Article: The Top Lawyer Bankrolling Democrats

Brad Karp, chairman of the BigLaw firm Paul, Weiss, appears as a bundler on numerous 2020 candidate lists. Reports Prospect.

Insidious influence sounds exactly right, just the introduction to this piece is depressing

 

The insidious influence of the wealthy over our politics, as Alexander Sammon wrote last month, is perhaps the defining issue of the 2020 Democratic primary. It’s the reason we at the Revolving Door Project have been yammering on about bundlers—the wealthy and well-connected volunteer fundraisers who almost inevitably end up receiving or influencing key jobs across the executive branch. Bundlers have driven the facile premise of both Tom Steyer’s and Mike Bloomberg’s campaigns: “I can’t be bought by the rich, because I am one of the rich who buys.” This was initially Donald Trump’s pitch, too. And the desire to reject the influence of bundlers raise hopes in Bernie Sanders’s and Elizabeth Warren’s campaigns, largely driven by small dollars and people power. 

But if the Democrats do nominate a candidate of the old guard, the traditional school of money-for-access politics, chances are high that one name will be at the top of their list of advisers: Brad Karp. After all, Karp’s name shows up on almost every bundler list the 2020 race has seen so far. If money is seductive in politics, then Karp is a master of seduction. And he’s in it for a reason: to make sure the next president doesn’t appoint regulators and prosecutors who will bring his corporate clients to heel. 

Karp is the chairman of Paul, Weiss, an archetypal BigLaw firm representing large businesses around the world. In his Paul, Weiss bio, Karp brags that the press calls him “someone who every CEO in America should have on speed dial” and “the most connected lawyer in the country.” Karp is who corporate America calls when they might, just might, face (gasp!) consequences for their actions.

Karp wowed the BigLaw world in 2006 by steering Citigroup through over $150 billion in lawsuits over misleading statements to investors arising from the Enron scandal. In declaring Paul, Weiss the Litigation Department of the Year, American Lawyer raved that “thanks to Karp and his Paul, Weiss team, Citigroup has closed a painful chapter of its history without devastating damage to its balance sheet or reputation.” Of course, Citigroup avoiding pain is not the same thing as justice being served, but what does that have to do with the legal system?

Citigroup would face renewed balance sheet and reputational damage two years later during the financial crisis, but the greatest economic catastrophe of our lifetimes was a golden business opportunity for Paul, Weiss. Karp was made chairman that May, meaning he guided the firm through its successful efforts to get Citi off the hook for its mortgage-backed securities–related malpractice. Karp later led the team that shielded the private equity firm Blackstone from accountability for lying about returns to Kentucky’s state pension fund.

 

Full story  https://prospect.org/power/brad-karp-top-lawyer-bankrolling-democrats/