5 Takeaways From Brad Karp’s Emails With Jeffrey Epstein

This story is longer than a usual OJ post, but I think you’ll find it interesting. If you don’t have time to read it now, save it for later and read it over the three-day weekend for Presidents Day. Speaking of which, a quick programming note: because of the Presidents Day holiday weekend, my weekly legal news roundup, Judicial Notice, will most likely appear on Monday, February 16, instead of Sunday, February 15.

Last night, Kathryn Ruemmler resigned as chief legal officer and general counsel of Goldman Sachs, some two weeks after the latest Jeffrey Epstein files revealed the depth of her ties to the late financier and sex offender. My main reaction: I was surprised it took this long. (And note that her resignation isn’t effective immediately; as reported by The Wall Street Journal, she’s not leaving her post until June 30.)

I’ll have more to say about Ruemmler later. In the meantime, I’d like to return to a story that I regard as more interesting: Brad Karp stepping down as chairman of Paul Weiss, the elite law firm that he had led since 2008. I’ve written about this at great length, and I won’t rehash my prior coverage (with which this post assumes familiarity).

To report on Karp’s departure as chair, I spent many hours on the Epstein files website set up by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), reviewing the documents that came up when I searched the term “karp.” This was not a pleasant experience—aside from how it immersed me in the seamy world of Jeffrey Epstein. The DOJ website, which has a terrible user interface, constantly crashed—forcing me to restart my search, then click through many pages I’d already seen, to return to where I had been. And doing all that doc review took me back to the worst parts of being a junior associate in Biglaw. (There’s now a more user-friendly archive of the Epstein files called Jmail.)1

The files shed light on several subjects that should interest to Original Jurisdiction readers. But before turning to substance, I have some disclaimers and disclosures.

First, I’m not an entirely objective observer. Like many people in the legal world, I know and like Brad Karp. We’re both extroverts who go to plenty of events, and whenever our paths have crossed, we’ve always had pleasant interactions.

And at