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.

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.

There's never a good time for a law firm to see one of its most prominent partners leave and take several attorneys with him. But this is especially bad timing for Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann.

The firm specializes in representing shareholders suing companies in Delaware, the incorporation capital of the world. But ever since Elon Musk reincorporated Tesla outside the state in response to a lawsuit over his pay package—a lawsuit Bernstein Litowitz led—the state has changed its laws to make it harder for shareholder plaintiffs to succeed.

In this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporters Jennifer Kay and Tatyana Monnay talk about the unusual bitterness Bernstein Litowitz expressed to its departing colleague after he exited the firm. They also talk about why, after the seismic corporate law changes of 2025, it may no longer be as lucrative as it once was to represent shareholders in Delaware.

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

It's not a very controversial statement to say that Donald Trump's attacks on law firms were the biggest Big Law story in 2025. But, according to the guests on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits, the ramifications of those attacks are still playing out and may spill over into next year and beyond.

Bloomberg Law editors Chris Opfer and Alessandra Rafferty said the attacks are still affecting the decisions firms make, or don't make, in hard-to-detect ways—even though the president is no longer actively lobbing punitive executive orders at firms.

The two Big Law editors discuss how this is playing out and also whether—and why—we may see more firms merge in 2026. They also get into how the legal industry will be affected if we see an AI bubble burst.

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

New York's oldest law firm answered the outstanding question surrounding its ability to remain independent with a resounding no when it announced a merger with Hogan Lovells last week.

As Bloomberg Law reporter Meghan Tribe tells it, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft had been in a gradual decline since the 2008 global financial crisis. It also failed to adapt to the new reality of the legal industry in which lateral hiring is not just commonplace but necessary for a firm's survival, she said.

On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Tribe gets into what transpired that forced the more than 200-year-old firm to put itself up for sale, and also what made Hogan leap at the chance to merge with Cadwalader. Additionally, Tribe talks about what the tie-up could mean for the pro bono deal Cadwalader struck with the Trump administration earlier this year.

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

It's become common now for firms to recruit elite law students even before the end of their first semester of their first year of law school, something that would have been unheard of before the pandemic.

That's a far cry from the days when firms waited until the summer before the 2L year to start recruiting students through on campus interviews. It's a trend that hurts everyone involved, according to the guests on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits: columnist David Lat and Nikia Gray, the head of the National Association for Law Placement.

Law schools have lost the control over this process they once had; law firms now have to make recruiting decision with far less information about the candidates; and, worst of all, law students now must make important career decisions in some cases just months after they arrive on campus.

"I have not heard from a single student yet that thinks this is a good process," Gray said, "nor a single school that feels that way."

"I've talked to the firms," Lat added. "They say 'Look, we don't like this process either. But our rivals are recruiting this early and so we can't sit on the sidelines.'"

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