holly Barker, who's there covering the proceedings, joins us to talk about it on our podcast, On The Merits.

Barker lays out what Goldstein's defense will likely be and why his status as an elite lawyer could make it harder for that defense to succeed. She also talks about why some poker-loving Hollywood celebrities may be called to the stand to testify against Goldstein.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Latham & Watkins beat out its rival Kirkland & Ellis in our annual League Tables ranking of M&A activity for 2025. And on this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, the firm's M&A co-chairs talk about what went down in what one called "the year of the mega deal."

Alex Kelly and Paul Kukish spoke with Bloomberg Law reporter Mahira Dayal about why Latham was able to work on almost 800 deals in 2025 totaling more than $780 billion in value. Kukish said AI and AI-adjacent deals were a big part of the firm's success—success that smaller firms just now getting into the AI space may not be able to replicate.

They also talked about how they think tariffs and other Trump administration policies affected the market this year for buying and selling companies. "There has been an increased focus by our clients on how the president views a particular industry, or a particular company, or a particular country," Kelly said.

Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.